''Special meeting with Guelph U'' CORDA last chance.

Well,i could'nt get a BCR but i got my application faxed b4 the deadline. BCR will just have to follow. There was quarom but the ppl from Guelph U were here. Chief was able to sit in for a while b4 he had to leave for a meeting. Got a lot of info but still not sure what we accomplished. Gonna have to wait till they come up with some sort of template to work from. We gave a lot of ideas but since were new at this not sure whats involved in makin up a proposed curriculam. So if they could start us off n build or take away from that. They talked about distance learning,that would be good go to school on line for 3/4 and the rest classroom. Hope they take our ideas seriously or this was just a waste of time. Another wait n see project. The next council meeting is next Monday so ,i'll be back for that.

''Regular council meeting''....CORDA,deadline.damn.

I was attending a council meeting as usual and they started doin BCR;s for CORDA applications damn. I thought i had till mid October to get things together. Due date is Oct. 1st,had to rush. Had to use last years plan was gonna go a different way this round. This Fri. will be last chance to get it in b4 deadline. If not 4 bad luck id have non.

''Fisheries Meeting''

Well,the referendum was a yes. I guess we have to negotiate the change in the way we lease now. With the govt.and the leesee's if their involved at all. Im new to this u see. It's prob still hurry up and wait. You'd think it would cost less if you'd settle right away. Instead they have all these hoops u gotta jump thru. Oh well,what can u do anyway there's a big change. All it means is more well needed money comin into the rez. We also have a fisheries meeting,to make a plan of action. We got big shots comin from the University of Guelph to dicuss ,mayb startin a Native geared course of some sort. It's just an idea they's lookin into. Somthin else that will take a while b4 u see anything. The Dean or whoever's never been here so he gonna tour the rez. He plans on stoppin in at the school and check it out. Thats for next thursday. And we have a person comin for interview 2day about our biologists opening. The one we have is movin on goin to Perdue U. It's gonna be like seein a family member goin away. But onward and upward. He better keep in touch. I worked for assessment a coupla years ago and it was a good learnn experience. I was one of those that thought all they did was drive around all day. It seems the fisherman are fishing all over the peninsula so u got to go wherever they are. I shouda knew that seeins i fished on diff tugs and punts in those areas. There far apart as you can get our sister rez looks after the southern part of the area. We had one non-native answer the job posting ,we sent invites . Since we need some1 right away so the one leavin can train the newbie b4 he leaves. The one native guy is still in school for a month or two so he cant apply till then. I dont know why non-native means MNR spy to me. Am i paranoid or is it cause one worked for MNR. Mayb why i pefer the native he's right out of school. Agin,just wait and see. One question i'll have is,how do u handle teasing? Cause once we get to know you or even b4 u gonna get teased. Anything and everything is fair game. Not to hurt ppl but thats the way we are. Just ask any non-native employee we have. Now they tease right back, see part of the family now and he's desertin us in our hour of need. Ha,ha,ha. Just kiddin,i wish him well. But Indiana is'nt that far away when ya think about it. I've been invited down for a visit from a chat room friend,native chat that is. So if its a serial killer invitin me it will be one of my ppl that chops me up . Right Rhonda,just kiddin ,how far away are u from Purdue U. I could intro u to Andy of Mayberry our fleeing biologist. He's a real nice guy for a whitey,ha,ha,ha, im not prejudiced,i hate every1 equally. Just call me Oscar. I have friends of many etnicities[spell check] if ur here for good grammer ur beat. Cause ya aint gonna find it here. Hey Andy do u read this u closest blog reader. I had to add that thing where u type in what u read either a word or letters b4 u can post. I been gettin adds in my comments, prob from some blog crawler. Time to go,later ppl.

''REFERENDUM''Hope Bay Leasing.

Well time for another referendum,think u have to have two b4 u can count it. Yes or no ,to re-leasing cottage area n have DIAND look after the lease money. And we have to beg for our money[just my take on it]. Chief and council been away on a re-treat with sister rez past 3 days. We hav'nt had an lease agreement for a few years so time for a change. We need to look after it ourselves and up the leasing cost/year. They got it made n the shade bein charged ,what i see as way below what they'd have to pay on the outside. We need to bring in more money into our rez for daily operations of the band and other needed things. We always gettin asked by different groups for financial help in funding but can't because we have only so much money. Even the comittee im in we've had to say no in past years. If we can get this goin the way it should ,we may be able to help more. There's lots that could be done if only we had the money. You have to have money to get into some home repair grants u pay up-front and they reimburse. So many re-pair loans needed here on rez even me. I been tryin to fini my home since i moved home in 91 and it was built in 1974. Oh,well im not about to give up.Things will come our way eventually.

