ISSN#1204-1645 Okarahshona kenh Onkwehonwene, Six Nations of the Grand WEDNESDAY, TSIOTORHKÓ:WA / JANUARY 1, 2020 Price $1.25 (plus taxes where applicable) www.theturtleislandnews.com CONTENTS Local ...........................................2 Editoral........................................6 Sports..........................................8 Classified...................................19 Notices.......................................22 Careers.......................................22 Business Directory......................23 Price $1.25 (plus taxes where applicable) I TURTLE ISLAND NEWS I TSIOTORHKÓ:WA / JANUARY 1, 2020 I PAGE 2 I I LOCAL / ORÌ:WASE NE KÈN:THOR I www.theturtleislandnews.com Advertising deadline is 5 pm Fridays Phone: 445-0868 • Fax: 445-0865 LOCAL aboriginalbusinessmagazine.com [email protected] Survivor Series Educates Tourists About Residential Schools By Donna Duric and church-run residen- attended. for children,” he said. He Writer tial schools that operated On June 11, 2008, then- was no longer Geronimo at They were just kids. Yet across the country in an Prime Minister Stephen the Mush Hole. He was a they were forced to live in effort to assimilate Indig- Harper issued a formal number. conditions comparable to a enous children into Eu- apology on behalf of the “Everybody had a number. prison, filled with abuse of ro-Christian society. Canadian government for My number was 48.” every kind, leaving a last- Woodland Cultural Cen- the legacy of residential He was called by his num- ing impact on generations tre, which sits on the site schools. ber instead of his name for of families of all those lit- of the Mohawk Institute The words “help me” scrawled into the bricks at the “In our communities to- the next 11 years. tle ones who attended the in Brantford, is hosting an day, a huge number of In- The first thing that hap- Mush Hole. “Mush Hole.” on-going “survivor series” digenous people have been pened when he was The Mush Hole, a nick- to educate tourists who featuring a talk by survivor removed from their homes impacted by residential dropped off at the school name for the Mohawk Insti- come to the museum about Geronimo Henry. and placed in the schools schools,” said Hill. was getting his hair shaved tute Residential School in the horrors of residential The current brick building “to further remove them They resulted in violence, off. Brantford, closed down in schools. that used to house the Mo- from the influences of their addictions and loss of cul- “That’s the first thing they 1970 but the heartbreaking A different survivor tells hawk Institute was built parents.” ture, she said. do to try to civilize us,” he stories from the kids who their story every month in 1903, after the previ- In 1879, Sir John A Mac- Nearly half of all children said. He spoke of the phys- attended are still being during the Survivor Series ous building had been set Donald, the first prime living in poverty in Canada ical, sexual and emotional told today in an effort to at Woodland Cultural Cen- on fire and burnt down by minister of Canada, stat- are First Nation children. abuse at the school. educate the general public tre. some of the boys who at- ed that: “Indian children There are three times as “There was a lot of strap- about what really went on Loretta Hill, cultural in- tended the school. They should be withdrawn as many Indigenous children pings that went on at the behind the doors of one of terpreter and outreach were sent to reformatory much as possible from pa- in the child protection sys- school.” Canada’s most notorious facilitator at Woodland schools and one was even rental influence, and the tem than non-Indigenous The children were always residential schools. Cultural Centre, recounted sent to Kingston Peniten- only way to do that would children, despite making up hungry, he remembered, The Mohawk Institute, the history of the Mohawk tiary as punishment. be to put them in central only 5 per cent of the Ca- even though there was a first built in 1828, was one Institute for about two “We see the harshness training industrial schools nadian population. There farm and fresh produce, of dozens of government dozen visitors on Dec. 16, start pretty early on as where they will acquire are more children in the meat and eggs but that punishment of the youth the habits and modes of child welfare system today food went to the teachers and it’s a trend of residen- thought of white men.” than there were children or it was sold to residents Six Nations Man Wins Big tial schools,” said Hill. The Canadian government at the height of residential of Brantford. She said the concept of called residential schools a school attendance. There “We got very little of that in Lottery residential schools was process of “aggressive as- are about 245,000 children stuff,” he said. actually introduced in the similation” and their pur- in child protective services, Henry said they got skim 1600s, through Franciscan pose was to indoctrinate whereas the height of res- milk instead of whole milk monks, Jesuit priests and Indigenous children to Eu- idential school attendance and they would often for- Ursuline nuns. They trav- ro-christian Canadian soci- was 165,000. Suicide rates age at the local dump for elled to Indigenous com- ety, said Hill. among Indigenous youth food and discarded candy munities on mission work About 15,000 students are seven times higher than from the local candy fac- encouraging Indigenous attended the Mohawk in- non-Indigenous youth and tory. peoples to learn about stitute. There was actually over 100 First Nation com- “All of these abuses are them. They were quick- a time when the Mohawk munities are under boil wa- damaging to the soul,” he ly repelled by Indigenous institute had a waiting list ter advisories. said. “I’m still suffering communities who were not of students to attend, said “Across Canada, the ef- from that.” interested in their mission Hill. fects of colonization and He said many students work. In the early 1900s, the residential schools are still left the schools with post It wasn’t until 1828 that rate of contracting com- being felt today,” said Hill. traumatic stress disorder, the Mohawk residential municable illnesses was 25 Geronimo Henry spoke similar to soldiers returning school opened. But it first per cent, the same rate of about his experience at the from combat. operated as the Mohawk infection seen among sol- Mohawk Institute, from “We were just kids. That’s Industrial School, with diers in World War 2, due the time he was five until the sad part about it. These about 14 boys attending to poor nutrition, abuse, he turned 16. He was sent are innocent kids that had Randolph Miller is $100,000 richer thanks to a lottery to learn about carpentry, inadequate clothing, and to the Mush Hole in 1942. to go through all that trau- win. (Submitted photo) agriculture and farming long working hours, she “I call them assimilation ma. It’s no wonder we’re techniques. The school was said. Many children died schools,” said Henry. “They suffering from post-trau- It was a very Merry Christmas for Six Nations man Ran- funded by the New England while attending residential took my language, they matic stress.” dolph Miller, after hitting it big on an instant lottery game. Company under the Angli- schools, said Hill, and the took my culture, and they Henry said he tried to Miller is now $100,000 richer after winning on the lot- can denomination. Mohawk Institute finally took my beliefs away from commit suicide at one tery game Instant Chill Play Vacay. In 1831, it was estab- closed down in 1970. me.” point due to the trauma he Instant Chill Play Vacay is available for $5 a play and the lished as the first residen- The last residential school He spent 11 years there. experienced. top prize is $100,000. Odds of winning any prize are 1 tial school in Canada where in Canada closed down in He said his mom dropped He said he found healing him off there and didn’t by visiting with elders and in 3.97. religion was taught on a 1996 in Saskatchewan. come to visit him the whole talking with them. “I played and scanned my ticket,” said Miller, a driver, daily basis. In 2005, the courts ap- time he went there. He still “I found that much better while at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto to pick up his Children were also forced proved a $5 billion class-ac- to take part in farming, tion lawsuit against the questions to this day why than talking to a psychia- cheque. “When it came up a winner, I couldn’t believe it!” doing laundry and other churches and Canadian she didn’t come to visit trist.” The 54-year-old plans to save and invest his windfall. forms of manual labour. government to compen- him or bring him home for Henry now travels around “This win makes me happy,” said Randolph. In 1842, the Bagot Com- sate survivors of residential the summer, but he’s never Ontario talking about his The winning ticket was purchased at Gateway New- mission recommended schools for the harms and gotten an answer. experience as a survivor of stands on Lynden Road in Brantford. that Indigenous youth be abuses suffered while they “They were like a prison residential schools. I LOCAL / ORÌ:WASE NE KÈN:THOR I I TURTLE ISLAND NEWS I TSIOTHORHKÓ:WA / JANUARY 1, 2020 I PAGE 3 I Photos by T. Brant Terrylynn Brant travels the Dish with One Spoon treaty area throughout Canada and the U.S., her longhouse basket in hand, reclaiming indigenous food sovereignty through foraging, gathering and collecting Haudenosaunee seeds.