Historical context of indigenous struggle steeped in controversies

(00:01.474) Good afternoon. I'm you've been go going to play this TikTok video. TikTok play it's with Brandy Morin joined with Ryan Jespersen on Real Talk and they are discussing how okay, this is just on theirs this morning Brandy Morin says, I joined Ryan Jesperson on his show Real Talk. Here we speak about RCMP Commissioner to Canada recently responding to the First Nations in Alberta asking for an investigation into Premier Daniel Smith's commitment committing treason. The relationship is nearly severed. The separatist movement has eroded reconciliation and the threats constitutionally protected treaty rights. I say it like I see it, unprecedented. Ryan f he she thanks Ryan for the interview. So I wanted to play this because this is significant in the sense that a lot of new Canadians, a lot of immigrants or even people who've recently moved into the province of Alberta haven't known of the historical context of the Chiefs in Alberta. Now I for one, like I I'm not a politician, but I have participated in blockades, demonstrations, sit-ins, like throughout my whole life regarding treaty. And again, you have to understand to fight for treaty rights, we have to have a war chest. But we we're so in power we don't, okay, so we but we do have our sovereignty that we express. Now I I like this podcast and I I'd like you to listen to it because If you're new and you don't understand the struggles that indigenous people, Metis, Inuit, and First Nations have been struggling with, when it comes to acknowledging that we do exist, we weren't just found here five hundred years ago. I mean it's like it's like religiosity what they said the world was created in f seven days, or even the fact that the world started two thousand years ago. There's so many people who want to create a narrative without scientific facts or even talking to indigenous people or understanding the history. So I ba basically have said things in my podcast about just how interconnected a lot of these separatists have had with each other in Alberta, sort of holding hands with one another, you know, anyway. I'll play the I'll play the video and hopefully you know you get a gist of what I've been talking about. At the same time too, this investigative reporter is indigenous and like I said, I'm only one elder who's grown up in systemic racism. But I I will I will play this. I'm just trying to make sure I don't g have any interruptions when I'm as I'm doing this. So listen to the the podcast. Here it is. Privy to an interesting bit of correspondence and and we've been granted permission to show it today to reference it. This is this is a letter from the RCMP Commissioner, right? addressed on July seventeenth, so just a few days ago. addressed to Grand Chief Joy Pete, Chief Ellery Starlight, Chief Troy Knowlton and Grand Chief Trevor MacRity. for those listening on the podcast in particular that can't see what Johnny's showing us on the screen right now, this will be for YouTube, you can read it yourself, but the general premise of this is what? Why are why are the RC why is the RCMP interacting with these grand chiefs, these chiefs? Mm-hmm. Yeah, so in June the Assembly of Treaty Chiefs of Alberta passed a resolution asking for Danielle Smith to be investigated for treason by the RCMP and the Auditor General of Canada regarding, you know, her her her possible dealings with US officials in regards to these the separation and the legalities of it, you know, of pushing it while violating treaty rights. And just a couple of days ago, the RCMP Commissioner of Canada officially responded to the Chiefs and said that they are currently looking into whether to open an investigation. I I'm not like it's not my role or job to say where this would go or wouldn't go, and obviously I'm not a police officer an investigator. I wouldn't be You know, I I don't expect that there's gonna be that she's gonna be hauled before a court for treason on this, but but even if she's not, why do you think that this is so significant? I mean, it is the only time that I know of that any indigenous leaders have called for an accusation of treason against a, you know, provincial or government leader. So it's highly, highly significant. I mean. That just in itself, you know, sets this precedent, sets the table for how damaged these relationships really are and how you know the trust has been completely eroded. the premier has said that the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act would be enforced if chiefs block roads or infrastructure. You wrote about this back second week of June. People can read about it on your Substack. Why do you think that that was such a consequential statement from the Premier? Take us into this idea. Your headline, they're ready to arrest chiefs. That's a powerful headline. I mean, can you imagine? You have these sovereign leaders who have rights, who have territories, and they are planning to assert their rights. They are planning to do whatever that they have to do to stop. Alberta separation to stop the proceedings of this referendum. And and if so, they said, Okay, well, that might include blocking highways or infrastructure. When you think about it, that is also treaty territory. In response, Smith said, Yeah, okay, well, we have this critical infrastructure defense act, which was created, by the way, to you know, oppress mostly indigenous land defenders across this country. And she said, Yeah, we'll implement it. So, you know, these chiefs have been Threatening, you know, various actions for a while. This time, I took them pretty seriously. You know, they th there's treaty chiefs up in Treaty Eight, which Grand Chief McCarty, you know, is is the leadership over those highways block the engine that runs this country. You know, in Fort McMurray, the oil sands, there has been talk of them taking action there. Yeah, it's a big deal, but can you imagine? The chaos that would break up if these chiefs were on the line and being hauled away in that situation, you know, being arrested. But it it also, you know, you also have to think about the relationship between the RC and P and First Nations. And this is one of the arguments that the First Nations used when they wanted, you know, Danielle Smith investigated for treason because the RC and P have committed to protect First Nations and their rights. You know, would it be the RC and P out there arresting chiefs to you know, they decide to, you know, enforce this Critical Defense Act. Yeah, the I mean the optics are tough. and and I I I would personally just as a as an observer be very concerned about that heating up. in particular if you get almost that standoff between First Nations and separatists. W you've been made privy to an interesting bit of correspondence. So let me give you a little background too. When I was in my twenties, they had a standoff in in the southern Alberta regarding the dam, water coming it and this had to do with the Pecani Nation in Treaty Seven. Now at the same time there was the American Indian Movement and in the seventies John Trudell and a lot of American Indian movement people who the RC the Federal Bureau of the FBI like they had warns out for them. And they came up into Canada and and they there was a resurgence camp in Rocky Mountain House that a lot of activists went to and they lived off the land and so that's where I forget what his name is. He just got released from Florida penitentiary. he served like over fifty some odd years. during the stand of standoff at wounded knee. Now also, why am I bringing this up? Well because what, in t thir two thousand thirteen, two thousand fourteen, like what thirteen years ago, fourteen