''IPPERWASH INQUIRY'' day two.

Well day two started off with an opening song agin from our chief and drumming and dancing. And introductions for the new people in attendence. I have to see if any1 took minutes or whatever and talk to our communications man to see if their is anything i can post. he would know,i'd hate to post somthing and get put in front of Chief n Council and get my wrist slapped. Now days u kinda got to be careful what u put out. But i am gonna post those racist pics the were circulated. Im glad my brother was able to make both days. Now that he's got a moterized wheel chair he can get around. I talked him into comin to council meetings. And now he goes to any function that goes on in ''THE REZ''. They had quite a few people get up and say their piece. Today,one of the guys spoke that was there that got beat up the same time the boys got stabbed in Owen Sound in plain view of Owen Sound Police Sevice . Another slap on the wrist i bet. Now we got one of the boys from the rez here on the Owen Sound Police. Don't know if that will make a difference. Anyway back to public meeting ,those people will come away with a lot of info,hope it helps in some way. I think every1 one that attended this will have found it very interesting and give them lots to think about. The meeting ended about 3:00 pm as they had a long trip ahead of them but the girls said they'd stay as long as it took. If more people wanted to speak but their were not which is to bad. To many shy indians but thats how we are. Wish my bro Butch would a been their he could have filled them in on some native issues. He's been involved with a few so has his mother who we lost a few months ago. Oh well another time another place,i dont really see an end in sight for the problems were havin with the non-natives. Especially when the M.P. is an Indian Hater and is stirring the pot agin. Well then agin when isnt he stirrin up trouble....later.....

''IPPERWASH INQUIRY'' day one.

I read a draft of Under Seige,its described as -How the People of Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation Asserted Their Rights and Claims and Dealt with the Backlash.........A Guide for the Ipperwash Inquiry during their visit to Neyaashiinigamiing. What i read was not for circulation but mayb in future after the info gathered is added. I dont know. Mayb if our true history and how we got conned out of our land was taught in school then mayb racism would end. I hate for my grand children and my family and friend's grand children havin to go thru what we did. Only once in high school did i ever hear a teacher tell the class i was the only true canadian in the room,talk about a centre shot. And how we got beat for our land. Can't remember his name but he was one of the teachers i liked. Hmmmmmm RoseMary Black my english teacher comes to mind she had a few natives in her class with perfect attendance. But a few teachers were a bit of Indian haters ,i had a fight with one,i wont mention his name but he was a mechanical Drafting teacher. My daughter had him in high school and he told her he remembers me well. Im glad i left an impression. The meeting was not as well attended as i had hoped,but thats par for the course now they'll sit back and bitch that they were not informed about what went on there, Well,was that ever a real eye opener,and they had so many hand outs ,i'll be readin for a week. Some are racist jokes sent by e-mail between govt. offices and police and every1 one in between. The draft Under Seige is about 128 pages and has a lot of info so if they ever put it up on web site ,i'll put a link to. And if i can get some1 to scan and send me those racist jokes that was circulated inter govt.,OFAH and police,etc,i'll post later. I figure there public domain now so i shouldnt get in trouble. Lots of ppl musta got a slap on the wrist and a scolding. They fall under a separate set of rules,you see. Well the meeting started off with an opening song and drumming and also had one of our girls dancing. And they had a big square circle of tables and chairs set up for the people who chose to sit with Justice Lindon and the people who were goin to speak. And of course speeches and introductions,the Justice Mr. Lindon had 3 native women lawyers with him to help or were his team i should say. One was Sushwap from B.C. and the other was from Oneida just south of us and the other i 4got.....dang. They were really easy to talk with and really seemed to listen to everything that was said. They took notes and pictures to be put on the web site after gettin permission of course. We had our previous land claims lawyer/researcher in attendance she was really helpful in giving information ,she was in volved in everything that ever happened here good and bad. She was a presenter at the main Ipperwash Inquiry as she knows the history of native peoples in this part of the country. Since we are all inter-related in one form or another. Even though we had our differences in past history. Battles and what not. I cant go into to much into detail what was said by certain people but it was hard to listen to at times. It was very personal to the people that spoke but i think it helped some move on. I know that feeling of holding somthing in for so long. Im still waitin to let go but im not ready yet. All in all this was a good day and cant wait till tomorrow. The food was somthing else every1 gained weight this day,they had coffee n treats first thing and snack at 10 am a big meal at lunch and a snack agin at 2 and a huge supper . I guess the meeting ended about 9:30-10:00 pm. Well more tomorrow after meeting.

''DOIN MY CIVIC DUTY'' REZ VERSION.

