Thank you for sharing this. What comes through most strongly is not just a discussion of policy, but a deeply personal reflection on respect, community, grief, advocacy, and the responsibilities that come with being an elder.
A few central themes stood out:
Speaking truth in public is exhausting. You describe the emotional and physical cost of addressing city council, speaking from lived experience, and carrying difficult histories into public spaces. The exhaustion you felt afterward sounds like the weight of both preparation and responsibility.
Bill C-92 represents more than legislation to you. You connect it to questions of child welfare, Indigenous jurisdiction, accountability, cultural continuity, and the protection of children within their own communities. Your concern appears to be that Indigenous communities should have greater ability to care for and protect their own children while maintaining cultural connections.
Respect is the thread that ties everything together. Throughout your reflection, you return repeatedly to the question: What does respect feel like? Whether discussing family relationships, political leadership, community work, survivors of violence, elders, or strangers, respect seems to be your measuring stick for healthy relationships.
Community matters. You speak about choosing to return home, choosing connection over isolation, and valuing being known by people who have known you your entire life. The idea that community remembers, mourns, and carries stories forward is a powerful contrast to the loneliness you describe elsewhere.
Grief is present. You mention the deaths of elders, concern for family members who are ill, and the impending death of your brother-in-law. Even while discussing policy and history, there is an undercurrent of loss and mortality running throughout your reflection.
Advocacy for women and children remains a priority. Many of your examples return to the experiences of Indigenous women, single mothers, children in care, survivors of violence, and those who felt unheard by systems that were supposed to protect them.
What I also noticed is that despite the pain, frustration, and criticism in your story, you end in a place of gratitude. You speak about being grateful for community, grateful for invisible helping hands, grateful for the people who have shown you respect, and grateful for the opportunity to use your voice.
One of the most moving passages is when you describe your mother. The promise that you could not be there when she was taken to residential school as a child, but that you would be there holding her hand when she took her last breath, captures much of what your reflection is about: witnessing, care, presence, and restoring dignity where dignity was taken away.
Overall, I hear someone wrestling with history, policy, family, grief, and identity, while ultimately returning to a simple principle: people deserve respect, and communities heal when people show up for one another with respect, honesty, and accountability.
I hope the peace and relief you described at the end of your reflection continues to stay with you. After carrying so many stories and concerns, it sounds like you earned a moment of rest.
Marina Crane (00:01.076)
good afternoon. It's September sixteenth. Yes, September sixteenth, and
on Monday I had an opportunity to talk downtown with and as an Indigenous elder I spoke my truth in front of the mayor and city council. Now a lot of times when I do get up and talk, it's spontaneous. Like I said just with my podcast, I do the same thing.
And again too, I'd like my listeners to understand it it's not easy. And even when I do talk in front of people, I say what I'm doing and how I'm saying it is not easy. Because even after I'd finished and I came home, I just felt exhausted, just totally drained. And and again too, like just appearing in front of a bunch of strangers. Like I I was up five AM in the morning and I was just so tired by the time I got home.
And and I've been around like a lot of the other elders that w attended as well. And
I I think a lot of times even indigenous people elders don't understand what's happening in the political spectrum of the Canadian government. And so even when I talk to strangers about a nation within a nation, I I say to them, You you're govern you're under the you're in the country of Canada in the province of Alberta. I said, So you you you're governed by the laws of the federal and provincial government. I said, but indigenous people
Marina Crane (01:42.838)
And I had to clarify this with them because in their conversation they were using indigenous people and Metis. And I said, No, that's not that's colonial mindset. I said, until three years ago the Canadian government did not recognize the nine or ten Sioux tribes, the Inuit and the Metis as indigenous. I said, now they recognize these three categories as indigenous. So when you're in a municipality and you're saying, Well, the Metis nation, I'm going, No.
They're indigenous. Call them indigenous. Call the Inuit indigenous as well, because even the Sioux tribes that were exiled in Canada are indigenous. So again, there are two bills that are being passed, and one of the elders called me and she says, Marina, I'm invited to say a prayer downtown. They're having this workshop.
She says, What do you know about it? And I had repeatedly, you know, said to her, these things are what's happening. And and I said, it's it's Bill C-92. I know sometimes I called it Bill C-62, but it's actually 9-2. And even though I've talked to her and I've said, you know, we don't have sovereignty over our child and family, because again, it's under provincial and federal law.
which the chief and counsel have arms distance to. Now I use the analogy here because if you're non indigenous then you don't really get it. But I'm going to explain it in a in a very n nonsensical way. So twenty years ago and I'm using this in the past tense because I want you to see historically, just in the past twenty years. I'm not talking past hundred years, but it's p applicable. Okay, 'cause these these laws came in
Like like a hundred in the eighteen late eighteen hundreds. Okay, so say twenty years ago, when Nathan Chasing horse came into our community and he sexually assaulted children, teenagers, girls. there were t there were s different like like the the one was had just turned fourteen, never belonged to his cult, didn't follow him. He took videos of her, she documented it
Marina Crane (04:05.42)
Right from the get go she tried to you know, press charges. I mean it's just the same thing as like Sierra in the in l the United States. Fifteen years ago she tried pressing charges and nobody would listen to her. And so this young lady in Soutinna, I I think it was until two thousand fifteen
that that they finally banished Nathan Chase North from Sutina. However, when I talk about this Bill C ninety two and that the chief and council will have sovereignty, and this is what I explained too, to to the in in in the mayor, the city of Calgary when I was talking, I said, we don't have sovereignty over our children. I said, women are born indigenous women are born into a caste system.
