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DOCUSENT REM Et 055 696 BC 005 629 TITLE Indian, Metis and EskimoLeaders in Contemporary Canada. Indian and Northern INSTITUTION Saskatchewan Univ., Saskatoon, Curriculum Resources Centre. PUB DATE [70] NOTE 19p. Centre, AVAILABLE FROM Indian and Northern Curriculum Resources College of Education,University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan($3.25) EDRS PRICE MF-$0,65 HC-$3.29 DESCRIPTORS *American Indians; *Biographies;*Classroom Materials; *Eskimos; Ethnic Groups;Professional Recognition; Racial Recognition;*Recognition IDENTIFIERS Canada ABSTRACT This collection of 15biographies was prepared to illustrate, for classroom purposes, someof the well-known contemporary Indian,Eskimo, and Metis peoplein Canada today. (MJB) Foreword prepared to illustrate, forclassroom ppm someof the The following collectionof biographies has been today, well known Indian, Eskimo,and Metis people in Canada amiable materials thatdeal with the Indian, Eskimo, In the past, the CurriculumResources Center as made the past. It is in this lightthat an effort has beenmade to remedy and Metis culture. Mostof the material deals with Mefit material on contemporaryCanadian Indian, Eskimo, and the situafion and provideschools across Canada with people, Mien Sapp Indian from the Red Pheasant It is hard to feel anything but deepadmiration for the artist, Allen Sapp, a Cree Reserve near North Battleford, Sask. For here is a manwho was stricken with serious childhoodillness, who could age of 38. not speak good English andcould barely write his name, a man wholived on welfare cheques until the profound love of painting and a sense of trueworth in himself as an But Allen had two credits in his favor: a United States, and iDdividual and as an Indian. Now Allen Sapp paints canvasseswhich are in demand in Canada, the Europe and which sell for thousands of dollars. to tend the Shortly after Allen was born in 1929, his motherdied. That left just he and his grandmother family farm. Though he had been sickly frombirth, Allen became even more ill when hecontracted spinal meningitis Battleford, and when he did go home to his a few years later. He spentmonths at the Indian Hospital in North grandmother at Red Pheasant, he was confinedfor months to their little log cabin inthe hills. It was while he was Lake Residential School he learned in the hospital he learned to sketch.Later when he began to attend the Onion to his liking than learning thealphabet. Because of poor health, how to use water colors. Art, he decided, was more however, that all his Allen was taken out of school. He had gone only asfar as grade 2. He knew upon leaving, talent and his ambition lay in the field ofpainting. She had spent some time in a In 1955, he married MargaretWhitford of the neighboring Little Pine Reserm T.B. sanatorium in Prince Albert and wasreadmitted in 1957. During her stay there,the Sapps' only son, David, was born. Battleford to try to eke out One can imagine the plight of this poorfamily when, in 1961, they moved to North Allen had to resort to living on welfare. a better living. Unable toread or write, and with a wife and son to support, of North Battleford, with paintingstucked under his arm, trying to For years he walked up and down the streets $15.00. When he was lucky, they supplement his meagre welfare cheques.Usually they sold for $5.00. S10.00 or went for as high as $30.00. It was at this point that Dr. A.B. Gonor, aNorth Battleford Physician, came to Allen's rescue.Dr. Gonor had thought white people noticed Allen before with his parcel of paintings.Usually the paintings concerned things he that he had seen only on calendars. In1966, however, his painting wanted to see such as dramatic mountain scenes quality about it. of Chief Swimmer of the Sweetgrass Reserve waspurchased by Dr. Gonor who perceived a unique his reserve. Doctor and Mrs. A year later, Allen again enteredthe Doctor's clinic - this time with a scei Gonor decided to become his patrons. He waswell on his way; he and the Doctorformed a partnership which has proven to be an astounding success.In return for a firm income, materialand expert advice from art teachers, Allen records things he wants to paint in his own way. Nolonger dr.:s he paint to please a remoteand inaccessible public is reflected in many of his but instead paints what he knows and lovesbest. His deep affection for his grandmother pictures which show her at various tasks.While his pictures convey his total familfritywith the realistic, sometimes harsh, aspects of reserve life, we are alsomade aware of his deep, if unspoken, pride inhis ancestors, the mighty Plains Cree nation, buffalo hunters of the NorthAmerican Plains. Allen Sapp has held one-man exhibitions inSaskatoon, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, LosAngeles and London, remains the same person as he England. Fame and success are welldeserved by such a man: yet, despite it all, Allen always was - - unassuming, quietly confident