that was around the time my late mother was making her journey to the next to the next next world. And like there was Standing Rock were ten thousand people came to to support and camp, have an encampment. And people from all over the world came to protest the pipeline that was being built. Now the the reality of it is like it took decades, like at least over ten years of of the s of the Sh of Shotish Shakoi, the seven council fires of the Sioux nation to make this statement to to stand on their sovereign ground. And and again. you know, even people from Alberta went to Standing Rock to help in in this encampment. And there were and they had like the military and it was just, you know, water bombs and it was like it it was it was really huge. Now, why am I saying this and why is it important that the RC and P are looking into this investigation or the threat from Daniel Smith saying that she's going to arrest the chiefs of Alberta? like the arrogance of it that that that for all the gaga she's and du do that she's got herself into, like up to her neck in in in all of this. I I had recently posted too on my on like on my podcast too about just the connection. like how interconnected she like all these people who like in the lawsuit with Tsuutina, how they like people are getting on the bandwagon and whether or not what they're saying is the true is the truth, it's it's the reality that that this is like big news. And and rightfully so too because again like this investigative reporter said it's the R C and P is a federal has federal responsibility in terms of relationship with the indigenous people of Canada. So again, like I I'll read this. a sp a provincial judge has temporarily frozen up to eight point five million dollars in assets belonging to Alberta separatist lawyer Jeffrey Rath, and his professional corporation in an escalating court fight Over the trust monies from the First Nations Treaty Settlement Court documents state. On july tenth, Alberta Court of King's Bench Justice Marin granted an interim Marvilva Orda against Rath and Jeffrey R. W. Rath, professional corporation operating as Wrath and Company, finding reasonable grounds to believe assets could be removed or dispersed. Decipitated to before judgment in the court battle between Wrath and Tallcree First Nations. This order, this Mar Marvell order, also known as a freezing order, is an extr extraordinary prejudgment remedy intended to stop the defendant from transferring hiding or liquidating assets before the case is decided. so that any eventual financial award can still be c collected. The order freezes ex exhibit exit exhibity property up to eight point five one eight anyway it's millions. Eight point five million we'll round it up. And includes banks or investment accounts, vehicles, real estate property, personal property and shares. And also e exhibits the use of s secure credit, such as loans, line of credit, credit cards, if payment is secured against the property they have interest. So let's see. They the remain this remains in effect until July fifteenth when further hearings are scheduled. So Even like they s the timeline and the things that were published that I posted on my podcast is like what timeline two again with such an law the lawsuit. So understand this Marishi and t wrath less the leader of the Separatist Party, Wrath, okay, with tall crenation and sturgeon crenation in in treaty six. Now understand this too, that even It's documented that Malika Holmes or or this Mraiche have had some you know, just there's some gaga, you know, like in regards to money they've already spent in Kainai on the blood reserve. So there's a lot of people having their pockets in First Nations money that are connected to separatist party. Why? Because you know I mean do you trust people who stab people in the back? That's why I keep on saying I've grown up my whole life with white people, you know, who are pretend to be my friend, ally, cohorts, and then they stab me in the back. And and that's what Daniel Smith and these lawyers have done to First Nations. And like like again, this reporter, Morin, she's saying there there's a breach of trust. Like and and this trust isn't just like the working the catalyst that have been that has been powerful in helping our our people heal has taken decades, has taken generations of r survivors from Indian residential school trying to help our own people, like with Nietzsche Institute, which again, Sam Mraiche was instrumental in closing that institution down because they want to privatize h Alberta health. Understand that. They're taking a fiduciary obligation of the federal government for indigenous people, like they have like you say, you have a war chest. Well we also sp in the treaties there's a medicine chest. Now when when the federal government's fiduciary obligation, when they sort of try to shove us off to the province, we're going, No, you have a fiduciary obligation because you hold in trust billions of dollars. that was that's been accounted that's there because of our treaty rights. And so so for the the ch the indigenous people, First Nations, Inuit and Metis, this this is factual. So the fact that we've been fighting and doing like even here west of us on the Nakota, the Stonies, I don't know it was in the seventies as well or the eighties, they blocked the Trans Canada. Again, Because, you know, nobody was paying attention. So when when Brandy Morin talks about the the the road going to Fort McMurray being stopped and closed because it's running through the sovereign nation of of the Crees, that it's gonna be a big deal. And I'm only saying this because historically this is what we've been doing in Alberta. So this is no this isn't new to us, but if you're an immigrant or you're an American who's thought that Calgary is a really good place to, you know, put your colonial roots in. I'm just letting you know, we've been here for thousands of years. Not 500, thousands of years. Okay? So, you know, when when the chiefs are saying, you know, we're gonna we want she's treasonous. Why? Because she's taking money from Trump. Understand this is just conspiracy, but there's also word that she's been taking money from Putin. Now, Of course, Trump just idolizes Putin. what a great leader, and yet how dangerous is that man? And this is who allegedly Daniel Smith is in cohorts and friendly with. Again, how much can a person trust someone who stabs their allies in the back? She had she's had the chiefs wrapped around her little finger and Everybody's saying no, don't sign those papers. Especially this recovery center here on Tsuutina. Like each each tribe and each of us has has a voice. Okay, but here's here's the timeline like that has been brought down by by someone who just posted it again on TikTok. Now my podcast goes all over. I think the majority of people that listen to it are Japan and France and the States. And and of course there are some Tsuutina Nation members who do listen to me and people in Calgary do listen. But the timeline in twenty twenty five, Alberta Health Care Procurement controversies involving businessmen Sam Mraichi came to light through media and investigation. That's in two thousand and five. See and yet and yet the chiefs and the various leaders who who've been tr struggling to help their people with with monies that ha is a flu fiduciary obligation from the federal government has been piggybacked by the provincial government and the chiefs are trying to say no. This by doing this you're you're you're cutting back the funding that we've been fighting for for decades, like like Nietzsche Institute or like for the example of her trying to privatize we'll we'll say it's like a watershed. She has she has