I was dispatched to Nemaska over the Hallowe’en weekend for some important work so I missed the Nation slash Cree School Board Hallowe’en party at the Masonic Lodge in Downtown Montreal. You’ve heard, I’m sure, of the Masons. They are the not too secret cult who control most of the so-called civilized world and its institutions. They’re involved in Finance, Religion, Television, the drug trade, Christmas, the elections of Lucien Bouchard and Preston Manning (both pretenders to the crown of Antichrist, by the way), and I bet at least one member signed the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement.
Interestingly, Joseph Brant of the Six Nations was reportedly, and probably still is, a member of the Order even though he passed on to our happy hunting grounds years and years ago. The story goes that he stopped the execution of an American revolutionary when he recognized the secret Mason signal.
That story got me wondering. Which or how many of the “chieves” today are members of this evil organization? Is the chief who wants to pass a resolution that would make him chief for life a member? I wouldn’t be surprised. What would that mean for the Order or for us to have the same man sitting as chief for the rest of his and many others’ lives? One positive thing I can think of is the money we would save on elections. We wouldn’t need any. We could use the extra cash for… I don’t know… bailing out money-losing bands and entities?
Another good thing about it: We wouldn’t have to worry about some loser getting in. We’d always know who’s next in line. Long live the Chief! And think of the tourist potential. People would come from miles around to gawk at us paying tribute to our sovereign while throwing money in our laps. Finally, we’d have mansions for everybody.
I don’t know how I go so far off topic. Excuse me. So there I was in Nemaska. Again. I did my business and left for the Cree Language and Culture Conference in Ouje-Bougoumou on the controversial Route Du Nord in a driving snowstorm. (Beware the logging trucks. They don’t care about speed limits and human lives. Not to mention the Cree forests.) We arrived in Chibougamau late so we decided to finish the trip the following day and went out for some late entertainment. The next morning my ride was nowhere to be found, I borrowed a fluorescent piece of cardboard from a gas station at the edge of town and wrote “OJ!” on it and started walking. Cars, vans, trucks whizzed past ignoring me. Several kilometers later a pickup screeched to a halt. I threw my bag in the back and jumped in.
The school gym was packed with people from all over Creeland. Each had their name and title pinned to their breast in syllabics. I struggled to decipher their names. My colleagues and I corner a few people for “streeters” and ask them to reveal their thoughts on the future of the Cree language and if they dream in Cree or not. Not many do. Some avoided the question altogether and laughed in our faces. It’s a legitimate question!
People, Elders and youth alike, spoke passionately of the language. “It must be preserved, studied, modernized. It is who we are and how we communicate with the Creator. Without it we are nothing.”
I was reminded of something someone else had said months before the conference, “Our culture and traditions have failed us.” (!!)
Maybe it will be us who will fail our culture and traditions if we’re not careful.
