Anishinawbe Blog

Horror movies are one of my guilty pleasures in life. Every time a new horror flick is released in theatres, I’m there.

Admittedly, most times, seeing these movies means throwing my money away. Horror movies really aren’t good film-making. Most are shot on shoe-string budgets. They’re actually rather cliché with little emphasis on writing and script.

But they’re not meant to be good – they’re meant to scared the bejeezus out of us. They’re brainless, emotion-filled entertainment. Great with popcorn and a great big Diet Coke.

It’s nice to share these kinds of movies with my partner, too. Many people, especially women, tend to avoid the slasher film genre. Setting her nobility aside, the Duchess of Thornhill really seems to enjoy them. I was quite surprised in her last choice of movie – Saw 6. Classy girl, eh?

Unending sequels are a bit much though. Saw 6? Didn’t Jigsaw die in part 2? But then again, didn’t Jason die in Friday the 13th part 1 (drowning), part 3 (axe to the head), part 4 (hacked to death by little kid), part 7 (melting by toxic waste), part 9 (Jason being dragged to hell itself), and part 10 (death by fiery re-entry into earth’s atmosphere)?

I would much rather see something original, if there is such a thing.

Strangely enough, Halloween wasn’t the time we watched a lot of horror movies. I don’t know if it was the four days off school, or the seemly bloodly, gore-filled, torture scenes of the holy passion, but Easter weekends was for horror!

Every Easter weekend, my Dad would take Junior and I to either Popcorn Video or Audio-Video Centre in Sturgeon Falls to rent any kind of horror flick imaginable:

Psycho, Exorcist, Jaws, Carrie, The Omen, The Uncanny, Dawn of the Dead, Halloween, Piranha, Crocodile, Friday the 13th, Basketcase, Amityville Horror, Creepshow, Poltergeist, The Thing, The Brood, Salem’s Lot, Alligator, The Boogeyman, Cujo, Prom Night, Watcher in the Woods, Cat’s Eye, Tales from the Darkside, Evil Dead, Children of the Corn, Terror in the Aisles, Ghoulies, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Christine, Prom Night, Night of the Living Dead, Return of the Living Dead, Hellraiser, Nightmare on Elm Street, Trick or Treat, Witchboard, Child’s Play, 976-EVIL, C.H.U.D., Fright Night, The Howling, An American Werewolf in London, Pet Sematary, Puppetmaster. Oh, and don’t forget all those sequels. Freddy. Jason. Michael Myers, Pinhead. Chucky, etc.

I guess my parents didn’t believe in viewer discretion or parental guidance when it came to movies.

Here are a few of my personal favourites.

Paranormal Activity – I am going to see this one again. It won’t scare me as much as it did the first time, so I’m just going to watch Deb for the entire movie. This was done in the shaky-camera, mockumentary style. The best example since the original, the Blair Witch Project. It’s actually scarier than Blair Witch, because you get to see – not only hear, the creepy phenomena. Sadly, it won’t be nearly as scary the second time or on Blu-ray.

Friday The 13th – Jason rules. This has been my favourite of the serial horror and slasher genre. I’m a big fan, Mr. Voorhees. Kill on!

The Exorcist – It was spellbinding as a ten year-old kid for sure. The fascination endures into adulthood. I’ll never get tired of Linda Blair’s demonic acting, and Father Damian Karras’ attempts to rid Regan of her possession. I Love the blasphemy too. Memorable Quotes: Karras: “The Power of Christ compels you.” Regan: “Let Jesus f*ck you.”

28 Days Later – The scariest movie I seen at the theatre in many years. Seen it in Moncton, NB – by myself and Loved it. Complete with the goosebumps, and jumping out of my seat. I remember spilling popcorn. Ha!

Signs – not a horror movie really. But the most acute example, ever, of the goosebump/ hair standing-up on the back of my neck effect. Rev. Hess is putting Bo to sleep and we can see out the window. Standing on the roof, barely noticeable in the background is a shadowy figure of a very real looking alien. So cool!! I’ve tried to replicate the feeling again and again, with little success. Creepy!

The Blair Witch Project – kudos to the original shaky camera mock-umentary style horror flick. Seen it at the theatre a couple of times. It was a cult classic. I remember the line-ups to see it when I visited New York City. Not nearly as cool on DVD.

Faces of Death – the mockumentary that fooled the world, including a few of us teenagers in the Village who thought we were trafficking in banned material. Some news footage interspersed with some real-looking footage of regular folks getting snuffed.

Meeting of Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers Responsible for Aboriginal Affairs and Leaders of the National Aboriginal Organizations, October 29, 2009 in Toronto.