given out so much money to different communities where they have these little sheds, w medical sheds we'll call them for lack of better word, because it's a band aid. So if you want hi a knee replacement you go to these sheds and you pay and they'll you'll get into get your knee surgery faster rather than going through the Alberta healthcare system. This is what Danielle Smith has set up in in First Nations. Now, I'm just letting you know because you know, when you're thinking about people, settlers saying they want to separate, separate from what? Like in and that you're that you're really tired of struggling? When for when for us just fighting for a penny from our trust fund comes with such controversy. The timeline in December of 2025, the Globe and Mail investigated details Mraiche's deep ties to provincial health care contracts and Alberta politicians. And again, this is what I'm saying the the the spider web of c of the network. Now in my culture and and I again I've got to say that every tribe has a different creation story, different cultural story. different understanding of who creator is. Now in in my mom's culture, which of c I I've taken this on, is is the spider or the trickster. You know, because and and so, you know, the trick is creator teaches us, you know, that, you know, like when we when when something somebody tricks us, it's a learning lesson. So, You know, this is a a learning lesson. So again, like I'm trying to give you the the dots so you can you can use the timeline to collect connect all the da the dots and and how even like the native women's shelter, you know, being stacked with with non indigenous women who who whose ideology is American. Now understand this. I've grown up my whole life in most of my life in Calgary. I lived in the United States for over a decade. Al Calgary is the most Americanized city in all of Canada. So of course there's gonna be a lot of Americans living in Calgary because it's oil company. It's oil rent you know drenched in oil. The sweat right from the stampede, right from the initiation of the the four ranchers who helped s do this stampede historical And the connection with First Nations in Uwitten Metis communities. Like I said, it's historical. And yet and yet, as an immigrant who comes into Calgary, I think it was in the sixties to the seventies, they estimated ten thousand people were coming into Calgary to make Calgary their home. And I say this with distinction, because in Tsuutina we lost a lot of men. It was a cross cultural shock. because th our whole way of life was being challenged with people who didn't grow around grow up around white people. And so when I say like Tsuutina, we've been around white people, like for me, my whole life, whereas other First Nations and Uit Matic communities haven't been. And so this cultural shock of of trying to get y colonizers or or non indigenous people to understand. Our way of life and the way we think is totally different from you, but you're not listening. And as much as the chiefs have written this letter trying to to let people know something is fishy about this Daniel Smith in terms of tr treason. Treason is by getting money from another country, from a couple of c a couple of countries, okay? And that should be concerning, you know, because Why? You know, c maybe over ten years ago or so, like right now we're going through a heat wave. about ten years ago there was a huge snowstorm in North and South Dakota. This is before before Standing Rock, the encampment of ten thousand people. prior to that there was There was a a huge ho snowstorm and all the electrical poles on on the reservations, the Sioux reservations in both North and South Dakota were were were just knocked down by the heavy snow. No electricity, the indigenous people there had you know were there there was no way to even get out of their driveways. But the US government even send the National Guard to help? No. It it was all over the world, like, my goodness, look at what they're doing to the indigenous people in North and South Dakota. Okay, when we're talking about sovereignty and humanit humanitarian rights, the US government sent their National Guard to a different state. Now, even you look at the governor of the Dakotas, who was hired by a company in BC. I think they they fired her, okay, because what? She created all the these ice, these concentration camps with ice in the United States, and then the BC get this one company in in BC hires her? Again, what are people thinking? That she has some sort of strategy to fight with indigenous people because of that pipeline that's gonna go through? You know, and all this c this stuff about the pipeline to get gas oil flowing. And yet you look at the climate. You know, when you live in a city and you turn on that water tap, where the hell do you think that water's coming from? In the northern part of Alberta, I worked there when I was twenty-nine. the money was good. I think it was seventy-five dollars an hour, even eighteen year olds were making. But the tar sands and the amount of water that they use to get the oil extracted out of the earth, the the trees are so brittle. People the indigenous people living living in the those boreal forests have to at least drive an hour out to get to get tanks of water to bring back in. Because the groundwater has been sucked up by all this producing oil. For what? For the United States? To drive cars so we get this climate? You know, the United States has a lot of gumption when it comes to How they're polluting the earth because of why. They you know they they don't know where water comes from. All these data centers draining water. What three, four years ago China was putting their data centers in the oceans to self-regulate so that it wasn't going to drain any water from their lands. You know, and people say, well, there's a shift. Yes, there's a shift. United States isn't the world power that people know that they put in positions of power. These old men who who don't even have a grasp on healthy human sexuality. That like it's this disgrace. It's it's laughable. It's sad. It's sad that they live in this illusion or delusion of how grand they are when they really are creating a lot of horrible things just with in terms of of trying to make keep their narrative going at at the expense of what? Do you know how many like there's so many the greatest country of missing children is the United States. I mean, you even look at Epstein and all that network with all these people. You know, that's why when I talk about our former chief and the the crimes that he's committed, and even now being mentioned in this controversy with Malika Holmes and Samareshi and and the lawyer Terry Braun. You know, it it's hard because you know, the these people were voted in and they established relationships with people in my community. So it's a very hard pill to swallow. Like I said, people stabbing people in the back. Again, tricksters. But we learn from these things. We we have to. Because because our children depend on it. Our grandchildren, seven generations. And see, in in April of April seventh two twenty six, the MDP party demands the just justice minister Mickey Amray be fired over his personal ties to Mraiche citing conflict of interest concerns. Now even that in the in in in the editorials that I've been reading, you know, this Sam Mraiche says, I was just you know, it wasn't professional c consultation. It was just matter of fact, you know, just putting in my two cents like hello. If if there's people if there's a paper trail it's documented my boy or Mr. Sam Mraiche. I don't know the guy. I anyway, it j it sickens me. So again on July fifteenth, Tsuutina Nation files a lawsuit in Alberta