Elder looking to lead movement for social, political change in Blood Tribe
By Tim Kalinowski on June 24, 2021.
Herald photo by Tim Kalinowski
Elder Roger Prairie Chicken (White Buffalo Horn) leads a protest rally criticizing Blood Tribe leadership's response to the overdose and housing crises on the reserve earlier this month.LETHBRIDGE HERALDtkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com
Elder Roger Prairie Chicken (also known as White Water Buffalo and White Buffalo Horn) at first glance seems an unlikely person to lead a movement for social and political change on the Blood Tribe Reserve.
Bespectacled, elderly, smiling, portly with a broad brimmed hat, Prairie Chicken seems more like someone’s good-natured grandfather rather than a tough-minded social radical. Indeed, the former Blood Tribe police officer and, until recently, the longtime crisis coordinator for the Blood Tribe, Prairie Chicken, (who does have 15 grandchildren with his wife of 40 years, Elder Charlene Plume), would say he is not radical at all: it is just the spiritual path he walks compels him into the position at this time in his life where he feels he must take a stand.
“My wife and I are Elders from the Blood Tribe Horn Society,” he explains. “The hardest life to lead in the Blackfoot culture is the Word of Truth. That’s what we deal with all the time, the Word of Truth. We look at and see things for what they are. We have to advocate for the people.”
Prairie Chicken says part of his role as a crisis counselor is to respond to sudden deaths on the reserve from overdose, suicide or other tragedies. In that role he has worked closely with the Blood Tribe Police for many years, and Prairie Chicken says from his policing days until the present he has been witness to the aftermath of over 500 deaths on reserve, one of them his own son who committed suicide at the age of 24.
“I believe the foundation of this whole reserve is grieving,” explains Prairie Chicken. “I have gone to many overdoses. A lot of these overdoses are related to addictions, whether it’s alcohol or prescription drug abuse. They call these things cocktails. They are mixing up all kinds of medications the doctors are providing. Right now you would think the opioids are really key on the reserve, but, no, it’s the cocktails of doctors’ prescriptions that are causing the deaths.”
Prairie Chicken says compounding the problem, in his mind, is a leadership and administration more interested in keeping their jobs than dealing with underlying social problems which have led to the overdose tragedy on the Blood Tribe- a tragedy, he says, which has been aggravated by the First Nation’s housing policies and, in particular, its recent evictions of dozens of drug addicted band members from their homes, leaving them no place else to go except the streets of Lethbridge.
“The best case scenario is our leaders and our administration have to understand compassion,” Prairie Chicken says. “Compassion for the people. That lack of compassion and healing for our people, we can see all the past wrongs that have run through our people to today. I believe a nation could arise within a nation once we can understand who we are.”
Prairie Chicken draws strength from his 25 years of spiritual training as an Elder to walk the path he feels he needs to walk in this current conflict.
“The people of the Blood Reserve want to be heard,” Prairie Chicken says. “They have a voice, and they need to be heard by the leaders and entities of the reserve as it relates to the current crisis at hand, with drug overdoses, suicide, homelessness, no job opportunities- the list goes on. What messages of hope do they have?
“I have listened to them and they want help for their traumatic experiences, and a place or structure in the community that would allow for safe detoxification to trauma treatment and onto being gainfully employed,” he adds. “The families also need help to overcome their traumas so they can raise healthy children and grandchildren that were left behind.
“And the community wants a concept of a trauma centre, for the sake of a name, that would be designed by community members because we live these traumatic experiences. The goal is to get healthy, get back on track, be gainfully employed,” he summarizes.
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Elder Roger Prairie Chicken- a QUOTE tragedy, he says, which has been aggravated by the First Nation’s housing policies and, in particular, its recent evictions of dozens of drug addicted band members from their homes, leaving them no place else to go except the streets of Lethbridge. ENQUOTE
I guess that ruins UncleBucks and Spearmans theorized distorted explanation of who is a resident, who is not and where they actually came from.
Now we know why Tribe Members were “dying in the streets”, it has NOTHING to do with the SCS closing it’s because the Blood/Kainai Leadership booted their own children, out of their homes ! That ruins the storytelling coming out of Dr TailFeathers!
So as this story develops one can see we are getting nothing but “deflection, lies, distortions, and ignored alcoholics/drug addicts out of our “Partners” thus far with no end in sight!
The change that will bring back the indigenous people all begins right in their own homes, the famiy relationships! There needs to be economic and societal changes made bringing them into the 21st century. The old ways are not working! There needs to be a property taxation initiated to pay for home improvements or building muli-residential developments. It all is in their hands, as it has been for decades! Every person has the opportunity in this country to succeed! Destiny is in our own hands and minds!
Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos band in the Okanagan has proven that and now employs his people and hundreds of non-indigenous on the ‘corporate’ operations. The Blood Tribe has fertile land to grow and raise herds, but they lease most of it out. The opportunities are there, the land is there, but the will is not! They still live in the ‘victim’ mentality, oh woe is me, from things that happenen 50 to 100 years ago!
How is it that people that fled lands that were in constant wars/conflicts, where they constantly feared for their lives, living the very basics of life for survival, come to this country as refuges, having to pay for their own flights by the Canadian government, with only the clothes on their backs and language barriers and within 5-8 years paid back the government, have jobs, homes, and a vehicle, happy and thankful to live in Canada?
We also need to track all of these new faces we see popping up on our streets! Many obviously have been on the streets somewhere, not here, but are now wondering the Lethbridge streets. We need to start collecting information and find out where the pipeline is coming from.
At one point, Calgary was sharing some of their shelter people, sending them down here! Others came from Edmonton, but who is sending them here?
We need to investigate this, because this is our tax dollars we are paying to support them and our local donations that could be used in so many other programs that have seen major changes in the levels of donations since the SCS opened!
We need someone willing to take the initiative on Council so we see where these people are coming from, how they got here, who paid for them to get here! We have allowed this ‘dumping’ to occur for some time now and we need to stop it!