Front Row (Left to Right): The Hon. Darrell Dexter, Premier of Nova Scotia;
Clément Chartier, Metis National Council; The Hon. Carolyn Bertram, Prince Edward Island; Jeanette Corbiere-Laval, Native Women’s Association of Canada; Shawn Atleo, Assembly of First Nations; The Hon. Brad Duguid, Ontario; The Hon. Chuck Strahl, Canada; Betty Ann Lavallée, Congress of Aboriginal Peoples; The Hon. Patty Pottle, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Back Row (Left to Right): The Hon. Louis Tapardjuk, Nunavut; The Hon. Gene Zwozdesky, Alberta; The Hon. Eric Robinson, Manitoba; The Hon. Floyd K. Roland, Premier of Northwest Territories; The Hon. Pierre Corbeil, Quebec; The Hon. Rick Brewer, New Brunswick; The Hon. George Abbott, British Columbia; Mary Simon, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami; Photo Credit: The Canadian Press Images/Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs.

Don’t believe everything you read online – especially when it tells you the swine-flu vaccine will paralyze you, can ‘facilitate mind control at a distance’ or just isn’t worth taking

Christie Blatchford
Globe and Mail

After a full day spent on Mother Web, trying to figure out why so many Canadians are afraid of the H1N1 vaccine and not planning to get it – as per the online poll conducted by Strategic Counsel for The Globe and published this Monday – my favourite discovery is an innocuous sounding sheet called Vaccination 101.

I found it on the Personocratia site, which features someone named Ghis, who used to be a Quebec doctor before she lost her marbles (and her licence to practise, for life) and took up the principles of Applied Idessic Consciousness.

What sounds at first blush like it might be a rudimentary pro-and-con discussion is in fact a two-page number that describes the vaccines as “biological weapons of mass destruction for targeted populations,” warns they may include microchips to “facilitate mind control at a distance,” and, best of all, “because of their neurotoxic effects,” announces that they “produce psychopaths.”

Holy Mary Mother of God: It is a miracle that anyone in the country is getting the damn shot, let alone lining up for it.

(This is where protocol dictates I must insert the standard “I don’t hate the Web” disclaimer. Consider it done.)

Obviously – I pray it is obvious – Ghis is not an authoritative source for H1N1 information or anything else but idessity, which she invented, and good on her. But she is not alone out there on the fringes.

Bill Maher, the perfectly presentable host of HBO’s Real Time, is out there too on the subject of vaccines.

At 3.37 p.m. on Sept. 27, he now famously Twittered, “If u get a swine flu shot ur an idiot.”

On Oct. 9, he had a seven-minute on-air chat with Bill Frist, a former Republican senator, about the efficacy of the new vaccine, which began with Mr. Maher affecting puzzlement that conservatives like Mr. Frist, with their suspicions about big government, would embrace letting “the government stick a disease in your arm…. I don’t trust the government, especially with my health,” Mr. Maher said, to cheers from his audience.

Mr. Frist mentioned the case of a healthy 30-year-old man who had recently entered hospital and died from swine flu and who would be alive, he said, if he’d had the vaccine. “That’s an anecdotal story,” said Mr. Maher. “It’s not typical. Let’s face it, this is not a very serious flu.”

Alas for Mr. Maher, in this particular battle of the Bills, Mr. Frist had the edge – he’s a medical doctor. Mr. Maher is a comedian: Who are you going to believe?

It should be easy but it never is, not with the uber democracy ushered in by the Web, where it is written that a) there are no baseline facts, only opinions; b) everyone is entitled to an opinion and to express it loudly; c) all opinions are equal and d) the informed opinion, i.e. Mr. Frist’s, is given no more weight than the uninformed one, i.e. Mr. Maher’s or even the lunatic one, i.e. Ghis’s.

By late yesterday, for instance, if you typed “flu vaccine” into the Google search engine, one of the first results, No. 2 I think, was entitled “Do Not Take a Swine Flu Vaccine!” written by one Dr. Patricia A. Doyle (she appears to be, by her own reckoning, a veterinarian at the esteemed University of West Indies, but even this wasn’t immediately verifiable), whose short rant was full of such scientific gems as: “I feel the vaccine weakens our immune system.”

Earlier in the day, the same search uncovered, in the Top 10, an item entitled “Swine Flu Vaccine Linked to Paralysis,” by one F. William Engdahl, which blew up in hysterical fashion an already overblown story from earlier this year in the Daily Mail, which quoted a leaked warning letter from professor Elizabeth Miller of the British Health Protection Agency reminding British neurologists that the swine-flu vaccine was in 1976 linked to Guillain-Barre Syndrome and withdrawn.

(This is accurate, in that it happened, but many studies since have found no causal link between GBS and flu vaccines, and no cases of GBS in clinical trials of the H1N1 vaccines.)

In fact, Dr. Miller had also told the Mail, “We are not expecting a link to the vaccine but a link to disease, which would make having the vaccine even more important.” Dr. Miller, a serious scientist, also recently presented a paper to the U.S. Congress in which she and another researcher confirmed their study shows no link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism.

Both Ms. Doyle and Mr. Engdahl appeared on the Global Research site, which purports to be an independent think tank of some sort, but appears to be home to conspiracy theorists the world over.