Courtss of King’s Court of King's Bench against the former lawyer over thirty si thirty five bil million provincially funded recovery center deal. Provincially funded, get that, okay? For decades, for decades when it came to treatment centers and even developing curriculum, workshops, certificates, graduating First Nations people with an First Nations run institute, Nietzsche, that was that was funded by the federal government and the federal government trying to cut down and and and put put this on the province, and you get somebody like Sam Boreshi closing it down. So yes. All this interconnectedness, like look at even the women's shelter. I was on the board before they even built that center on McLeod Trail. And I know all the the women who were trying to fundraise, you know, because it's a it's what United Way. And again, who who's who's putting money into United Way? The Alberta government? And why is the Alberta government playing polic political football with minorities in the city of Calgary? Yes, minorities from Africa and India and Japan and China, like South America, like where wherever the minorities have come through to Al Calgary and they apply for nonprofit monies for their community associations, that you have this Daniel Smith. putting her cohorts es especially with the f the native women's shelter those women so Americanized. So that money goes to them rather than other nonprofit. They're pitting like a political football back and forth against minorities against each other. And so, you know, when a minority says, Marina, can you come and talk? T tell us about the history. Because we we haven't been taught this when we come into Canada. And then they see the systemic racism in the hospitals of the police. All this, and this is coming this isn't coming just from uneducated immigrants. This is is coming from people who have their PhDs who are highly educated immigrants. Okay, so this isn't something that I'm fabricating. I'm I'm letting pe I'm letting you know that it it's this this Danielle Smith and the divisiveness that she's doing to create conflict. She's not in she's not in any position to or have the skills to resolve conflict resolution. I mean, yes, she's got lawyers. Shit, that doesn't mean they're there to resolve conflict. They're shit disturbers. Okay, so that who are the players? Well, of course, Tsuutina Nation, Terry Braun, the former lawyer, Chief Roy Whitney, Sam Mraiche, Mickey Amry, and then the Democrat Party who's trying to, you know, be allies with First Nations, nuit and Metis communities. So what what does Tsuutina allege that the Recovery Center contract was soul sourced not competitively tender tendered. Okay, and and and again, you know, I've I've heard rumors within my community and I said, well I don't know. Like even our health center had to be stopped. Again, who whose tenure is it? The all the connection leading to Roy Whitney and his family. And and understand this, Roy Whitney's had his clause with his own personal company, with his family Traveling across Canada, selling oil you know, selling the praises of Embridge, like to Kitamaat BC. Anywhere. Okay, and even the the money, like he's taking money not out of his pocket, but out of our banned funds. Now that's just I'm not like I I I know, because I live here, I haven't received any money my whole life. Even the house I live in, this isn't this wasn't given to me. This was I inherited it from my mother. You know, the the whole reality of like brown nosing, you know, if you have a company and you're and you obey and bow down to the chief, you get contracts. Or was somehow he uses medicine men or spiritual people as a political tool, and that he wants the followers of these medicine people, these spiritual s f again, fraudsters in my opinion, to to gain a f foothold in the elector electorate. I mean people say, Well why do you harp on Nathan Chasing horse twenty years? Twenty years what the hell? People didn't even talk to me You know, and and after like as the decade as the years go by, five years I hear different things. You know, people want to create controversy too, especially in our leadership, when all this is happening. And and I and again that's part of lateral violence. I have no control over it. Nobody has that, because it's a it it it it's in every community when it comes to to looking after our mental health. So and also allegedly project invoices and costs will show possible inflated prices, duplicated billing and other financial irregularities, like what, they pay half of the thirty five million to Malika homes when they only did ten percent of the work? And even where they put the recovery center where they're building it is in a bog. They have to build a cistern for water. Now that that to me to me I'm going who who did the what they call it when you do when I was director of education we had a feasibility study, that's what it is. Who was the company that did the fucking feasibility study to show that that wasn't a good place to put that recovery center? And who got that money? Again, here's again, allegedly, you know, the sources like it's was noncompetitive. So when hearsay and you hear it and say, well there's no competition, I'm going you know, you you trust leadership to to be prot to be to fulfill their fiduciary obligation. Not not you know, not suck on the the the tit of our our our financial funds. You know, because it it it it's it's a snowball effect. We get our funds from the cr from the tr our trust fund. We have to say, Mother may I? or f or or c or the king now. Father, may I? You know, and I use the example of like Brittany Spears. She her parents had to do become trust. And so that she has to, you know, like can I spend my money? You know, when when people say, you you live above taxes, no, this is our trust. Because you're living on you whatever municipality you are on, that used to be Crown Land. So do your research Like even in Springbank before, that was all crown land. Everything and anything around Tsuutina Nation or in Southern Alberta or even in the province that has been negotiated for municipalities, even even the electrical poles going through, roads, has all been been in consultation with the treaty the treaty obligation of the province with the prov with the First Nations of Alberta. All that is historical. It's documented in every tribe, First Nations, Inuit and community nation communities. This is what we're fighting for. For again, allegedly, the formal lawyer failed to act in the nation's best interest be re be like again, the fiduciary obligation, like where was it? a businessman and former chief had disclosed roles and potential personal benefits. Again, this per this this chief is is Roy Whitney. And again, his whole life. You know, when I went to high school with him and and he had white kids asking him if he was from Tsuutina he says, No, I'm Mexican. You know, his father used to wear makeup to make himself look more white. and again, I'm that's not just o only one family. There were a lot of people who were ashamed to be indigenous. Didn't want to wear the fringes or attend sweats, nothing. You know, my late uncle, he passed away when he was thirty-five. Like I said, there was a huge amount of men who died during this huge influx of people coming into Calgary. My father and my uncle were one of were two of them. you know what what can I say? He my uncle wore three braids. You know, there are certain families, like my brother says, this investigation isn't gonna touch our family. And I s and I said, because we don't get anything. You know, and for me that I've grown up here my whole life, never married, never had children, like and and again, if I did, I I they would probably used