Village of First Nations

We are descendants of the Original Peoples, and it was our Ancestors who formed the FIRST NATIONS.

Gilbert Oskaboose Column
Serpent River First Nation, Northern Ontario.

newsWrite on, young native writers, write on.... (Oct 16/00)
Write on. Write on, the man said, it is the only way to become truly proficient in your chosen profession. Read and write. Read everything you can get your hands on, from Tolstoy's War and Peace to matchbox covers in bars. Write on about everything. Keep a daily journal documenting your adventures and experiences, your rousing victories and your chilling defeats.. It is all grist for the mill writers call Life.

newsWhat's going on.... (Oct 16/00)
What the hell is going on in my home rez? About ten years ago we took the first tentative steps back toward our own Ojibway spirituality. We left Christianity behind and built ourselves a beautiful powwow grounds, a lovely arbor to shield the sacred fire and another one for the drummers and singers.

newsMy kingdom for an honest lawyer.... (Oct 10/00)
Hey, what the hell is going on out there? More and more every day I'm hearing of lawyers charging up to 40 percent plus to residential school survivors and their lawsuits against church and state.

newsIn the Moon of Changing Leaves (Oct 04/00)
Well, another month has come and gone...a beautiful Fall month filled with the rich and vibrant colors of Autumn...the sounds of migrating birds gathering... a nip in the air...nothing exciting to write about but a lovely month just the same..not even too sure which day it is, but it was a lovely month.

newsA great idea who's time has come.... (Aug 31/00)
There is a brand new initiative coming out of Quebec regarding residential school survivors and their fight against the federal government and the churches that is setting the record straight about who the real guilty culprit has always been, who it is and who it will always be.

newsLet it go, please.... (Aug 21/00)
I personally know native hunters who brag of riddling 4 or 5 giant bull moose with bullets every year and leaving them to die because they couldn't track an elephant with bleeding piles through 5 inches of fresh snow, even if they were hanging onto it's tail.

newsA bronze plaque for all time,,,, (Jul 17/00)
Here is an idea for a bronze plaque to be erected outside whatever residential school you attended. This one is written specifically for the "boys and girls" of Garnier Residential School and Saint Joseph's of Spanish, Ontario.

newsWhy hast thou forsakened me? (Jun 20/00)
One of the things that always gives me pause - as I wander through this vale of tears - is the question of God - who is He or She or It? Does a God exist? Does God know that I exist? Does God even care that I exist?

newsTreaty Day in Indian Country (Jun 13/00)
Have spent the last few minutes browsing through the Robinson-Huron Treaty of 1850 - the document that created my reservation - Serpent River #7 in northern Ontario - 250 long years ago.

newsThe Pain Never Ends.... (Jun 13/00)
A few months back I created a web site for the survivors of residential schools in Canada. I thought it could be a place where we could keep in touch, exchange information on lawsuits and lawyers and share other vital information.

newsThe Aboriginal Healing Foundation: A Nest of Maggots (Apr 05/00)
The Aboriginal Healing Foundation in Ottawa is staffed by native fat cats and other bottom feeders who have no problem with growing fat feeding off the bodies of Survivors who never made it this far. They died young, often violently, unable to cope with the memories of residential school, unable to adapt, overcome and survive....

newsFor the Times, they are a'Changing (Apr 04/00)
There is an old Chinese curse out there that goes: may you live in interesting times. We do live in interesting times. Some of the stuff that's come down in the last few weeks is amazing, to say the least.

newsGrey Owl... Kindred to the Wind (Mar 20/00)
Last night I sat down with my grandson and watched Lord Richard Attenborough's recently released movie: Grey Owl. Didn't know what to make of it. It was a heavy mournful movie of James Bond in buckskins agonizing over who he really was, Grey Owl of the lost and lonely places or Archie Belamey of High Street in London, England.

newsI Believe in the Creator and All of Creation (Mar 17/00)
Well, it's been one long interesting trip around the Sacred Hoop of Life and I think I have come to one great enduring Truth. The Creator does exist. Don't know how I've come to that, but I have and that's the story I'm sticking to. He said it. I believe it. That's the end of it.