And then there is the Health Ranger, a guy named Mike Adams, and his NaturalNews site, also in the Top 10. Mr. Adams quotes the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi a lot, and his Health Ranger Habits include “no visits to M.D.s or western medical doctors,” no prescription drugs or pharmaceuticals and no “following the … ridiculous food guide” health agencies advocate. He is 35 and to judge by the many self-portraits on the site, a looker, which may be why a half-million people are reading him a month, as he says they are.

Mr. Adams is quoted on another “natural flu prevention” site run by Richard Seah, a “photographic artist, writer, journalist, web designer and teacher of natural health and macrobiotics” who is based in Singapore. He begins from a position of skepticism about what he calls “the germ theory of disease” and appears to believe that H1N1 is man-made.

The Strategic Counsel survey showed that only 49 per cent of Canadians wanted the new flu shot. Opposition is greatest in those under 34, those most likely, in other words, to turn to the Web for information, where the reputable and the scandalous and the … idessic are treated with scrupulous equality. Some of the suspicious 51 per cent are in my own family. They feel the vaccine may be bad; they doubt the traditional sources. They prefer the likes of Dr. Maher, Dr. Adams and Ghis. It is to weep.

The contraband tobacco lobby is doing a great job of getting out the message. However, their message is, unfortunately, stereotypical and discriminatory towards the legitimate First Nations tobacco trade.

The term “contraband tobacco” is an example of a contemporary stereotype that discounts legitimate First Nations’ businesses and our legitimate tobacco trade. Further to the stereotype, the revenue generated from the First Nations tobacco trade is somehow always linked to organize crime and now, terrorism.

This week, the RCMP and numerous media outlets are reporting about an extensive underground economy that fuels organized crime and even overseas terrorism.

However, I would strongly argue that this underground economy supports First Nations families, communities and aboriginal business.

The National Coalition against Contraband Tobacco defines the term contraband as “products that do not comply with Canada’s tobacco regulations – specifically those regarding taxation, health warning labels, product testing and reporting, importation, stamping, manufacturing, and distribution.”

The contraband lobby also makes references to such “native brands” as Putters, Sago, DKs – all trademarks of Grand River Enterprises, Canada’s largest First Nation tobacco manufacturer. GRE is First Nations-owned and operated out of Six Nations.

However, what many people don’t know is that GRE do indeed pay their share of the federal excise tax. (Yes, First Nations DO pay taxes.) Millions of dollars each and every year go to the federal government. GRE products are clearly banded as such.

GRE brands are sold on-reserve, side-by-side with brands from Imperial Tobacco, Rothmans and JTI-MacDonald. All brands are available for a discount on-reserve, however, only the GRE brands are unfairly labelled as contraband.

The stereotyping continues by the National Coalition which states “aboriginal reserves, and the organized network of distribution that brings contraband tobacco off reserves, are fuelling the spread of these illegal cigarettes in communities throughout Ontario, Quebec and, increasingly, in other parts of Canada.”

Although true, such a statement unfairly paints all First Nations with the same brush.

Anishinaabe people have traded tobacco for centuries. If it were not for the First peoples of North America, the world would not have tobacco. First Nations’ governments continue to assert their right to trade tobacco.

But that’s where my defence of the tobacco industry ends.

As far as I’m concerned, tobacco should not be sold or traded whatsoever. Tobacco is the most sacred medicine, one of the first gifts given to us by the Creator.

I’m not a tobacco advocate, nor am I a smoker. I use tobacco in a traditional way only. I abhor those that abuse tobacco and choose to mangle their bodies with stench, stains and tumours.

I won’t stand up for the tobacco trade, but I will stand up for First Nations people, our rights, and the rights of business people to earn a living.

However, many of these tobacco traders and legitimate manufacturers must accept responsibility for their product.

Prices need to be adjusted to discourage smokers. Offering cheap smokes is socially irresponsible.

Manufacturers and retailers should be contributing revenue directly towards primary health care and First Nations health programs.

Support and information needs to be provided to consumers so they can know the risks and kick the habit.

Tobacco should not be sold to minors.

Smoking in public places and tobacco advertising should be banned everywhere, including Indian reserves.

Communities shouldn’t be subject to the eye sore, traffic and infrastructure demands caused by single product “smoke shacks”.

Consumers need to know, if they choose to smoke, that their product is safe. Safe is a relative term though, i’nit? Safe, meaning that it’s free from rat pooh and tampering. Everyone is worried about the rat pooh. Strangely, no one seems to be worried about the tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, cyanide, etc.

Lastly, many youth are choosing to earn a quick buck trading tobacco, rather than realizing their potential by staying in school and pursuing a gainful career. The potential of our young people shouldn’t be limited to selling cigarettes.

The solution to the question of contraband lies in the legitimization and regulation of the First Nations tobacco trade. This would prohibiting sales to minors and include restrictions on tobacco marketing including prohibiting on-reserve highway signs and “Cheap Smokes” advertising.

