PEGUIS FIRST NATION READS NATIVE LITERATURE: TOWARD A COMMUNITY BASED THEORY by Donna Beyer A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of the University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Native Studies University of Manitoba Winnipeg Copyright © 2011 Donna Beyer BEYER 2 Abstract Peguis First Nation Reads Native Literature: Toward A Community Based Theory My thesis will first discuss the motivation for my project. I will talk about my personal experience with Native literature and its impact on me as a Native person. I discuss what Native scholars and writers have said about why they write and what they hope Native literature can do for Native readers, people and communities. As a Native person carrying out a research project in my home community I struggled with how I could approach this endeavour in a respectful way. I share my thought process and journey throughout this thesis. This is my methodology. In chapters four and five, I present the responses of community members to Native literature, their thoughts on what Native literature did for them and what it can potentially do for other Native people and communities. I draw out and share my thoughts on what I believe to be is an important point made by each participant and the commonalities I see among participant responses. And while it may be my interpretation of these responses that presents community based theory at the end of this thesis, at the heart of that interpretation lies the words of each participant. All I can do is offer how I see things and what I know. BEYER 3 Acknowledgements There were many bumps in the road as I worked to complete this thesis. It was an adjustment being a student again having to endure the many financial and emotional hardships. I would like to thank my husband, Tim Beyer (Brown Bear), for always supporting me. Thank you to my daughter, Meeya (Shining Bright, Sparkling Woman) for the patience she exuded when she had to sit in the Native Studies department waiting for her mommy and the many times she kept herself entertained as mommy studied. I thank the Creator for both of you. Thank you to my mother and father, Marcella and Carl McCorrister, who have always stressed to me the importance of education for Native people. To my siblings: Kim, Carol, Kevin and Paul for being the people you are and your ability to always bring a smile to my face. I would also like to acknowledge the Native Studies department at the University of Manitoba for being like a family away from family – always inviting and always supportive. You have all taught me so much. A special thank you to Dr. Renate Eigenbrod who from the first time I met her in one of my first Native Studies classes has continued to encourage me to pursue Native literature as my area of study and go on to graduate studies. I send a deep appreciation to the many Native authors and scholars who worked diligently to clear the way for those after them. Your words will remain with me forever and I am dedicated to sharing them with others. Finally thank you to my Gran who passed away during this process. I dedicate this thesis to you. Donna – Standing Rock Woman BEYER 4 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 3 Introduction 5 Peguis First Nation 8 Terms 9 Chapter One Literature Review 10 Chapter Two Methodology 16 Methods 18 Readings Selection 19 Newsletter 26 Participant Engagement and Communication 28 Chapter Three Respect of Participants 36 “Pastoohowin” 36 The Questions I Asked 38 Chapter Four Participants, Their Responses, and My Thoughts 40 Chapter Five Community Based Theories 86 Works Cited 95 Appendix A Appendix B BEYER 5 Introduction As a young person growing up in my community, Peguis First Nation, I was not exposed to any Native literature other than Beatrice Culleton’s In Search of April Raintree. It was not until I reached university that I came to know how much Native literature was actually out there. It was in university that I also came to know the terms colonization and decolonization. While it is not my intention to deem anyone colonized or decolonized what I can do is share my journey with you. How I came to know these terms and how they have informed my life, my thinking and my experiences. In doing this, I am not saying that this is the experience of all Native people, of my community, or the community members who participated in my project. The motivation for my project is based on my own experience, but each Native person and community is one in its own. How I may see things as a Native person may not be how another Native person sees it, what I may have experienced may not be what another has experienced, and how I may interpret those experiences may not be how another interprets theirs. This is difficult for me to admit now because I am now and have been for quite some time a different person, but when I was in my teens I was ashamed to be Native. I tried so hard not to fit the stereotypes of Native people. I was not resisting those stereotypes, nor working to empower myself – I was ashamed. Upon my entrance into university and enrolment in various Native Studies courses, I began to hear the words colonization and decolonization, and it was many years later before I was able to apply them to my own life and experiences. As a young person, I did not know about the history of Native people, thus I did not understand what was at the root of the many socio-economic ills in Native communities. As I studied more I came to understand that my shame came from internalizing racist notions about Native people. Similar to that of Indigenous activist and scholar, Cherríe Moraga: BEYER 6 “I ha[d] internalized a racism...where the object of oppression [wa]s not only someone outside of my skin, but the someone inside” (473). So where does this type of thinking come from? A huge eye-opener for me was reading Prison of Grass by Howard Adams, particularly the chapter titled “The White Ideal and the Colonized Personality” (141). It was like he was writing about me, although I never would have been able to articulate my feelings or where they came from prior to reading his book. My thinking was what Adams referred to as “the white ideal” (144) and what Albert Memmi describes as “Negrophobia in a Negro or anti-Semitism in a Jew” (122). I had internalized a “mythical and degrading portrait [of myself and my culture]...[and I had] accepted and lived with” it (Memmi 87). What I also came to realize, though, is that the self- hate was not my fault, nor was it my parents’ or grandparents’ fault. I was raised in what I will refer to as a Christian home. I was fearful of my own Ojibway and Cree cultures. My grandmother had once told me that she did not teach any of her eight children to speak Cree in fear of them sounding like a ‘dumb Indian’. Now I am not saying that my family was not proud of who they are because I am sure they were and are, but as Okanagan author Jeannette Armstrong puts it, “imagine at what cost to you psychologically, to acquiesce and attempt to speak, dress, and worship, like your oppressors, simply out of a need to be treated humanely....[and] assimilate so that your children will not suffer what you have” (Armstrong 240). It seems that many times it may have just been easier to assimilate so that those you love would not have to endure what you had. Of course, nowadays, things have changed, Native people are embracing who they are, where they come from, and they are passing this on to their children. Many have come to understand our history and the damage inflicted upon us by colonialism. At the same time, many of our communities and people still suffer from many of the socio-economic ills rooted in BEYER 7 colonization. Native literature helped me to better understand myself and my history. I related to a lot of it and was able to apply it to my own life. It was nice to see Native people and their experiences represented in books written by Native people. And as my knowledge about Native literature increased I began to ask myself these questions: “How would my younger years have been different if I had access to these books growing up?” “If Native literature did this for me, can it do the same for others?” “Certainly, Native scholars and those in university are reading Native literature, but are members of our communities reading this literature?” It is for this reason that I wanted to take Native literature out into the community, to connect more Native people to Native literature and see what their response was; what Native literature did for them and what they felt it could potentially do for others. I know that many people will not have had the same experience as I, for we are all different; we see things differently and we are raised differently. Not every Native person will have experienced or will experience Adams’ white ideal from Prison of Grass, Garnet Raven’s encounters with the foster care system from Keeper’N Me, or the abuse of the Okimasis brothers in Kiss of the Fur Queen because “not all of us grew up confused or alienated from our homes, [cultures], languages, or lands” (LaRocque 220), but the chances are that someone in our lives has or will.