andpersevering. Dr. Gilbert Mouture Living in Ottawa today is one ofCanada's most distinguished citizens, a man who isalso a direct descendant of the age of 74 after as many years the famous Mohawk Chief, Joseph Brant.He is Dr. Gilbert Monture, now retired at of service to both Canada and theworld. Gilbert C. Monture was born on August 27,1896 in Tuscarora Township, BrantCounty, Ontario. Things were for a living. At the ttge of 12, he entered high not easy during his childhood,his family being dependent upon farming school. Before entering university, he school at Hogersville, Ontario, having towalk five miles each day from home to Queen's University at Kingston, decided to teach school on his home reservefor two years. After this, Gilbert entered Ontario to study in his chosen field - - miningand metallurgy. in the Royal Canadian World War I interrupted his studies when, in 1917, he leftuniversity to enlist as a gunner Field Artillery. Returning to Canada, he spent a yearin underground mining before taking uphis studies once more degree in 1921, he went on to at Queen's. Though he did receive hisBachelor of Science in Mining and Metallurgy take such courses as economics, accounting,and business finance. In 1923, Mr. Monture became editor ofpublications for the Dominion Departmentof Mines and read every became Chief of the Division report that was published dealing with themining and metal industries. In 1929, he of Mineral Economics of the Mines Branchin Ottawa. When World War II camealong, his special knowledge, in demand. So well did he carry out hiswork that in 1946 he was learned over the past thirty-one years, was greatly Science degree from awarded the Order of the British Empire, and two yearslater he received an honorary Doctor of the University of Western Ontario. With that war over, Dr. Monture resumedhis position as Chief of the MineralResources Division until 1956. During those post war years, he served on some twPntycommittees and economic missions around theworld. Some of the countries which benefitted from his exe-.1rtadvice were Malaya, Indonesia, Jamaica,Afghanistan, Bolivia, Ghana, Israel and Singapore. In 1956, Dr.Monture resigned from government service,and, two years later, became vice-president of Stratmat, a Canadian minerals explorationand development company. The achievements of this energetic man have beenrecognized by both American and Canadian Indians.He was receiver of the Indian Achievement Award of theIndian Council Fire, an American organizationfounded in 1923. Then, in 1958, he was made honorary Chief ofthe Mohawk tribe of the Six Nations atBrantford, Ontario. Dr. Monture continued to be active long pastretirement age. Some of his activitiessince 1964 include: member of the U.N. Aavisory Committee onEconomic Planning in Israel, member of the Mineral Economic Committeeof the American Institute of Miningand Metallurgical Engineers member of the Council of Queen's University a director of the Queen'sAlumni Association founder and honorary president of the Indian-EskimoAssociation of Canada awarded a Vanier Medal "for public serviceabroad" in 1966 weived a Service Medal of Canada in 1967. that Finally, at the age of 73, Dr. Monture retired officially at theend of 1969. It is undoubtedly for him a rest is well-deserved. Very few Canadians can lay claim tosuch a varied and distinguished career asthat of Dr. Gilbert Monture. Simonie Michael 'VEMINEMIMMIi Lake Harbour in 1933. When he reachedthe age of six, his parents died Simonie was born in a snowhouse near His childhood was spent in thetraditional and he was adopted by an Eskimohunting family at Frobisher Bay. Eskimo way - hunting, trapping and livingin snow houses or skin tents. night classes and adult In summing up his education, Simonie says:"I never went to grade school. I took home to teach me English". Despite hislack of early formal education, education. A white person used to visit our and vice-president of Inook Limited, a he is today an elected member of theCouncil of the Northwest Territories janitorial company. Frobisher Bay. In 1946, Simonie foundemployment there washing dishes World War II brought an airfield to he learned to become mechanic and later becoming a janitor. With theassistance of the U.S. Air Force technicians, and finally a carpenter. where he worked as a carpenter In 1955 he joined the Departmentof Northern Affairs and Natural Resources months in Ottawa. Then, in January of1966, he became Super- foreman and interpreter for ten years, spending two white people, whose purpose was to visor of inook Limited, a companyowned by Frobisher Bay Eskimos and the buildings in Frobisher Bay. That same year,he acted as interpreter for the provide janitorial services to several of they travelled throughout Advisory Commission on the Development ofGovernment in the Northwest Territories as that Simonie decided he would the Eastern Arctic and Keewatin Regions.lt waswhile travelling with this Commission Council.

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