Well, had my public works meeting ......"NOT". Kinda hard when there is only councillor liason and 1 member,me. Some times i wonder why ppl bother to join a comittee. I think it's just being elected as Chief or Councillor,your either commited or your not. Well i stayed for the mornin info session/council meeting they had with our lawyers concernin whats to take place at the Public meetin with Justice Linden tomorrow. I plan on attending both days,i hope there's a big turn out. I think ppl need to hear what really happened during our ''Fish Wars'' what is said will come right from the horses mouth so to speak. PLus what happened b4 and after. It will be a very emotional and eye opening experience for all that attend. Hope what is gathered helps with the outcome of the inquiry far as tryin to prevent this from happenin agin. But racism is ingrained into the non-natives mind wether they know it or not. Its been goin on since my dad's time and prob my grand fathers to probably. But i dont remember my dad or his friends talkin about it while imbibing on a few wobbly pops. I think they mostly talked about good times cause they were always laughing. Unless they were talkin about the war. But i started gettin into hotels at 16 so my first experience with drinking in the pub was with my elders. In the the next 2 years till they lowered the age of majority to 18 and i would drink with my age group. I learned and heard a lot from them,i miss those days. Kinda went off on another tangent here but thats ok. I have no format i adhear to ,just what ever pops into my head at any given time. Well thats it for now more after the meeting.......later.

'' LONG WEEK-END AND DID'NT EVEN KNOW''

AFTER A CERTAIN AGE,I GUESS DAYS ARE JUST THAT DAYS. Don't even register wether its long weekend or not. Does that mean im gettin old and it dont matter anymore. No,its just time dont worry me as much. Gotta go with the flow even if its slow n easy. After my heart attack thats the only way to go now. At least for a bit till i recuperate. The meetin today was just a regular meetin nothin new on the repairs at the seniors complex. Be a few weeks till we get full picture of all the deficencies. Got a Fisheries meetin tomorrow. And my first Public Works meeting in the after noon. My housing meeting on the 13 th i think. Thursday and Friday is a public meeting with the Honourable Justice Sidney B. Linden from The Ipperwash Inquiry into the shooting of Dudley George from an OPP police officer. They wanna come n listen to our horror stories about our Fish Wars and when some of our boys got ganged up on and stabbed in Owen Sound. In full view of the Owen Sound Police service. One of our fish tugs was sunk in 1995 during the fish wars , after it was raised it was burned to the water line the weeks following. And another guys boat was sunk twice on separate occasions. Which forced him out of the tug fishing bussiness. But we grew up with prejudice all our lives and fights between Indian and White was a common thing. Since we got the new fishing agreement signed the Ontario Federation of Hunters and Anglers are in a snit about it. And the red neck MPP will be bitchin too. Hes the one who led a group of 75 men to a booth one of our native women and her little girl had at the Owen Sound Farmers Market. A politition can be openly prejudiced like that and nothin is done. When the court system,crown attorneys and the police ,city or provincial are the same not much u can do. Find out Friday the last days of this public forum and i'll be able to tell if it sounds like it might make a difference. But even then prob be next year or so b4 it goes to court or what ever the procedure is. Well i guess thats it till Friday ,i'll post more then when i know more.

''The Inspection...the next day.''

Well ,had another council meeting and the councillors who made the tour with the engineer gave a re-port . They found more wrong than what was seen the first time. The probs were more dangerous than what was thought. The main probs are being worked on as we speak. But their gonna use an machine that see's inside walls n cemant to see the plumbing for radiant heat. They seem to think the pipes ,some anyway are not connected. Thats why our elders are either freezin or cookin from the heat. That really pissin me off when white contractors come n work on an a Rez and use short cuts or 2nd rate materials n equipment. Even the company that did the boilers for heat n hot water put in 2 different size boilers. Prob got charged for 2 same size boilers,if there not the same that's dangerous or even explosive. One boiler would outpower the other and it would have to work harder to compensate. That seems like an ezplosive situation to me,but im not an engineer. Its gonna take 6-8 weeks to totally inspect the seniors complex to find all the faults. Some1 ones gonna have to come good for the shoddy workmanship. Their were so many diff contractors the blame game will start ,but we have the blueprints that says exactly what was supposed to go into building. A building we built for our elders n disabled ,could very well been the death of them. Some1 has to pay and its us right now thoses engineers are not cheap. But i hope we can recover the cost from whoever. Cant really say to much just now because the inspection is not finished. But if it become public then i will name companies so other Rez's will know. Have to wait till public cause they might sue me if i dont wait.lol. Oh well at least somthin is bein done,we may have to set them up in hotels ,motels. Some elders are gettin worried over this after bein told. This might make them sick ,i have family in there which makes it worse. Well catch ya later.