against me in lateral violence if I d wasn't compliant or complacent. but again too, I haven't been I didn't fill that role. That's not who I am. And I I said I said to my family member, I said, No, but look, the chief and counsel paid for our niece's medical bill. And that's controversial because there are other people who are in the dire straits, who need who need help, but the chief and counsel have made this mandate. No, we're not going to enable the way the former leadership did. And again, too, all that was based on colonial ways of thinking and how to keep you know your followers voting for you. so again, all these people like Mraiche, his representatives, Even like when I talk about Roth and him being a lawyer, Daniel Smith, like all of them. They're just you know, like they they they're admitting no wrongdoing. What? What did Daniel Smith say to the chiefs of Alberta? Check yourself. Like how many damn times like I mean I could okay, the word F. How many times have I been around white people, especially white girls? You know that I or or other people who wanted me to help them with a subject in school. And and and they they get good they get a grade and the next thing they do is like, okay, you're nobody. You're s just a stupid Indian after I helped them. Like I I've been around pretendian allies and cohorts my whole life. The tricksters. And I've had to learn from that. So so if I offend anybody Like you all know somebody, you know, everybody knows somebody who stabbed somebody in the back. And you know how you've had to recover and how you've had to trust people. And and so, you know, even even with our our membership venturing outside like Lance Many Wounds, he says, you know, I lost twenty two million, but I had good investors. like for him to take on so much criticism for our nation to defend the fiduciary obligations of our leadership when some of our own council, our own former counselors, like how much money have they spent with no reporting back to us how that was spent or what they've done with it. You know, I'm I'm an elder. the only kudos I get is being invited into the city to talk. I don't get invited well just recently I I have been invited to sit in and talk as an elder. But the majority the majority of times is like, no, I'm not a favorite to any any of the chief or band counselors. So in previous leadership, when somebody's going to Ottawa, they'll take an entourage of elders. Okay, I'm I've never been a part of that. Never. And yet what? is it because I have a stinking way of thinking? Or is it because like I'm just a crabby old bitch? Or or why? Am I so fucking jealous? You know, all the lateral violence and even like the audacity for even s you know, Sutan Nation members to to write on anonymously of alleged corruption in terms of this new chief and counsel, when when it's when i e even in the dialogue or the email doesn't even look credible. Like like for me, I'm just grateful that that I I've had experience with people to you know, sending me stuff like that about people, especially when it came to Nathan Chasing horse, whether or not they were fabricating stories, I was able to collaborate. Like I do really I I'm I'm really grateful that I could collaborate that when people were not being factual because of just the connections I've had. But. What can I what can I say? Like I said, all this in in terms of just Tsuutina First Nation, we haven't even like I can talk because I'm from here. But I c I can't even imagine like just the reality of what's happening out there with the Chiefs. I I don't know their financial statements or anything like that. The only thing that I I do know is that throughout history in Alberta, when it comes to to blockades, when it comes to sovereignty, and when it comes for us to stand our grounds, we have done it. We have shut down the Canada the Trans Canada. The the one that goes right from Calgary to BC. We shut that down. Now all this, if they shut down that road going to Fort McMurray, like what what's that gonna be like? You know, they say, well, you know, like there's the R C and P well the R C and P now is investigating investigating Danielle Smith and all her courts. This this paper trail, this money trail. Like my like my childhood friend says to me, Marina, the Globe and Mail or any newspaper and even C B C they would not publish anything unless they had lo lawyers to consult. You know, because they're not gonna just chase after a story out of hearsay. That's why For me, I'm just voicing my opinion and anybody who sends me email or anything, I have no lawyers. And obviously they don't have any lawyers. I'm just going by my gut feeling and saying, look, this is the protocol and how la how law is and the evidence that you need in order to to report a sexual assault. Or or the for that matter, if you know, it's gotta come from the victim's mouth, not by hearsay, by anybody. 'Cause it's a learning process and the and it's a healing process. And the reality of just how horrible and how deviant sexual behavior is, not just in indigenous people inuit First Nations Metis. It's it's all over the world. It's all over the world, and that's why when this young white woman, bless her heart, yells out to Danielle Smith take your fascist pancakes. It made, you know, like she b she's become a trend a trend, a social trend, a meme, they call it, right? Just like when that Buffalo k tossed that elderly man, it became a meme. And I don't mean to make it sound like any blockades or anything that the chiefs of treaties of of Alberta are gonna become memes. I'm I'm just saying that from my own experience and my understanding of how hard it's been For the people who came before me to sacrifice how their hard-earned money, their hard-earned work, they're they're at the front lines. I mean, my mother would do home visits and dogs would attack her and she'd still go. She'd still go and talk to people about alcohol and drug addiction. The very foundation of Nietzsche and the mental health. Like all everything and anything that anybody does isn't perfect. It isn't. I've had controversy my whole life. Even when I helped my mother establish the first D detox treatment center in Tsuutina, the board who was Tsuutina didn't like it. And so they sent people from Nietzsche and those two consultants, they were they were womanizers. The the one guy like they I had my aunt come with me down to the International Hotel downtown because this one guy wanted the two men wanted to interview me in the hotel room. I get there making sure my aunt Is in the lobby, and and the guy sends his his cohort out and he's and he starts making a play for me. Why? Because of lateral violence, whatever gossip people had created about my sexual life? For what? I voluntarily did the work to do all the budgeting, investigation, research. to get th that money over I forget how many how much money I w was able to get. And again too, all this has to do with the federal government and monies trying to help like because it's a fiduciary obligation. It it it's the responsibility of the federal government. So that's why like even when people say, yeah, there's a nude beach on Tsuutina, they don't even say Tsuutina, they say Calgary. And I'm going, No, that's Tsuutina. That's that's land under that's still debatable, that's still Tsuutina. And yet you're saying it's Calgary? And then I get I get mansplayed by some Yahoo telling me that I I don't know like I'm so uneducated and I don't understand you know, like this is a municipality and we have a right to have a nude beach. And he says, I don't even go to that nude beach. And I'm going, why are you even making it an issue? Everybody knows this is Tsuutina land. This is Crown Land. You have