This proposed regime could include an innovative First Nations Health Tax to fund on-reserve health programs, clinics and smoking cessation programs. The tax would bring First Nations tobacco products in line with mainstream tobacco pricing, thereby discouraging tobacco consumption. First Nations would maintain their competitive advantage to benefit their economy, while ensure prices are prohibitive. First Nations would continue to make purchases tax exempt for their personal use.

Certainly, the First Nations tobacco trade is ripe with irresponsibility. Smuggling continues to take place. Organized crime continues to be a problem. There continues to be a major problem with contraband tobacco!!

But we need a way to distinguish the legitimate First Nations tobacco trade, from the black-market economy of contraband tobacco.

For those outside the law, lock em’ up and throw away the key. But don’t lock up Joe and Edna Anishinaabe because they sell Putters at the reserve gas bar. Don’t take away young Jimmy Anishinaabe’s pick-up because he is delivering DKs. They are not criminals. They are just earning a living.

Contemporary stereotypes, are a slippery slope. They may not be overt and they may not always be hurtful towards individuals. But they taint the public perception of a particular segment of society based on misconceptions and misinformation. They take certain assumptions about particular groups of people and turn them into a false reality.

First Nations citizens pay taxes. First Nations citizens don’t get free homes. First Nations do make and sell legitimate tobacco products.

Today marks the beginning of the first ever, Indigenous Sovereignty Week. It is a week that indigenous activists from across Canada can promote their cause. Where people from across Canada can show their support for their indigenous brethren in their struggles for justice, land and water, treaty rights and self-determination.

But what exactly is indigenous sovereignty?

In Canada, the word sovereignty carries a number of different connotations.

In the 1990s, some Quebec “separatists” use the word “sovereignty” to lessen the fear referendum voters had over “separation”. “Sovereignty association”, as it were. Some call it “separation anxiety”. (Lots of words in quotes, eh?) Don’t’ worry. Nobody meant what they said, anyhow.

For monarchists, the word comes directly from the root word sovereign, which means monarch, referring to the head of state: The Governor General. Umm, I mean The Queen.

For Americans, indigenous sovereignty may be a partial political reality, through tribal constitutions, governments, courts and laws. But the practical and social reality continues to be much different.

For most people, sovereignty means the ability to exercise jurisdiction and control over one’s territory and people.

For the Anishinaabeg, the definition is somewhere in the middle of all these definitions.

The Anishinaabek Nation, specifically those tribes and bands who formed the great Confederacy of the Three Fires formed an alliance with the Crown. This began formally with the Treaty of Niagara in 1764, where the British Crown and the Confederacy formed a Covenant Chain. Together, our Nations exchanged wampum and smoked the pipe together. We pledged loyalty to His Majesty and agreed to peace, friendship and respect. This included a military alliance, something that has held true even into the 20th century.

The modern Anishinabek Nation in Ontario is guided by the Anishinabek Declaration. This document states that we have the right to our own forms of government and we shall have full control over our land, water and resources. However, the Declaration doesn’t expressly call for sovereignty. In fact, principle seven states: “We wish to remain within Canada, but within a revised constitutional framework.”

It wasn’t until John Beaucage published his Political Manifesto that the Anishinabek Nation outlined our objective with regard to sovereignty. He said: “We are Sovereign Nations. This sovereignty was granted to us by the Creator and bestowed in the Sacred Law of the Anishinabek. This sovereignty has never been given up.”

Beaucage also envisioned how the Anishinabek Nation would achieve sovereignty, through negotiation and cooperation and changes in the Constitution.

According to the Political Manifesto: “We will work towards the necessary constitutional change that will recognize our traditional, community and communal governments as the third order of Government within Canada. We will work towards the necessary constitutional change that will recognize the sovereignty of our governments by the Crown.”

However, there is a growing dissatisfaction with the conciliatory approach. There will be more than a few participants in Indigenous Sovereignty Week that are outright militant. This is not an Anishinaabe principle.

Those that take to the streets to disrupt their fellow Canadians are misguided. Those that use intimidation or violence are, plain and simply, wrong.

Good causes, including sovereignty, land and treaty rights are often high-jacked by the angry, the pissed-off and the irrational. Many of these people want to put on a show, get in the newspapers and have their fifteen minutes of fame. They do nothing to generate mainstream support.

Sure, the Anishinaabeg have a warrior’s society, called the Ogitchidaa. However, the Ogitchidaa are not visible. We don’t have membership cards. We do not show up waving fierce looking flags, wearing fatigues, or sporting balaclavas during nice weather.

True Ogitchidaa take care of the fire, lead ceremonies and protect our families. We are positive role models. We teach tolerance, gentleness and living a good life. We work to gain the support from our Canadian brothers and sisters. Ogitchidaa are givers and helpers.

Case in point, the Ogitchidaa and Ogtichidaa-kwe at Site 41. Sure, they stirred the pot. They even got themselves arrested. But everyone was cheering them on.

There are some Anishinaabek leaders, such as Roseau River Chief Terrance Nelson, who choose to take a hard-lined approach. During the old times, Terrance would be someone we called our War Chief. He has a place too and is well-respected for the role that he plays within our Nation.