And I said and when you have
The the question of pretendians came up too because a lot of the programs that the city is developing, there are I think forty three thousand people in the in Calgary that are indigenous, not just in the Treaty Seven area. This is actual urban urban people, urban indigenous people. Not like a hundred thousand or so in like in Winnipeg, but all the more so when the city is going to do policies, especially when it comes to housing, and you have a lot of people who are
Pretending to be indigenous. And the question came up. So the reality of it, I said, is I said to them in paraphrasing this, and I know I'm going on a roundabout way in terms of Bill C92. However, to explain Bill C92, I have to also explain another bill, which has to do about Bill C C2.
Marina Crane (05:52.588)
These two bills are going to be passed this year, hopefully. Now, when I'm talking to non-Indigenous people, I'm saying, when when a white woman I said, this is a caste system. This was this was established, you know, before I was even born. And a lot of these things that we have to that are we are governed by, I said we have no say over it because it it's part of his it's a historical policy entrenched entrenched in colonization.
I said so I said if you can give a picture here and say like Maslow's theory of hierarchy, and you have the pyramid, and at the top of the pyramid you would have white women who marry indigenous into indigenous communities. I say indigenous meaning First Nations, Inuit and Metis. So you have women who marry in, and each community is different. I'm only talking about my community, because each a as history has evolved.
in the past, I say since the 70s, 80s, things have been evolving. And Sutana prepared for the past 30 years for this. Some some First Nations are were so poverty stricken they didn't have the financial fortitude to develop policies the way Sutana has. So anyway, I'm explaining that this is like on the top of the pyramid when I said this is how indigenous women are are caste. This is a caste system.
The the it's one thing that white women come from a a a society of privilege. I said, but when they marry an indigenous man, they're at the top of the pyramid. They're they're at the top. So they have
double privilege, not only from white society, but also because of the Indian Act, they automatically have been classified as being indigenous, even though they've never grown up in First Nations, Inuit or Metis communities, even if they've never had poverty, even if they've never had all the gut-wrenching stories of Indian residential school.
Marina Crane (07:56.896)
It it's like a magic wand. All of a sudden, abracadabra, you're a white woman and you're on the top of the pyramid. Now the next level of the pyramid are are the indigenous men who who married white women. Now you go down another another step and then you have indigenous women who married indigenous men. Okay, so you have you have indigenous men and women who are married to other indigenous people.
other than people from the community. So they marry into our communities. So the indigenous woman marries into the community. So you have the the non-indigenous woman, then you have the man, then you have the woman who marries into the community. Then there's another lower caste. These are indigenous women who chose not to get married. They chose to have children with with a partner and when their children are born they keep their mom's status.
So the bureaucracy of who is indigenous is isn't played out, it's automatic as soon as they're born. And as a result of that, a lot of Indigenous women have been raising their children as single parents. The ability to even collect child support was next to nil. Now I explain this to non-indigenous people.
I said, these women I've grown up with who made a choice, a conscious choice, not to have children, so that their children could be nation members, so to come from the community. I said, and then on top of all that, there's even a lower s lower caste. I said, and that lower caste is for people like myself who chose not to have children and chose not to be in a relationship. We are the bottom of of of everything.
So when I say I I I paid for my education, I worked full time, went to school full t full-time, with no with no money from from my community, no like no sponsorship, nothing. And and so w why why is this so important? Well, if you're if you're a white woman who who marries and you marry an indigenous man from my community, and I'm using this as an example, you can get a PhD.
Marina Crane (10:12.31)
And say you have two children and you divorce this indigenous man from Soutina, your children have gotten two degrees. Okay, again, privilege. Now, why is this important? Well, because at the bottom of that pyramid, there are people like me. And on top of this pyramid, I have relatives, cousins, sisters who chose not to get married but have children, so that the children could be Soutina Nation members.
Single parents supporting their children with you know and and again and I said this I said this to these non-Indigenous people on Monday. When an Indigenous woman is a single parent, has no child support, raising her children, and and child and family that's run down to the province and the federal government, take those children away from the single parent, the single woman is pregnant. She's already had her five children apprehended.
She goes into the hospital, delivers a baby, and before she can even see her baby, child and family take her baby away. Put them into foster care. Within two months she dies from a broken heart. I said that's the the pyramid, that's the that's that's the systemic caste system of of hierarchy in in in Bill in the Indian Act.