no say on it. If you you're complaining, get a lawyer. You know, I mean the whole the whole idea is that for me and I hope a lot and I and I I'm really hoping people are listening, immigrants, and especially if you're from the United States. But you understand this. My whole life I've had to fight. Calling me wagon burner, bitch, whatever. Even even in school at university, having, you know, little little graphic notes left in the printer for me to see. Burn in hell bitch. Stealing stealing my my educational material from my own studio. Like like even even you know just the whole nature of me standing my ground. You know, the controversy of what I've done in terms of raising the red flag about Nathan Chasinghorse is nothing. It yes, it's part of the whole systemic racist con construct that I was born into. But damn it, I had really good parents and good grandparents on both sides. You know, and I've had a lot of people who I've grown up with, who have helped bury, who had strong voices, who were educated and smart, intelligent. And for you know, whatever we struggle with in terms of our addiction, our central nervous system, our human sexuality. We're human. We're human beings just trying to get along in this world. And with this world being so small now. Eight billion people. That's why, you know, every second we live is precious. Because any second an atomic bomb could explode. Let's just say one explodes, all of a sudden three others explode in the same area. The the impact of that on our environment is similar to asteroid hitting us that wiped out the the the the dinosaurs. Like ev even the whole construct of even how that happens. Like we we think we're so advanced We think we're so fucking advanced that if you know, an atomic bomb came that you know, just like Israel has this dome, that the United States has this invisible dome that if anybody threw an atomic bomb in the United States that you know, like they'll they'll they'll f they'll deflect it off into the atmosphere. That's bullshit. You know, all that anybody has to do, like if Putin really wanted to cause shit in the Americas, all he has to do is get an atomic bomb at at what they call that, Yellowstone National Park with old faithful. Any country, any world country that has an atomic bomb that wants to destroy the United States, that's all they have to do. Super volcano. That volcano will erupt will it'll reach as far north as me. I like right now with the smoke here and how I'm trying to struggle just to to be alive. You do you know in Europe o people over the age of seventy have died? Over ten thousand people have died from this heat. And here we are, you know, just like we have this woman in power because she's got all these cohorts that have been there again, who is really running Alberta? Just like you look at the United States, who's really running the United States? I'm telling you, when when the Chiefs say, you know, charge you with treason, show the money trail. Has the money trail come from Putin? Trump's hero? Think about it. You know, does does does Putin really want to send an atomic bomb to Yellowstone? Think about it. This whole dominance of the world and and trying to get control over people people's lives, people's livelihoods, people just wanting to live because you feel like you're a super superman in the Marvel Comics or something that you're the n the second coming of Christ. I mean, geez, when you have a leader in the United States having artificial intelligence creating a facade of how powerful he is. You know, it's it's incredible that that the United States has fallen so far from I shouldn't laugh. I was twelve years old, I think, when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. And and the fact is, like, if he wasn't assassinated, what the world would have been like? Especially when they were trying to stop Israel. And and look at look at the c the claws that Israel Israel has in the United States and around the world. You know, I mean, you can say whatever you want if you're Catholic or Muslim. you know, or or just a spiritual person or atheist, whatever. You know, it's it the reality of how powerful and influential a leader is. My mother said that when they announced in the market square that John F. Kennedy was assassinated, she says, all the Indians just fell to the ground and started n kneeling and they were praying, you know, bowing their heads down to the ground, praying that the atomic bomb wouldn't be dropped on India. You know, when when I that was when I was around like I said, ten, twelve. because, you know, I mean when when people say, Well Marina, you know, were you ever ashamed to be indigenous? Look, I'm grateful that my father and mother went to Machu Picchu in South America and saw all the poverty, all the like the the just the filth of how you know people were living and and just the chaos. Like it I mean again, you know you have everything happening now, and this is like fifty years of progress. Fifty years of progress is nothing compared to the lost civilizations of Machu Picchu, of Egypt, of China, all over the world. And yet here we are, supposedly civilized and quite advanced, thinking, what what a good human being I am. And yet the whole concept of evolution it has been just denied as if you know you have a religion that's going to go through this metamorphosis of human evolution when really it it's individuals all over the world that are evolving. I always talk about collective and holistic ways of approaching like we're in an ant pile. And that's where we're coming that's where we're going to in terms of evolution. This whole network of the world being so small and there are eight billion people. And how we just network and how things that happen shifts everything in the population, the way we think and how we digest information and and what we produce from the information that we were given. Now that's why I talk about childhood and teenagers and development, human development. A lot of My understanding of human development starts at a very young age and a lot of the perversion and the problems with behavior in in terms of not spotting people, not identifying people at a very young age. who whose fault is that? Whose fault is it? We're all tribal people. And every society, every walk of life has had those safeguards. in their in their cultures, in their communities. So when people look at indigenous people and think of us as like, like why didn't they know? How come this lasted so long? It didn't last that long. Look at Trump. He's what, eighty? It it it you know it's not something that just evolved overnight in or in ten years. This is every human being is an evolution. of a behavior that started when they were in as children. And the consequences of who they are and what they are or what we've become is is our responsibility, our own fiduciary obligation to ourselves. But at the same time too, I I want to reiterate this thing, patriarchy. You know, h I took art history and you know like I I grew up seeing my My grandmothers. That's those are my mom's aunties and my dad's aunties. I saw the matriarchy. I saw how they took care of of my mom and my dad. These are matriarchs. And and just the whole notion of women raising their children, like by age five. You were set in stone. I am set in stone. My name was Hapon. I'm the second oldest in my family. When I went to school at age five, I had a white woman looking down at me as a child, a baby, telling me that my Indian name was Hapan and my Christian name was Marina. I was already set in stone. It was my character, my whole personality was already set. So that's why I try to look at immigrants and and people that I've never met. And I know whatever culture you've