I am trying to write a book so I am sharing with you some of my stories, they are my own personal experiences. I remember that day when we fired a band staff who was also a former Chief. I remember thinking if this is the reason why I got into politics in our community. In 1993 our Chief of 26 years retired and we had a new Chief. Unfortunately the new Chief faced the majority rule so after 3 years we had another new Chief with a new majority council, these new eight councillors ran with the previous Chief who had lost. Unfortunately immediately after the 1996 election the majority council started firing people for political reasons, we had two major lay-offs back to back yet high salaries to the council members were given. One Friday morning in August 1996 I was walking down Big Cove Rd. wondering why would our new Chief & Council were firing so many people. So I decided to stop at the band office and ask. I was told the council will not available to answer my question, I wanted answers so I decided to stay and wait until they would meet with me, I stayed for approx. a week until I got my meeting. Our community did not accept wrongfully dismissing our people or taking their livelihood away with no just cause. We did not like it in then and I strongly believe we do not like it today. After two years of majority council voting against the Chief, in 1998 our community voted in all 12 of the Chief’s councillors/team/party so the majority council will work with the Chief instead voting against him. I was one of these councillors and it was my first time in politics. I remember that day like yesterday when we fired the former Chief. I remember sitting in a council meeting and only three council members going against it. I was very disappointed because I knew then we were no different then the last council, the only difference was now the majority council was supporting the Chief. After our council meeting and being upset I went to see my parents, I recall telling them that this was not the reason I got involved in politics, this was not the reason I wanted to be a councillor. I remember how my parents were upset also, they told me to walk across the road and go and apologize to him and his family, and to this day I am very grateful my parents asked me to do this. Our community has faced many obstacles but the biggest is when we started firing people, taking their livelihood away for political reasons. Yes we faced many struggles but as a community we worked together because our Chief and Council always worked together, they did not always agree but they always came out united and ready for any challenge the other governments threw at them. My dad always talks about how lucky he was because he worked with a majority council that respected and supported him, which is one of the main reason our community developed from dirt roads to pave roads, from paper shack houses to wooden modern houses. He always tells me “When the majority council supports the Chief then if the band goes broke it is the Chief’s fault and if the band prospers then the credit belongs to the council”. I was 2 years old when my dad first won his election and for the next 26 years I grew up with Indian politics. He only had grade 3 education because his mother died at a very young age and he had to start working when he was 10 years old. He did not know how to read, my mom who had grade 7 knew how to read better. I recall my dad staying up late teaching himself how to read. He worked 7 days for 24hrs and my mom would tell us “don’t bother you dad he has to make sure the community is ok”. He always worked right through Christmas because he had to make sure people got their parcels out, I also remember him calling Indian Affairs after hours or on holidays because people needed food, clothing medicine, ect., it was part of our life and we knew he had a job to do. Remember, during those times the Chief would be very luck to meet the Minister of Indian Affairs, in fact I believe it was Prime Minister Joe Clark who was the first Prime Minister to meet all the Chiefs in Canada. I strongly believe our Chiefs and Councillors did not use the Indian Act too much because I can still hear my dad saying “the Indian Act is like an old blanket, it was used to keep us warm but now it has so many holes in it that we are freezing but we do not want to throw it away because we are so used to it”. One of our elder, my great uncle, late Johnny Joseph once told me that when he was a young boy his father was Chief and in the winter months he would go with his dad to Moncton with their horse and sled to get boxes of food and purchase orders for the people in Big Cove, he would tell me “ we would get the ration for our people”. Our community has come a long ways, we faced many challenges and through accountability, transparency and consensus within our people we survived. The federal government has been trying to kill the Indian in us since European contact, it was not always easy, our parents had it worse. The residential schools did great damage to our Native spirit but they did not kill it, it made us stronger. God our Creator has always protected us. Our spirituality has kept us alive even through the hardest times.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 12:44:02 +0000
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