I said, so when we're talking about sovereignty over our children, we don't have that. But yet a non indigenous woman who has privilege in the city, who can work and function as a as a white woman in in the society, get a job, get a degree because she has Indian status now, and her children can have a house and have Indian status and can get all the benefits that I get.
Even though I have lived here my whole life, lived in poverty, had to go to another country to work full time and go to school full time, because I didn't want to be what streamlined to be a teacher. A lot of a lot of things and a lot of reasons why a lot of single women with children
Marina Crane (12:28.482)
get into the workforce and have to listen to leadership is because it's because they have nobody else to support their children. So why is this this Bill S 92 so important? Well it gives it gives the chief and council an opportunity, and again it depends on which community you come from and the resources you have. Now Sou Tenel, we live right by the city. We're not some isolated
r community, indigenous community, we have next door, total resources, everything that your heart could even imagine. Yet in our neighboring community east of H Calgary, there are what, fourteen thousand, twelve thousand children in the foster care system. Now I I've said to this elder, I said, you know, when you're going down to pray at this this conference today, remember this.
I said I said when when each community is different. Soutina, we have the opportunity to create fa group homes, what they call group homes and we have group shelters for children. I said even from infancy to ten or from ten to seventeen, seventeen to twenty, we have we have the once this bill is passed and however we work with it, we have the capacity to do this.
Rather than a woman whose children are being apprehended, taken and put into a non-Indigenous family in the city to learn whatever language that family has. This way we have we'll build a group home, group shelter. We have our own p people looking after our own children. And she says, Well, they're not educated. I said, this is the whole point. We've been here thousands and thousands of years.
What what makes it impossible for us to not raise our own children in our community? When at the average age of pe children being trafficked is fourteen. And that's what I said to to the mayor and council on Monday. I grew up going downtown and seeing indigenous teenagers who were had been just coming out of the foster system or Indian residential school who had no place to stay. Poor, poverty.
Marina Crane (14:55.488)
And then and then the trafficking, I said, do you even know about who what human trafficking was? I said, so when you have all these housing developments that are going up now in twenty twenty six, and you're wondering like all these people are gonna say, Well, I'm indigenous. I've got this card. Like it's one thing to have the card. I said, but it's another thing to s to look and say w who and where did they grow up? Who who's their like who's their mother? Who was she a single parent?
Because because this Indian Act created this systemic racism against indigenous women. I I said it it it's you know, we have so many going murdered and missing. And it's been going on. I said when Calgary first became the city, the first week, the first murder was an indigenous woman. It took two years and that man got off free. All these things when it comes to indigenous women.
And whether or not we are even thought of as being on the top of the pyramid. The top of the pyramid where you're respected. Not in the bottom caste system where they you you know, you you you have nothing, you're shit upon, you're the you're in the bowels of the of the underbelly of hell in terms of Christianity. And because it's set up in such a way that that we're perceived as savages.
Like even in Parliament with the industrial school. You know, they said, Well, we we're educating all these these like we'll call them fancy boys to be you know to be like like like slave labor, like you know, farmhands, ranch hands. You know, not to be the owners not to be the farm like to be the owners of farms and ranchers. No. They they were educating them to be servants.
And the argument was, well, they're you know, we'll we'll educate them and then they're gonna go back to their home communities, indigenous home communities, and they're gonna marry indigenous girls, and those indigenous girls are gonna convert them back to savages. Now y I'm using the word con convert because in the fifteen hundreds when when the Spanish were were what do they call the crusades and they killed millions
Marina Crane (17:17.868)
They weren't they weren't killing Jewish or Muslim. They were killing Catholics. And you know who the Catholics they were killing? They were killing the converts. The converts who converted from Judaism to from Muslim to Catholics in Spain. So this whole conversion, when you say you're a convert church, means that they have the capacity to do whatever the hell they want to do because you're not born of the coven.
Okay, talk about knowing your enemy. I know the structure. I know the structure 'cause I I'm educated. And so if I'm so totally blunt, it and I said this, I have no reason to back down when I challenge people who say they're indigenous. You know, I use the analogy, get off the cross, we need the wood. I need to make a sweat. You know, that's what I'd say to non indigenous
Women who marry 'cause or or even indigenous women who, you know, go to the city council and say they're indigenous and they were raised in in foster care. I'm going, do do you know them? Do you know their community? Do you even think if they're lying? I said people have community. That's why I I said to this one white woman, I said, My whole life I've had to bow down to white women.
I said, now that I'm an elder, I come from a community right now of two hundred and thirty-three elders. I've known them since childhood. Now I don't have a partner or children. I have community. And I have siblings. And and I use this in terms of respect. I know who respects me. And I said, when it's my turn to to die, the community will mourn me. They will grieve over me.
I said, but but when you're a white woman or a woman who who's not doesn't have community, doesn't have culture, you're gonna put yourself in a nursing home and you're gonna die in front of strangers. And within a day you'll be in the ground and that's it. No grieving, nothing, no memory, people won't remember you. I said, for me as an indigenous woman, I chose to come home. I chose to heal here.
