It's Been A Long Time.

It has been awhile since i posted to my blog. There's been allot happen since May,2007,i lost my last aunt ''Florence'' a few cousin's a niece and my brother Arthur ''Butch Elliott''. He was our head councilor,2 nd. in command to the chief. It happened quick and was a big shock to family and friends. Before he ran for councilor he decided that it was time to move home and see if he could make a difference and that he did.

He took on the housing portfolio as well as police. Some changes he wanted to make was to do something about all the older unfinished houses on the rez and to try to fix the problem of a bad housing shortage. The money provided to people to build a house was and has never been enough to complete a house, reason for so many unfinished houses.

We as a housing committee put forth a recommendation to chief and council to forgo giving out any more new housing allocations (3) and use the money we get for 3 houses to put towards repair loans for the many older homes. It's not much but at least it was a start. Another recommendation was to opt into a government run housing program. For years previous councils had shied away from this because they believed that once committed to this program they ''program'' could put anybody they wanted into the houses if any band member defaulted on monthly payments. But it was not the case as we as a people who own this land and we decide who lives here on our territory.So a plan to get enough to build 6 complete homes was planned but still has to agreed upon by chief and council. I don't think they will be against it because they sure as hell hav'nt tried anything to fix the problem. Since i moved back home in 1991 every chief and council since have said at different times we need to do something about all the old unfinished houses and find a way to fix the housing shortage. I guess we'll know in a couple of weeks if council will let us opt into the program. If they vote against it they had better have a plan in place.

Come next July or so is a new election,i think refusing this plan will not look to good for the voting public. If they okay it and we start building finished houses after all these years that will be a good legacy for my brother who fought for this. The same program provides money to put towards finishing and re-pairing older and newer homes that sit unfinished all over our Rez.

We had a pow-wow committee meeting tonight our second and this year will be a Memorial Pow-Wow in honor of my brother. It should be one of the biggest pow-wow's ever held on our Rez.