The American Indian Movement itself was formed by Anishinaabek leaders Clyde Bellecourt, Eddie Benton-Banai and Dennis Banks. AIM was originally started as a Spiritual and educational movement.

But AIM too, was highjacked by the angry. Taken over by the whim of the galactically pissed-off.

However, these leaders are also intensely spiritual. Terry, Clyde and Eddie are all Midewiwin people. Our society doesn’t advocate full sovereignty, but rather peaceful coexistence. This comes directly from the Great Prophecy.

For the Anishinaabek, the Great Prophecy spoke of the coming of the light-skinned race, referring to the European people. It is said that they will be wearing the face of destruction.

The Prophecy accurately spoke of the time when “the rivers would run with poison, and the fish would become unfit to eat.”

However, it would also tell of a time in the future when the two great Nations would join together in brotherhood. The settler people would come to the indigenous people and ask for their help and knowledge as equals.

Despite the overwhelming chasm between Indigenous and non-native understanding, Indigenous Soveriegnty Week is something that will bring us closer together.

Still a long way’s away, the time of the Great Prophecy is closer than ever.

For those of you who missed it, on October 7, the US Senate approved an apology to American Indians for years of “ill-conceived policies” and instances of violence, maltreatment, and neglect. The apology may even be entrenched in legislation if a Congressional Committee can agree to final wording and the bill is signed into law by the President.

But the spectrum between the words that were approved by the Senate and what is required for an acceptable apology continues to be enormous.

The pseudo-apology is not a direct one. It was conceived by Republican Sam Brownback of Kansas and Democrat Byron Dorgan of North Dakota who have included the words as part of an omnibus measure in a defense spending bill. The Bill had absolutely nothing to do with American Indians.

This isn’t an apology initiated by the White House. Nor do these words adequately recognize the horrible atrocities undertaken by the US government during their history.

There are many examples of these atrocities including the forced re-location of American Indian tribes east of the Mississippi River to Oklahoma and other territories. Land was appropriated forcibly without due process. Many men, women and children died and were subject to inhumane conditions during this period.

The government of the United States actively waged war on American Indian tribes. We’re not talking small-pox ridden blankets or anything subtle – we’re talking direct murder of people at the hand of soldiers. This culminated with the infamous massacre at Wounded Knee, where 128 Lakota men, women and children were gunned down with Hotchkiss machine guns.

Some will argue that the American Indian wars were brutal on all sides. But throughout our history, I don’t recall any Anishinaabe warrior brandishing machine guns except when they were fighting FOR Canada or the US.

Finally, the assimilation polices of the United States were outright blatant. For example, the removal policy was initiated by President Andrew Jackson through the Indian Removal Act of 1830. George Washington himself advocated for the Americanization of the savage Indian and believed that our society needed to be civilized. The United States also had a residential school system as well, that was prevalent in many states. These were called Indian Boarding Schools. Under federal law, American Indian ceremonies were outlawed until 1973. I can go on and on.

Perhaps one day there might be a true and meaningful apology to American Indians. But even Canada had to take a number of attempts at apologizing to First Nations people.

Not many people remember that the Liberal government in 1998 apologized for the residential school system through the Statement of Reconciliation: “The Government of Canada acknowledges the role it played in the development and administration of these schools… To those of you who suffered this tragedy at residential schools, we are deeply sorry.”

However, it wasn’t until last year that the Prime Minister stood up and offered a full apology before the House of Commons and before all of Canada. Stephen Harper said: “The burden of this experience has been on your shoulders for far too long. The burden is properly ours as a Government, and as a country… The Government of Canada sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the Aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly.”

However, with a true apology must come with reparations and reconciliation. Canada has a long way to go towards meaningful reconciliation.

But at least they have started. The United States hasn’t even begun that journey.

The pseudo-apology states in Section 8106, of the 2010 Dept. of Defense Appropriations Act that, the United States, acting through congress “recognizes that there have been years of official depredations, ill-conceived policies, and the breaking of covenants by the Federal Government regarding Indian tribes… apologizes on behalf of the people of the United States to all Native Peoples for the many instances of violence, maltreatment, and neglect inflicted on Native Peoples by citizens of the United States.”

The next section of the Bill, Section 8107 refers to the use of live primates in training exercises.

There’s no city quite like it in the entire world.

New York City.  The Big Apple.  The city that never sleeps. The city so nice they named it twice.

Deborah and I had a fantastic birthday weekend in NYC.  She was celebrating her 40th birthday on Friday and I wanted it to be memorable.  So we created a few memories as we shared a charming weekend in the world’s most exciting city.

Our plane was supposed to leave at 5 p.m.  However, we boarded the plane just after six, but spent about an hour on the runway as there were air traffic delays at La Guardia.  We arrived a little before 9.

The one thing that I don’t understand is why some people yell at the gate agent or airline staff.  It’s rude and it doesn’t make the plane get there any faster.  Just chill.