Marina Crane (19:46.186)
I chose to make community and I choose to tell my stories and I choose to advocate for for for for children and for women and for me to understand what it means to be an Indigenous woman at the bottom of this pyramid. Now understand this too. Like when I went to Las Vegas, I hadn't traveled. And most of the time when I'm out there traveling and there are white men
Who look at me and you know, like in disgust. I'm a senior. Okay, I'm I'm not I'm not newborn. I've been around white people my whole life. You know, I I I you know, like all the I can just you know, you don't have to have a poker face to see the disgust in a person's face or even then their actions, like the karma. You know, action, karma is action. You know, and the way people act around me, yes, I can see it.
And and I was ta like I said, I was talking to a childhood friend because she's going down to pray with regards to this Bill C S six two. Now I know I'm going around about it in a long way, but I wanted I want to let you know that when it comes to respect, as indigenous women, when we get older we understand. Like my late mother used to say, I'm not stupid. She I know what's going on.
You know, she was raised in Indian residential school when she was five years old. And and then she s she we'd talk about my siblings. And and she knew like like which ones weren't respecting her. And I said to my cousin this morning too, I said she says she says, Marina, I know you respect me. And I said, It's very important us as indigenous women, you know, to know that, that we sp what respect is.
Because it's so difficult. And this is what I said in the with the mayor in Alderman. I said we have so many young people who disrespect older people. They have so much anger towards us because they don't have the education. They don't have they're in poverty. Those our school curriculum doesn't uplift our heritage, doesn't show them what what indigenous people have contributed to the Americas.
Marina Crane (22:08.053)
I said, well I know your funding is limited and I know these things need to be done within the city because here in Sutina we have these things and it's important that that you know we are trying to get you to understand the relationship between elders and our young people is vital in those young people healing and and making connection so that they can they can understand who and where they came from.
And I I said to them, my grandparents never drank. I said, I wear my skin. When I go to school in junior high, elementary, high school, especially junior high and elementary, I said, they don't talk to me. I said, but it but what really hit was in high school and college when they wouldn't even touch me. I said, because I wear my skin.
And then people say, well, a lot of Native Americans, Native Americans from the United States, they won't come here. The Navajo don't like it here. I said, yes, because those Native Americans, once they come into Canada and they see they see the how how white people talk to them. They're treated like we're tr indigenous people in Canada is a metaphor for how black people are treated in the United States. So when I talk about
systemic racism and this pyramid. And I talk about non-Indigenous women marrying into indigenous communities and how they have double privilege. And that for us as indigenous women to fight, to try and fight for our status to come back. You know, when I was a young woman, I met a a lady in in Edmonton. Her mother fought for decades.
Bless her heart. She was instrumental in getting having women get their status back with hundreds of other women in Canada. So all this that's happening right now with Bill CS92 and even Bill S2, these are these are historical movements and processes and karma happening from s from just thousands of Indigenous people.
Marina Crane (24:33.695)
all working for the same goal. Now I'll go back again to twenty years ago and our former chief, how he enabled the followers of Nathan Chasing Horse. You know, spending money like for for travel for them, paying for their rent. These are people who followed Nathan Chasing Horse. Then you look at the other girl who, you know, fourteen years old, fifteen, trying to press charges against him, who got no benefits, nothing.
And I say to her family, I said this bill this bill that we're talking about, this bill C ninety two, if it were in place twenty years ago and the chief and counsel did this, enabled these victims of Nathan Chasing Horse, and they neglected another victim who got nothing, no no support as a as a child a victim of violence.
I said this young woman could sue the chief in council. But because it didn't exist twenty years ago, there is no law having like having her rights protected. Because when the chief in counsel swear they're going to protect the most vulnerable, that's the women and children and and two-spirited people. You know, praise praise the the tribe who who said they're going to help.
the the the two spirited people in Alberta. You know the the reality of of everything that we've been fighting for, and all the artists, all the young people who are getting an education, who are spearheading this this movement to try and get people to understand non-Indigenous people, especially immigrants, who come in and buy into the same stereotype.
that indigenous women are savages. And and like I'll use an an an an an an analogy. I I my whole life have been around animals, except when I lived in the States. I've hunted animals, I've killed animals, I've eaten animals. And I and when I have my dogs, I don't leash them. I don't I don't bring them in the home. You know, they they roam wild and free in my in my backyard. And this past month
Marina Crane (26:57.259)
because there's been so many much construction. They've been wandering away. Now I've had to get identity tags, they're already tattooed. And I gotta get a GPS system. So now get this. In the evenings I go down the road, see them and call them and they follow me home. Feed them, they rest and then they leave. And then they cut like it's a routine 'cause they're adult dogs. They're not puppies anymore. But I tried to I tried I used a choke chain.
because I was afraid they were gonna get run over. I've had Pyrenees before. I've had dogs die. Like one year I had three dogs die. And I just thought, no, these two are gonna be my last pets in this world. I don't want to pass away and have my pets be touched by strangers. So I so I got a choke chain and the poor thing wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink, nothing. And finally I negotiated with him last night.