newsWhere are all the Native Scribes? (Mar 13/00)
Hey, am I the only Indian in Canada with an opinion to share and a computer to write it out with? Where is everybody else? Where are all those young people going through Journalism schools and those angry young warriors of both sexes on the front lines?

newsNative Fat Cats get Fatter (Feb 25/00)
Mainline newspapers are beginning to say exactly what I said two years ago about native fat cats growing fatter on the Aboriginal Healing Foundation funds - while real survivors of residential schools don't get a lousy penny for their pain and humiliation! Is there an echo in here?

newsAIDS and death in the priesthood (Feb 04/00)
My, my, my, and how the mighty have fallen. Guess they don't make Jesuits like they did in the old days, or is it just that the current lot isn't up to concealing their unsavory and unchristian-like lifestyles as well as they did in the old days. Another sign of the times perhaps?

newsWho is the Greatest? (Jan 23/00)
The greatest human being of the 20th century had to be Muhammed Ali. He was the "greatest". He floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee - and hammered his way into the hearts of millions of people around the world. Strange but in anywhere else except boxing administering a savage beating to someone else could earn you some serious time behind bars.

newsEnd of the World? Nah! (Nov 19/99)
The end is near. ....Or so say the members of a new genre of the suvivalist movement created by the nexus of two subjects of great societal anxiety: the end of the millennium and the computer's pervasive presence.

newsTime for a Reality Check! (Oct 20/99)
This is a response to the tons of e-mail and letters I've received from loonies and cry babies who took offence at the article I wrote a while back about it " could be a helluva lot worse than being born and raised an Indian here in Canada."

newsCasinos are for Losers (Sept 17/99)
I believe the time has come for me to quit gambling. It's getting out of hand. I just dropped $5,000 bucks at the casino in Sault Ste. Marie with not a damn thing to show for it. Enough is enough.

newsDIAND - An Abomination We Don't Need (Aug 17/99)
Talked to a couple of native old-timers on the powwow trail the other day. One of them went all the way to the top in provincial native politics - stayed there for many years - and the other was a two term chief for one of the largest reserves in Ontario.

newsIndian Residential Schools - 40 Some Years Later (July 21/99)
Well, our class action lawsuit against the federal Department of Indian Affairs, the Jesuits et al has just taken one helluva kick in the crotch. Don't know if the whole group will survive this collectively and in one piece. Those opposition lawyers are tricky.

newsWanted: Central Clear House for Information (July 21/99)
Why in the hell doesn't somebody in Indian Country create a central web page for residential school survivors to find and exchange vital information. It's needed desperately. Now! Something anybody anywhere in Canada could tap into and get good, up-to-date information.

newsMoney...I Wants More Money! (July 21/99)
Well, just sent in my application for employment with the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. Thought I'd try to get in on the feeding frenzy now going on amongst native fat cats brought out of the woodwork by the government's 350 million dollar "quick fix" for residential school survivors.

newsGoodbye My Love (Jun 15/99)
Well, guess it's about time the world heard from the old Ojibway Coyote again. Been lying low, hurting, licking my wounds, took a frightful beating from a young lady I made the mistake of falling in love with - a long time ago when the world was new and I was young and foolish. Now I'm just foolish.

newsThe Lovely Cherokee Rose (Feb 12/99)
Met a young woman on the Web last week. She's incredible. Long blond hair like spun gold, like a shimmering halo around her head. She's beautiful, amusing, intuitive, intelligent, caring and as pretty as the morning. She's a breath of fresh air into my life. Think I'm in love again.

newsSurviving the Cure (Dec 13/98)
Well, it appears that the $350 million for "residential school survivors" and the gang of pecksniffs that will administer it has surfaced.

newsCount Your Blessings (Nov 18/98)
Did you ever stop to think that compared to the rest of the world Indian Country in Canada is not too bad off?

newsOn Doing the Right Thing (Sept 25/98)  
Why do you think out of a village of hundreds only 4 or 5 show up for a regular band meeting? Why do you think the People are saying that band employees are generally lazy, uneducated louts that wouldn t last 2 seconds in a job out in the real world? Why do you think the People say that Indian politics adds whole new dimensions to the words dirty and sleazy?