Once we arrived, we took a harrowing taxi ride into Manhattan via the Tri-borough Bridge and along FDR Drive.  From there we drove through the upper west side to our destination, the Tudor Hotel at 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue.

It took two trips back down to the Lobby and intervention by the Hotel security to get our key cards to work.  Remember the old days when they actually gave you a key.  (I don’t.)  Our check-in adventure prompted me to ask Deb repeatedly: “is the hotel was old and quaint or just plain old?”

The answer:  It was old and quaint.  We enjoyed the rest of our stay immensely.

Friday night, we walked all the way across 42nd to Times Square. We enjoyed the lights, the crowds and the big city. There is a certain energy about New York City. There is a reason why it’s called the city that never sleeps.

We had a couple of corn beef sandwiches from the Roxy Diner, complete with coleslaw and dill pickles. Deb correctly suggested that we should have just ordered one sandwich.  I realized that the woman is always right as a loaf of bread and four pounds of meat arrived at our table.

We slept the night away.  XD

The next morning, we took the 4-line Express Train from Grand Central Station to Fulton. I Love the New York City subway. Three stops later we were in the financial district.

We arrived at Century 21 Department Store (a.k.a. The Promised Land) about an hour before it was open. To pass the time, Deb and I checked out Ground Zero. Nothing to see anymore. Just a giant construction site. We then walked down Broadway to Battery Park and seen Liberty Enlightening The World. A famous copper statue, over looking the harbour, was gifted by France to the US in 1886.

I then proceeded to make the entire statue disappear, an illusion first made famous by David Copperfield. Deb was impressed! I also tried to levitate but that didn’t go so well.

Our adventure in Century 21 was short-lived as they didn’t carry my sizes. (Surprise, surprise.) The gentlemen in mens clothing recommended the VIP suit store nearby. I bought one new suit, a new dinner jacket and was forced to buy a winter dress coat. I’ll get used to it, though.

We came back to Century 21 with a vengeance and Deb walked away with two new designer suits.

Our shopping adventure also took us to Sak’s Fifth Avenue, Victoria’s Secret, a brisk walk up Fifth Avenue and a visit to FAO Schwartz.

Saturday night was the pièce de résistance.

We made reservations at Nobu 57, one of the trendiest restaurants in Manhattan. The place has an impeccable ambiance and décor with a contemporary Japanese flair.

For dinner, we choose the most extravagant choice on the menu, the Omikase: the Chef’s choice. We had absolutely no clue what we were going to get. Some items were on the menu while others were the Chef’s special creation. Even when we were presented with the dish, an apparent language barrier prevented us from understanding what the wait staff were saying.

We had several cold dishes to start including sashimi and tuna tartar. We specifically requested the king crab tempura – which was totally out of this world. We also had the Chef’s signature dish: black cod with miso sauce. The multi-course dinner concluded with an excellent selection of sushi and dessert. Outstanding!! It was the single best meal I’ve had in my life.

The rest of the evening was dedicated to the Lion King. The two best-dressed folks in New York, 9th row orchestra, sat straight up as Mufasa Simba, Nala, Rafiki and Scar did their thing. It was the second time I seen the Lion King and I’d go and see it again and again.

For Deb, the costumes and production were the highlight of the performance. My highlight though, was to see, hear and feel my sweetheart enjoy the show. No work stress, e-mail, Blackberrys, or family worries. Just a world-class performance, Tony Award-winning production, music, Love and life. There is something so emotional and Spiritual about live theatre on Broadway.

She showed her appreciation to me. After sharing authentic New York Cheesecake in bed, we slept the night away, again. 

Speaking of extravagant… The next morning, we experienced the world famous Sunday Brunch at the Waldorf-Astoria. My first helping consisted of smoked salmon, smoked sturgeon, king crab cocktail, lobster tails and caviar served on little pan cakes. Second course: poached eggs, french toast, bacon, and American sausage. Thirds, I went for Beef Wellington, dim sum, exquisite macaroni and cheese, blue cheese, brie, oysters and some more caviar. For dessert, bread pudding made of croissant, strawberries and marshmallows dipped in the chocolate fountain, and a tiny wedge of lemon pie.

It may seem like a lot, but I paced myself. I was determined to get value for the $95 per person.

A significant theme is developing in this already, too-long, essay. There were two, equally important, but different, motivations when it came to our trip to New York. Deb went to New York to shop. I went to New York to eat.

When it comes to shopping, however, it wasn’t until Macy’s on Sunday that Deb got into her groove. Let’s just say she did really well. A great fall wardrobe investment. She didn’t get hooked into the expensive designer stuff either. (I almost soiled myself seeing a $5000 jacket). She found a great line at Macy’s called Alfani and the rest is history.

We capped our day off on the 86th Floor of the Empire State Building. Sure, a touristy thing to do but it is the best view in the city.

Upon our return, Deb was in for a complete surprise. While we were away, Deb’s best friend Fiona, her husband Joe and her Mom chipped in for a full kitchen makeover. A couple of Joe’s relatives donated their time and created much needed new counter-space and cabinets. They bought a new toaster-oven and espresso maker. Kayla bought new dishes and help do a full re-org of kitchen space. Deb was in utter shock and amazement when she seen it.