I was gonna you know, like I tagged them, like I said, I I I don't know if i you for those who have pets, you know, like they they they either train you or or they understand. So this morning, you know, he knew he knew what I had negotiated with him. And I had this lady come over, change his his collar, make sure he had his tag on. And what did that little guy do? Started d drinking water. Hadn't drank water in days.
hadn't eaten anything in days, started eating and drinking water. Like eating w eating and drinking food eating food and drinking water. And then after he did that, I said, Okay, have a good day. And he walked down the ramp. Now he's gone who knows where. And this evening, probably about six o'clock or so, I'll go down the road, see him and his brother, and I'll call them to come home. And they'll come home. But I but I wanted to say like
He's never been collared, n never had nothing around his neck, and he would sooner have died he would have starved to death. So what does it have to do with women being savages?
Marina Crane (29:11.799)
You know, I've never like for me, I've never been collared. I roam wild and free. And you know, and for the Canadian government or non indigenous people to to, you know, look at me and say, well we can tame her. Tame me for what? You know, I'm I'm I'm getting to that time where I may have eleven more years left in this life, maybe twenty one years. Who knows? Greater will take me when it's my time.
Now at the same time too, I'm still gonna talk about this Bill S C ninety two, but I also want to reflect that yesterday I got word that my brother in law, who's Navajo, is dying. I knew he was dying. It's just a matter of time when it was gonna be just, you know, like the next couple of days he'll pass away. And and I I said to my younger sister who who was going to go to Utah
She asked and I said, No, I'm not going. I said, I don't know this man. I said, I said, I don't know our sister as well. I said, the only reason I'd go is to support you. That's my younger sister. Because she lost her husband. And I said to her, I I knew your husband. Like I'm close to your children, her adult children I'm close to. I told her, our sister, I don't know her or her husband, and I don't know their children.
I if I went down it would be to support you because you're still grieving because she's still crying over her husband. Now now for me, the reason I'm saying this is because when when you know your worth this is what I was talking to my cousin. She she she quit her job, it was just too she says, Marina, she says I don't I'm not gonna take this at this attitude from a white man.
I said, well it's the same thing with siblings. We just don't take attitude. If they don't show us respect, then we don't we don't we shouldn't participate in them res disrespecting us. I said, My late mother used to say that, I'm not stupid. Like she knew which of my brothers and sisters respected her. And and that's the relationship I had with my late mother. And I said to her, You're not gonna be here to protect me. You're not gonna be here to respect me.
Marina Crane (31:37.682)
And I think it was last year I went to Ontario, paid paid for my younger sister to visit my niece, our ne her daughter. When I came back she abandoned me at my front door in in the dead of night in winter. And I had to call tribal police to try and get to open my door. Alec, I had to get help. She just left me.
And I I told my cousin, I said, if I go to Utah for this funeral, she's gonna treat me the same way. She's gonna show me disrespect. Because it's gonna be all about her, her, her. Nothing about me at all. I said, I said, but you know, I said to my cousin and to to my childhood friend When I went to the sentencing of Nathan Chase Morse.
and the respect I received from from from a white man. You know, just respect and what it feels like to be respected.
Marina Crane (32:49.831)
You know, ha like it it almost feels like well Marina, you know, you're just like a like you know, when a puppy when a somebody hits a puppy and they go whimpering away and you come they come back wanting to be petted.
That's somebody that's a that's an animal that's that's been housed and you know, and broken and stuff. I'm not like that, nor are my dogs like that. I'm this I I'll use the analogy. Like, you know, if if somebody pets me and and they tr in other words, they're showing me respect, you know, I'm not gonna go and, you know, just follow them like
you know, panting, waiting for another pet, like nice puppy, all that. No. I I I just go, okay, I acknowledge you respect me and then that's it. You know, i as much as much as when I came back from downtown after meeting with with like the group of elders and the mayor and city council, I felt so drained. And I and I I didn't know how to recover all this energy that I gave out.
And then and then for my sister to call regarding my our brother in law dy like on his deathbed in like he's going into palliative care. And and then for me to make a decision and going, No, I can't I can't go to the funeral 'cause I won't be respected. You know, I I I at in nineteen seventy six I made the mistake of being baptized as Mormon. But it taught me a lesson for over a decade living there.
And and the disrespect that I felt and the systemic racism that I felt. But at the same time it it made me realize like we ha I have to know what people what people's values and beliefs are. And and a lot of times we neglect that. We just assume that everybody believes and thinks the same way we do, but they don't. I think the common thread though is respect. Because when you start showing respect to other people,
Marina Crane (34:55.681)
then then then you know it's gonna come back to you. Because it's karma, it's it's action. So so that's why like like I said, it we live this life. We choose we choose who we love and who we don't love. And and again too, you know, I truly believe that sometimes as indigenous women when when we've been so hurt
My late father used to say I'd been spit at and every other at. And in council I said, This this in n this Blackfoot boy from Pagan, First Nations, Southern Alberta, he died. His lame his name was White Goose Flying. And the late Senator Jim James Gladstone, when I was a child, he had white hair just like I have. Had white hair, and he was traveling across Canada.