newsBeam me up, Crazy Horse (Sept 10/98)
Since my lifelong experiences with Christianity - and the ten thousand plus other man -made religions out there- have all been less than satisfactory, I have returned to being your basic born-again heathen.

newsThe Silence in Indian Country (Feb 28/98)
Into every life, it is said, some rain must fall. In journalism it's the burning question: Is there anybody out there?

newsA Sign of the Times? (Dec 15/97)
There are strange goings on here in the wilds of Ojibway Country. I first noticed it last summer, but in keeping with our ancient ways, I've left the telling of it until the dead of winter, and the proper time for strange tales in Indian Country.

newsThe Great Spirit is Dead (Dec 15/97)
Isn't it about time we got organized religion out of our lives. Hasn't it caused enough pain and confusion?  The Great Spirit is dead. The Creator is missing.

newsWhere Have All the Flowers Gone (Nov 06/97)
The time was the mid 60's, the place Wreck Bay, a windswept stretch of wind and sand and sea along the west coast of Vancouver Island.

newsPass the Ascorbyl Palmitate, Please! (Nov 06/97)
What the hell's going on out there? Picked up a box of bacon-flavoured crackers at the store today - and made the mistake of reading the"Ingredients List" only AFTER I ate four or five of them.

newsRoughing it in Comfort (Sept 09/97)
Akuna ma-tata [Ojibway for ahhh, the Good Life. . .] Just spent a week up in the deep woods, living in a 20 foot tipi, admiring the moose, feasting on partridge and bearmeat - and wondering how the "poor folks" [living in houses] were doing back on the rez.

newsA Dog's Tail (Sept 09/97)
Once upon a time, long ago and far away - as these matters usually are - all the dogs came together for a band meeting. In those days dogs could speak, just like human beings, so this meeting was not as strange as it sounds, at least not for that reason.

newsWarm fuzzies from Indian Country (Jul 22/97)
Well, got a lot of mail urging me not to quit but the cigar goes to Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Band, with Darrell Boissoneau of Garden River a close second.

newsA Canoe of Fools (Jul 22/97)
Here's a list of some of the idiots who can turn your special project meetings into a complete waste of time...

newsResidential schools - 30 years... (Jun 23/97)
Does the silence from Indian Country mean that it will be left to the social scientists and writers of the future to determine the impact of those infamous residential schools on our nations? Are we playing dead again? Can we at least make the connection between that dark chapter in our history and the dysfunctionalism in our communities today?

newsSome more unsolicited advice (Jun 23/97)
One of the nice things about growing old - becoming an Elder -in Indian Country is that you get to dispense good, bad and irrelevant advice on any subject. People come to expect it of elders. Heaven forbid I should disappoint anyone, so here it comes....

newsWatch out for some elders! (May 28/97)
Respect all of the white-hairs, but select your elders carefully. All have travelled the Sacred Hoop of Life - but many are none the wiser for the trip!

newsA Sacred Hoop Mending (May 28/97)
The rains stopped, the sun poured down like honey, and Ojibway drums thundered out a welcome to a thousand people assembled for the fifth Annual Traditional Gathering on the Serpent River First Nation ceremonial grounds in Cutler. A day later there were two thousand, then three....

newsKeeping the Faith... (Apr 30/97)
When you've done hard time in an Indian residential school - ten years under the loving strokes of a Jesuit strap - you learn to stay away from churches, but this one was different. Maybe it was all those Indians heading towards it.

newsDon't say nodding, eh? (Apr 30/97)
I have no idea how the Micmac say it. Haven't got a clue what the Haida say. What the other 600 plus First Nations in Canada use for this abomination is a mystery to me. Here in the wilds of Ojibway Country it's pronounced "Mono."


The opinions expressed here in these articles are not necessarily those of the Village of First Nations website or FirstNations.com.
Special thanks are extended to Gib Oskaboose and his family as we truely appreciate the stories he has shared with us.

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