The funny thing is, although I wasn’t in on it, I knew what was happening.

On Friday afternoon, on the way to the airport, we had stopped at home to pick up a digital camera. We were kind of spooked to see a van parked in the driveway. The garage door was ajar and the front door wide open. We looked at each other quite puzzled. I’m sure we both thought the house was being robbed.

However, the whole plot came to me as I approached, and I wisely suggested that Deb stay outside in the van.

As per Fiona’s instructions to me – my lips were sealed all weekend.

It was still quite a surprise and a shock for Deborah. She was so grateful and thankful for all her family and friends. It’s so great to be around such lovely people.

This morning I enjoyed my ride to work via public transit.

Usually, Deborah and I drive to the office – but today she had an early morning meeting and I caught an extra hour of sleep.

All in all, it took 50 minutes on York Regional Transit and the subway. That includes standing in line for four minutes at Tim Horton’s at Finch Station.

It’s nice to be the beginning of the subway line. You almost always get a seat. Today, I made the decision I would find and keep my seat, and enjoy my banana nut muffin and steeped tea in relative comfort.

Relative comfort being wall to wall commuters. A large stainless steel can of sardines hurtling downtown.

I resisted the urge to offer my seat to anyone. Certainly, if there was a little old lady that got on the train, I would have bent my rule. Fortunately, the elderly are indeed wise and tend to avoid rush hour.

Usually, Deb and I would enjoy the morning commute together. It’s usually an hour drive, door to door. We both enjoy the enclosed intimacy of the minivan, holding hands through the gentle rocking of the stop-and-go traffic. There is the occasional phone call or howl of laughter as we listen to the Howard Stern Show.

The drive home is a whole other matter. Subway and YRT is still 50 minutes. That never changes. However, the gentle rocking of traffic slows to the speed of a parking lot as our drive-time expands to an hour and fifteen minutes, sometimes longer.

Next week, we agreed to try the subway together. Sure we may not be able to make productive phone calls, enjoy some “us” time or Howard Stern, but it should take time off our daily commute. It’s also good for the environment.

Many First Nations people, especially us traditional folks, are up in arms over the misappropriation of our traditional ceremonies in the wake of the deaths of two people in a non-native sweat lodge at an Arizona resort last week.

As many as 65 people fasted for more than a day, and entered the sweat lodge for spiritual cleansing. Nothing really out of the ordinary, other than the fact that the healing was supervised and conducted by a non-native man, James Ray, who was charging $9,000-$10,000 a head.

Sadly, James Shore of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Kirby Brown of Westtown, New York lost their lives, while 19 others fell ill from new age healing gone horribly wrong.

The biggest tragedy here, aside from the needless loss of human life, is the misappropriation of faith.

First things first, this is an indigenous ceremony. It should not be in the hands of anyone other than sanctioned Lodge carriers from those legitimate nations who use this ceremony. I don’t meant to sounds like I’m quoting legislation, but this is a no-brainer.

Secondly, no one, including First Nations people, should be collecting a fee or earning a living for conducting ceremonies. Reimbursing their expenses and their time and dedication is one thing. Exchanging money or charging a fee diminishes the sanctity of the ceremony from a Spiritual point-of-view.

But there is little wonder why our Sweat Lodge ceremony is so attractive to Indian enthusiasts, new-agers and practioners of alternative healing. For many non-natives, the sweat lodge offers a mysterious comfort – using the heat and benefits of a sauna combined with a pre-historic ritual.

Oh, and don’t forget the chanting. Ask. Believe. Receive. Get in touch with your primordial Spirit… have an out of body experience… be one with Mother Earth… find your Spirit animal and all that.

However, the sweat lodge is more than just hocus pocus.

For the Anishinaabe, the sweat lodge is a healing of the mind, body and spirit through cleansing. It is as much about the Spirit as is about the body.

For many non-natives that take part in the ceremony, and I’ve seen this myself, the Spirit is often overlooked.

The calling of the Spirit, acknowledgement of the Spirit, the working of the Spirit and the feeding of the Spirit are all important components of any ceremony, including the Sweat Lodge ceremony.

The Spirits that partake in the sweat lodge ceremony include:

… All those that sit in the Four Directions;
… those witnessing from the Spirit World via the Western Doorway;
… the Spirits in each of the heated rocks (the Grandfathers);
… Mother Earth – whose womb we are inhabiting;
… the Spirit of the Lodge itself, Mide Oshkawbewis;
… the Little Boy who resides in the water drum that is passed around the Lodge;
… the Spirit in the pipe and so on.

Outside of the Lodge, there is the Spirit of the fire, the Firekeeper and helpers, and the trickster Spirit must always be kept in mind.

Don’t forget that each and every one of us that participates in the ceremony has a Spirit. We are all called, acknowledged, do our work and are fed in the Lodge as well.