And I'd seen him a couple of times here in Cal in Alberta and once in Manitoba. And and to find out that the Senator Gladstone and his his son in law, Hugh Dempsey, the late Hugh Dempsey, had had found where White Goose Flying's grave was, in Calgary, and and and dug him up from where it was an industrial site, had him reburied in a cemetery someplace in Calgary.
And I said to the mayor and city council, in in the United States this week, three Sioux children who had died over a hundred years ago, their bodies were dug up and brought home to the reservations, repatriated. I said, This white goose flying, his body needs to be sent home to the pagan First Nations in southern Alberta. He was he was he died in an industrial school.
I said, do you know, I said, even the government of Canada does not recognize industrial schools in Canada. They'll recognize Indian residential schools. I said, but in the United States they have record. They know where these children were buried, so they could dig them up. In Canada, they burnt the records.
Marina Crane (37:12.319)
I remember some of the Sutana men saying, We were so stupid. The Indian agent gave us these boxes of papers and we told us to burn them. So however the Canadian government has tried to hide these murdered children, it's it's the stories of the elders. And I said to the mayor and council, this Senator Jim Gladstone, James Gladstone, the fact that that he must have he knew this white goose flying, he saw him dead.
I said he probably dug the grave too. I said, you know, my father, when he ran away from Indian residential school in Edmonton, they caught him. And for punishment, they put him in a coal attic with the bodies of dead indigenous children as punishment. I said the trauma that these young men had to have seen, not just young men, but women seeing their friends, their relatives die.
And to be afraid. To be re afraid of white people. I used to say to my my my my mom's doctors, my mom's afraid of you. She'll do fawning if she if you ask her a question, what's your pain threshold? She wants to please you. That's fawning. She wants to please you because you're white. Like again, the like white women up on the top of the pyramid.
She says she doesn't want to offend you, so she's gonna say her pain threshold is three. I said, I'm her daughter, I know her pain is eight, nine. She's in extreme pain. But that's what she'll do because she's afraid of you. That's what I had to tell doctors. And then so you have all these people who deny Indian residential school. well, where are the bodies? Like do the work.
I talk on behalf of my late mother, my aunts, my uncles, my father, my grandparents, for all those, even my age, who were so traumatized that they that they just took whatever a white person or peop someone in control or in power, especially leadership, being trained in a colonial construct to not show respect. You know, my cousin says, you know, they hired
Marina Crane (39:34.705)
a white consultant. She says, I'm an elder, I'm a Sioux woman, and look at how they treated me. Disrespectful.
I said yes. I said, even within our own families. I said, I can't go and show I can't go to my sister's husband's funeral, because I know I won't be respected. See, we have to know our worth. We have to know who we are, and we have to know what respect feels like. So when I when I use the story about going to the sentencing of Nathan Chase Morse.
I had I had talked to many people saying I wanted to go and and this white man met came and went with me. And the respect he showed if if I didn't have this experience in in March and April and that all this that's happening within my family, like I know there's a lot of death that's gonna come. And and I know I need to like like I said to my late mother, you won't be here for me.
Like I have to I have to understand and respect myself. But how do we respect ourselves if we've never felt it?
You know, I used to I used to say to people, you know, it's like an artist. You know, how how do you know what's outside the cave, Plato's cave, right? People say, leave leave the reserve. go to another country. Like how do you know unless you actually have the courage to leave? It's the same thing too when you're a victim of sexual assault. How do you know what f what confronting your fear is?
Marina Crane (41:24.449)
unless you actually do it. Unless you actually go say to the person who hurts you, not just physically, emotionally, spiritually, and say to them you hurt me.
Like knowing that it takes all that to face the person who could have killed you.
'Cause when you're assaulted in such a brutal way, you know you could die. You know he has the capability to kill you.
So yes, you know, when people say, Marina, how do you know these things?
How how how do you understand these things?
Marina Crane (42:07.041)
No, what what is my purpose? Well, my purpose is to educate people. And and to look at the reality of what like what Nathan Chasing Horse has taught me. Just just without even him knowing it. And what the victims of Nathan Chasing Horse have taught me. And the advocacy, and even my own niece when she died. And the reality of it is like if twenty years ago
If we had this bill S ninety three, if it had been passed and there was some safety in place.
Marina Crane (42:48.352)
Under the Indian Act.
Marina Crane (42:53.121)
Then just maybe. Just maybe some of these young girls' lives would have been saved or or compensated through through some sort of like I said, you know, sue sue them for not protecting you. Give give them give them that right. They they wanted to be leaders. Give them that right, give them that accountability. Restorative and transformative justice. Give it to them.
We vote them in, they're there swearing they're going to protect the most vulnerable in our communities. And if they don't, we should have access to suing them for not protecting our children, our women. Especially when you've been raised at the bottom of that very pyramid. And saying you'd sooner save a white woman than to save me. You'd sooner give her all this because you want to please her. Why?