come from and all the po what do they call it? protocols of your culture, those have been there to protect women and children. As diverse and as un misunderstood as it is for everybody, it's the reality. We're evolving. We have to. We have to because if we don't we're gonna we're we're not gonna last. And and for me, when people ask me things like that, I'm going, no. Like my white friend She's always saying, I wish Trump would die, and I'd say, Don't say that. Or or somebody says, Well, I I wish that that guy that you like, I wish his he would divorce. And I said, Don't say that. I said, you know, don't say things like that, because that's you know, those are hung prayers. You you don't want to say think bad about other people. So again, you embrace whatever thoughts you have. Talk to creator and the grandfathers and grandmothers in in why you want that embraced, that energy embraced. Because you're embracing humanity. And then again, you want to release whatever is holding you back or whatever people had thought. And you know, because you don't want that energy to come to to your friend or to yourself. So you say like I release it. So whatever struggle what it what they call it now,when you're really struggling, you know, though those are the those are what I'm saying. We we all have moments in our lives where we're really struggling. And for me I'm just grateful that I've lived in a life that that my struggles have been manageable. a lot of a lot of children haven't done that. And like My childhood friend says, Marina, there are thousands of indigenous children. Thousands and like I talk about children in Gaza and I look at my own parents and my grandparents, my great grandparents, and I I look at the genocide and I'm saying d I'm the voice. I'm the product of this genocide. And and look at how I'm I'm trying to use my voice. This is after how many years? Five hundred years? You know, like I'm seventy four. you know that what was my great grandmother? How many years of colonization, you know, again, you know, in the eighteen hundreds, even the seventeen hundreds, when most of the land of the United States was still indigenous. Like how fast does fifty years go by? It's a drop in the bucket. But yet look at what's happened. You know, our forests are on fire. our our the majority of the population doesn't really give a damn about driving a car or polluting the earth or or living off the land or even farming or you know, just you know, the amount of money that I could have saved if I had planted my my garden is phenomenal. And that's just me because the prices of food is outrageous. And and again it's gonna get harder and and again there are going to be people who are going to be struggling. Just to make the rent, mortgage, whatever. I I know. You know, I have family members who don't live in First Nations, Inuit, Metis communities. Like I'm saying, off the land. Because like look at Calgary, there's what, forty thousand indigenous people from across Canada living in the city. So, you now, people who are immigrants, y you you've met people like myself. And hopefully at as each new generation comes comes to fruition. That that this history and this legacy of just how dynamic the civilizations in the Americas were and still are. Because when shit hits the fan, what happens? This pile of ants come together to rebuild their ant pile. Talk about evolution and what spirituality means. These things have been handed down for thousands and thousands of years. And you know, whatever product we did have, especially the great Sioux Nation, the Oshati Shakoi, the seven council fires of the Sioux Nation, and the rituals and protocols that that represerved and created a huge bloodline, a unique bloodline. Who who did this? Our ancestors, our grandfathers, our grandmothers, creator's will being done for everybody. That's that's who who you know moves us. That's who gives us direction so that we move together as one organism. It's evolution. If we if you can understand that and you get the gist of it, and you understand like when you have somebody trying to throw a rock into a calm pond, a calm water, then you wonder wh why was it created that way? So yes, Daniel Smith is the rock in the quiet cave pond causing ripples and and there's Wrath and Mraiche, Malika Holmes, all of these constructs. And I'm pretty sure there are other people that that are deal like other minorities who are dealing with different lawyers and different connections with this province to privatize Alberta health care. That have affected minorities, not just First Nations anyway, or Metis communities. It's called systemic racism. So I hope like I said, the majority of people who listen to me, some are from France, some Japan from Japan, a few from India. Not India. Well yeah, India too, but most like I'll say the United States. And and if and if I can do a podcast that makes sense to you and g gets you thinking about exactly what it is and who we are as as we're all related. There's this connection with the whole world. And I don't know if even if people are ready to even hear it. 'Cause it it's taken me a lifetime. A lifetime of a lot of you know, distrust, people stabbing me in the back. But for every tricks trickster I've learned something. And and that's why I say don't give up hope. If you've been traumatized and and you feel like you just don't want to walk this earth, there there are invisible helping hands out there and I hope my voice is an invisible helping hand that sort of connects you to other invisible helping hands and creates a ripple. So that being said, I'm just grateful for this day and I'm just grateful I have an air conditioner. I shut I shut it off once in a while. I just put it on a little bit to cool and then I'm back into the heat. So stay healthy. Keep hydrated, wear sunscreen, wear a hat. If you have an umbrella, and and if you're over 70, wear a mask. Okay. I just wanted to share that TikTok with Brandy Morin. She's on YouTube and the same with that fellow that she that she was talking with. what's his name now? I didn't put his name down. Okay, but anyway, that's I I know I'm gonna go on and on and on, and I have the tendency to do that, which again I'm going, no. but let's see here. come on. Okay. As a matriarch, I know I'm going over my hour, but this again too was was is part of why I do what I do. From displacement to resurgence. Understanding the historical impacts and displacement of colonized colonialism on indigenous women. This is for all you immigrants or Americans in the United States who deny matriarchy. Egalitarian societies, the traditional roles and status of indigenous women. That's one period. Another period that came in was trade, kinship, betrayal, indigenous women in the fur trade era. Okay, another period. Treaty era. The exclusion of indigenous women from negotiations. Another one, Indian Act era, the legislation discrimination and its consequences. Like again, you know, women could not marry who they wanted. They'd lose their status. They'd lose every connection. You know, they died because they didn't have They're matriarchs to help in in childbirth or even child rearing. Modern era, advancing women's rights and ongoing challenges. So, you know, the the whole reality of women, like just the historian of of leadership and strength from like indigenous people, indigenous women. That's why like even when you have women from all over Talking about lateral violence and just what they've lost and why why people are so bitter to each other because of this legacy, these different periods of of how we evolved to who we are today. It it's not it's not something fabricated out of a Wild West show or a circus or you know, travelling medicine