For the conductor, it’s a lot to be aware of.

For James Ray, who ran this ceremony – that is a lot to overlook and not understand.

Among my chief concern are all the fingers pointing, quite unfairly, at the ceremony itself and the legitimate conductors of the many nations that make use of the sweat lodge. There will be many that say that any ceremony of this kind is unsafe and it’s just a matter of time that something like this happens.

Sure, I’ve seen people fall sick during the course of a sweat. However, in each of these instances it was mere happenstance. More often than not, these individuals were physically ill prior to the ceremony and they were likely seeking healing during advanced stages of a chronic disease.

Although I have never heard of such a thing happening, I would even concede the possibility that someone in our history may have died during the course of a sweat lodge ceremony.

However, in the entire history of the Anishinaabe sweat lodge I have never heard of this kind of massive event where sickness and death were the ultimate result of the ceremony.

This tragedy amounts to plain carelessness. This is total disregard to the safety of the participants. I’ll even venture to say, that this is out and out negligence by the “proprietors” of the program.

These people put a lot of trust in Mr. Ray. Fasting and sweating are practices that should not be underestimated. They trusted him for not only guidance, but for their personal safety.

The most important thing for any sweat lodge conductor is the personal safety of all those participating in the ceremony.

Unfortunately, they also entrusted him with their faith. They all felt that something good may come out of this retreat and they would feel better. Man, were they wrong.

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Epilogue:

This kind of misappropriation of trust and misguided faith is not just limited to non-natives either.

In the fall of 2001, Jane Maiangowi, 71 of Wikwemikong died during a ceremony conducted by two Ecuadorian healers. During the course of a three-day ceremony sanctioned by the local health authority, the two men took Ms. Maiangowi off her diabetic medication without medical supervision. She, along with about 50 other participants, drank a mixture of a hallucinogen and nicotine. Sadly, the elder could not take the mass induced vomiting that ensued and dies soon after.

Again, there wasn’t the full understanding of the ceremony nor proper regard or understanding of the physical and spiritual effects of the medicine that was given.

This is the weekend that Canadians, or those of us who live in Canada, give thanks for all that we have in life.  It’s an occasion for families to get together.  When students come back from school.  Where were can sleep away our turkey-induced coma following a massive, but delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

It’s more a secular kind of thanks, though.  For Anishinaabe people, and many other practitioners of middle-eastern and eastern religions – giving thanks happens each and every day.

We give thanks for life.  In Anishinaabemowin, we say: miigwetch mno-bimaadiziwin.  “Thank you for this good life”.

Mno-bimaadiziwin is more than just a phrase, or general philosophy.  It can be said that mno-bimaadiziwin in the thesis for all for Anishinaabe people.  Western culture likes to debate “the meaning of life”.  For the Anishinaabeg, mno-bimaadiziwin IS the meaning of life.

Long before the colonization of our lands, before our people were exposed to assimilation, Christianity, and european education – our children were taught the ways of the Anishinaabe.  One of the most basic teachings was that of balance.  The responsibility that human beings were given to look after our friends, family, Mother Earth and ourselves in a balanced way.

The most basic of these teachings is the path of life.

Many Anishinaabe people have heard of the Seven Grandfather teachings.  However, before you are to learn of those gifts, our children are taught that there are seven opposites and how to recognize those divergent paths and how they will take you of the sacred “path of life”.  This path is called mno-bimaadiziwin.

Once you learn the basics of mno-bimaadiziwin, you can spend a lifetime learning and living the values of Love, Respect, Honesty, Bravery, Truth, Humility and Wisdom.

The word used most loosely in Indian country is the word “teachings”.  Teachings are more than a list of seven words.  Teachings are more than the words of your wise local Elder.  True Anishinaabe teachings have significant substance to them in the form of (1) specific narrative in the language, (2) history, (3) instruction from sacred law, (4) context, (5) songs and (6) ceremonial rites; and (7) action and following through with what you’ve learned.

Even Eddie Benton-Banai, who first translated the Seven Grandfather teachings in the English language (The Mishomis Book, 1979) would be the first to say that these seven teachings offer much more the significant chapter he dedicated in his book.

What Bawdwaywidun offered was a simplified, English pre-amble to the most significant teachings in the Midewiwin society.  In reality, the narrative of the Little Boy and the Lodge of the Seven Grandfathers, and each of the seven teachings was something that lasted twenty-one years for the Little Boy.

Sadly, much of that detail has been lost to history – but the Three Fires Lodge and other Midewiwin lodges across the territory continue to carry much of those specific teachings to this day.
To learn them, or just to hear them, requires commitment, preparedness, faith, an open heart and an open mind.  They are open to anyone to learn.  All you need to do is bring your tobacco to the Lodge.

But they can’t be found in any Masters program or new age retreat.  Nor can they can’t be found next to the taco stand at your annual pow-wow, or in any one-hour teaching wigwam prior to Grand Entry.
As Bawdwaywidun has been known to say:  “Come to the Lodge”.