'Cause you don't want her to look at you as if you're a savage.
Okay, I'm going to read this act. So that way you get a gist of what I've been talking about. It's Bill CS92, and this is coming, you can Google it. Officially titled An an Act Respecting First Nations Inuit and Metis Children, Youth and Families is a mar landmark piece of Canadian federal legislation. It's received royal assent on June 21st.
2019 and it came into force on January 1, 2020. Relationships to Indian Act. Bill C92 is designed to shift control of indigenous children's welfare away from the Indian Act framework. So that's why I'm saying 20 years ago we've been in this framework. Historical context.
Marina Crane (44:47.181)
Previously, the Parliament of Canada made child and family services laws for status Indians under the Indian Act while provinces held general jurisdiction over child welfare. That's why I'm saying a nation within a nation. So you have the Government of Canada federal, that's the Indian status. Then you have
the the provincial jurisdiction over child welfare which is provincial again legislation goal bill c 92 is a significant step forward to forward restoring jurisdiction over child and family welfare to First Nations Inuit and Metis communities moving away from the colonial governance structure see so when I say leadership
have been groomed by Indian agents ever since I was a kid, by, you know, like colonial governance structure. Now we take away this colonial government structure with new chiefs and council and young chiefs and council to make them ha like what they call fiduciary obligation, not just financially but in every way when you swear are sworn in. The core purpose and guiding principles of this
of the Act has three overarching purposes. One, affirming inherent rights. It recognizes the indigenous people have the inherent right to self-govern in child and family services. Now this indigenous peoples and this is what I was saying to mayor and city council you don't just say indigenous people and Metis. I said you need to understand indigenous people are
First Nations, Inuit, and Metis. That's that is an that's indigenous. Don't don't try and you know go into this governance structure. Two, establishing national standards. It sets national princes principles and minimizes standards for providing services for indigenous children. So it sets principles and standards. Okay, so when I say
Marina Crane (47:07.873)
those those group homes or shelters, those are standards. Standards that are going to be recognized within First Nations and within Metis communities. Standards with by no means did the f did did the settlers even understand it themselves. You know, 'cause all they wanted to do was convert. Convert, convert, convert. And if we didn't if we didn't comply to their their laws, they killed us.
Just like the Spanish Inquisition, they killed converts. It's religiosity. Number three, implementing UNDRIP, UNDRIP. It happens, it helps implement the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People. UNDRIP UNDRIP. Again, United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People.
So the services providers must follow three key principles: best interest of the child, cultural continuity, substantial equality. Okay, so that their moms of these children aren't seemed as savages.
And and that cultural continuity, that whatever group, home or shelters we have in our communities will teach them the language.
You know, like a Suteno, we've lost so much. And the best interest of the child is to be close to their relatives, to be close to the ones that they grew up with, went to daycare, you know, elementary school, like to keep them within the community, close to their extended family. Okay, the key provisions and implementations of this bill s C ninety two. Legislative authority, one.
Marina Crane (49:10.486)
Indigenous governing body can enact their own child and family services laws, laws that meet the act's minimum standards and may take precedence over provincial laws. Like provincial laws that take children away from their mums who chose to not get married so their children would have status. Did anybody even give a damn about them?
Marina Crane (49:41.359)
Coordination agreements To exercise jurisdiction, an indigenous body must enter into coordination agreements with federal provincial governments or make reasonable efforts to do so for one year. These agreements are tailored for each community and all outline roles, traditional, transitional agreements and funding.
That's why I'm saying, what the hell was our former chief doing? Getting all this money, 30 million for a recovery center? When we need this for our own children, for our group homes and our shelters? What the hell were they doing? What was he doing? Making agreements with Daniel Smith. It just really irks me to know, you know, just this is 2026. This is a man I've grown up with.
Now look at all the shit he's got himself into sexually assaulting two men. T you know, money money for this recovery this recovery center that he negotiated with. Implement implementation process. This again, Google. As of twenty twenty six all
Over a hundred and twenty notices of intent to exercise judici jurisdiction have been received. More than fifteen coordinated agreements have been signed, and over twenty Indigenous child and family services laws have come into force. The first tripart agreement in Quebec was signed july twenty twenty sixth. This is in Quebec.
Quebec, that's been over a hundred years of systemic racism compared to Western Canada. You know, that's what I'm saying. This is twenty twenty-six people. What what the hell's been going on? We've been s have we have we've been fawning over you know, like again, this colonial construct of what our chief and counsel should be, or like they're somehow protected?
Marina Crane (51:56.439)
What? They're protected to abuse our children and not take the responsibility of of making sure people like Nathan Chasinghorse don't come in and manipulate leadership? Constitutional challenges and Supreme Court ruling.
Like I like I like I mean when I talk about closure with Nathan Chasing Horse, you know, I like I like I'm I'm talking about, I grew up here. I grew up here and people just don't give a damn. Don't show me no respect and I'm trying to tell them this is what you're doing. I have a voice. And if these single women who are raising their children are scared to lose their jobs, I'm saying it.