man selling snake oil. you know, these things that have happened. Like I said, my one of my great grandmothers she she died when she was being attacked and she was pregnant. She fell on her knife. She was fighting. Understand this. There were women who fought in the battle of Little Bighorn. Indigenous women. You know, even J Japan they had samurai, female samurai. I don't know why the world cannot see indigenous women as being strong. you know, I know I've been around women who have when it comes to family violence have beaten up their spouses. No, all all that, like there there's so much to like even hunting, you know, like the whole the whole nature of getting the state of Minnesota, all the indigenous people out of there. Lincoln, you know, put out a a bounty on Sioux Heads. you know, they created a town in South Dakota just strictly for were bounty hunters. And those bounty hunters were their favorite target were women, pregnant indigenous Sioux women, where they would kill the Sioux woman and gut the baby out of her and and scalp the baby as well, so they'd had two scalps. Yeah, a town was made like that. But do people know these things? I did an art show at the Glenbow Museum with regards to the thirty eight Sioux men who were hung, and the vest that one of the Sioux men had beautiful beaded vest. He gave to a jailer, so the jailer could give him some tobacco so he could prepare for his death the next morning. So that that that vest is at the Glenbow and there was a millionaire who bought all these indigenous artifacts and c sort of legacied it to the Glenbow. Okay, and part of them too w was this huge panel of of canvas, huge roll of canvas, probably ten feet and I don't know how many feet a long. wide and everything. And and that canvas traveled, there were various canvas rolls they traveled throughout the United States and Canada at different rodeos, white rodeos, white carnivals, where they would churn that canvas and you'd see the depiction of the what they call the savage beasts. Like how how uncivilized we were, even in terms of cannibalism. my goodness, you know, white people, use your history Greeks what do they say? They sat th they they ate people. The Greeks ate people, like y w what the Path Parthenon. Under under all that there's a there's a child that they ate. They buried it buried the child under under that that temple. Throughout history. You know, again, say what you weigh, there there's different factions and people all over the world having different l little, you know, whatever things that they did in life. This is part of the human condition. But the reality of it is like they they took this and they they really did it to take the land because again divine destiny, unless you're religious, they you you don't own nothing, you're not civilized, so we can take whatever away from you. And they use that as propaganda throughout the sev the what, the eighteen hundreds. So, you know, things like that, propaganda and then even now with Daniel Smith asking the chiefs to check themselves. You know, throughout my life I I I I repeat again, I've had white friends that I've helped in studying, helping them like in study groups who stabbed me in the back. And and when I challenge them, it's that same narrative. Go check yourself, Marina. You have anger problems, you have issues. Like it's such an easy cop out. It's such an easy cop out to not be able to stand up to my challenge. To not to not s stare to not be with me. To not to not share space with me. Like it's only w convenient for you. And yet when shit hits the fan and I I need to be you need to be there to bear witness with me the injustice. That that the majority of people cannot do that. So Wachashta waste, the only person in my life who has stood beside me to bear just in the injustice of Nathan Chasing horse. Like I tried to do my podcast to say like this is how bad it is for decades and even after Nathan was arrested, just to try and have someone Stand with me to bear witness that this was an injustice. So yes, I'm gonna do my podcast. Yes, I'm gonna talk about things that happened in my community. And if I can and influence people to continue fighting for for your right to have a opinion, to have a voice, and to help you heal in that process, then then I'm grateful. Because If I couldn't do this, that means I'm not grateful for the ally and cohort who bore witness with me. I know he he he makes comment he made comments with me and I said, I understand. But what I was trying to say is like I I understand what you're doing for me. You've done this for other people. You bore witness to injustice of other people. This is a great thing you do, I said to him. I'm just really grateful that I had the opportunity to talk to him this way. And so, you know, hopefully with my podcast that you're listening from whatever parts of the world you're listening to and understand that that being a cohort and an ally without stabbing the individual in the back means you follow you follow right from the challenge of being like like what they call it conflict resolution. That's a challenge. Agreeing to disagree and agreeing to participate. And then and then to to s you know, s whole space. It's one thing to hold space, but then when when you you're being critical and and and saying, well try this and if they it and if it's offensive and you back away, then then what are you doing in terms of bearing like bearing witness to the injustice? It it all plays a whole impact into how a human being thinks about who they are and what they represent. So there are good people out there from different countries, different walks of life. I I I know it's been a hard road for me. Because I just didn't see anybody doing that for my parents or my grandparents. As much as they named Crow Child Trail after my grandfather, you know, it's it it you know, I I I try not to to say anything when I go to meetings with immigrants. But as soon as I say who my grandfather is, all of a sudden the narrative changes. So I I try not to say anything. I I just know I just know it's been a long, long road of healing that I've had to go through. And and for all my siblings and cousins, like they just being there I'm not when I talk about collective and holistic ways of doing things. that's what I'm talking about. You know, I I I did my DNA and again, like I said, I'm part of the Shate Shakowi. It's in my DNA. I I I know I have over th seven thousand relatives throughout Canada and United States. Like I I I usually know my first and second cousins. That that's traditional. A lot of our young people don't know though don't even know their first cousins or their second cousins. But for me, even having connections and knowing that my bloodline and the ancestors that belonged to that Oshati Shakui like in the lur the late eighteen hundreds in the time of Sitting Bull and and Crazy Horse. Like though that's just that like like I said, my grandfather would have b would have been a teenager i if Sitting Bull had lived he would have been an elder. And my grandfather would have been a teenager. This isn't long ago. You know, even though I say, well, five hundred years ago, you know, the first the first one hundred years they killed five generations of our children in the Americas because of disease. And even how these civilizations over a period of four hundred years were just eaten up by the Amazon rainforest or the fields of of the fields in the United States where trees grew and covered up everything because they died off. they killed us. Generations in no time in humanity in the world. And yet is that what makes America great? Think about it. If we keep on thinking like this, we're gonna end up being extinct. Think about it.