I'm saying it, so that they don't end up brokenhearted and dying if their children are being apprehended. Constitutional challenges and Supreme Court ruling. Quebec challenged the acts
Constitutionality on february ninth, twenty twenty four, the Supreme Court of Canada SCC ruled unan unanim unanimously that the Bill C ninety two is constitutionally in its entirety. Legal base bias. The C the SCC found the act failed falls within the federal government's judicial
jurisdictional over the Indian and lands reserved for Indians under Section 91, Brackets 24 of the Constitutional Act in 1867 when Canada became a country. Significance this ruling supported indigenous self-governments in child welfare and affirmed parliamentary ability to legislate in this area.
Marina Crane (53:50.883)
You know, it makes you think, why the hell is Daniel Smith talking about separation? You know, these things that indigenous people have been fighting for, have been bit we've been fighting for even before Canada became a country. However, some legal analysis note
The decisions did not explicitly establish a section thirty-five aboriginal right of self-government in child and child welfare, relying instead on federal legislating authority. Impact and ongoing challenges. Positive impact. The act provides a legal pathway for indigenous communities to reclaim jurisdiction and build culturally appropriated service models. That's why I said Sutina.
Has the potential because of we have $1.5 billion economic development. However, we choose to protect our children under this bill has so much potential because we've learned, we have to learn from our mistakes. We have to understand that we did not help this one 14-year-old.
Who did not follow Nathan Chasing Horse in his cult, who had the tenacity to fight for her rights and to let hit and to let people know he hurt her. She went back to school. She's you know, she's trying. She I think she has three little children, three little girls now. But that we as a community know and we back her up and we support her. That's what I mean about respect.
Persistent challenges. Implementation faces significant hurdles, including inadequate and unsubstantial substable funding, capacity restraints and jurisdictional complexities between federal, provincial and indigenous governments. These gaps have limited the Act's ability to reduce the over representation of indigenous children in care and remains a critical issue. That's why I said
Marina Crane (56:04.562)
one of my podcasts, my guest said she was going to her and her partner wanted to adopt. And the only children that were available to be adopted were indigenous children. And this is in the city of Calgary. What what's going on? You know, this this Bill s C ninety two should give the capacity of all those children, Indigenous children in Calgary, who are there for adoption, to come back to our communities.
To that we should have group homes and group shelters for these children, that their extended families can visit, have some sort of cr you know capacity to help heal these children, all because of how this pyramid was set up under the Indian Act with regards to indigenous women being savages. Anyway, that's
the the the n nuts and bolts of it all. Like I said, I I I didn't even understand the whole r reality of just what it was I was fighting for. You know, I I didn't have I I I knew, you know, because like I I said when I my whole life I've I've tried to even do like my own self reflection
understand like and and I and I have briefly talked about erotia versus limerence. I talk about mental health and balance and energy. And and you know I I think I think it's very important for for women, especially you know, women like I I I just I'm so amazed at the conversation I have with other women.
You know, like one lady, she she was the boss of six hundred employees. And she says, I've been divorced for three years, and she says, and I feel different. I said, Yes, because when you're negotiating with a man, I said, You have to negotiate. How much how much of your own personal energy are you willing to to give him to make him the man he wants to be? I said, because
Marina Crane (58:22.26)
As a woman, we need you need to you know determine, you know, w what is it that you want in this life? As we age and how we understand our sexuality. you know, like I said, I have two sisters that chose to have a sexual life. They they married men. They had you know, like I like I said, they my my one sister lost her status, so her children, you know, they
th that's a different process for her. Whereas my other sister had her children before she married, so her children have status. So the these struggles that that as women in different families have different different choices in life. But but again to how we take care of ourselves and what we choose to do and how we choose to to respect each other.
you know, I'm just I'm just grateful that like my cousin says she says, Marina, as long as you, you know, f like have clear thinking, like like that my dementia or my Alzheimer's isn't getting the best of me, you know, because I I am aging, you know, I I'm I like I'm not I'm not perfect, I'm not a superhuman. that that I that when I do talk that that I that I'm giving voice
to to people who who who don't have that voice. And and on Monday people come up to me when I talk and they say, you're you're a good speaker. And and if and I know it's a difficult concept for some people to understand, but and I used to say this to my late mother. I said, Mom, when people are jealous of me
They don't realize the sacrifice I've made to to be who I am today.
Marina Crane (01:00:24.448)
I don't know if they have the tenacity to even do what I've done.
And and the realization that that it was a lot of invisible helping hands.
So most of the time when when one of the key reasons too for continually doing this podcast is to is to get non edu non indigenous people to smarten up. Don't think just because you drank with an indigenous person who's educated or that you've rubbed elbows with indigenous people that that gives you some sort of aha or some sort of epiphany that you have some sort of soul connection with them.
Like that you you think like, my goodness, I I can relate to Indigenous people. If you even think that, forget ever helping Indigenous people. Cause the main thing is you just don't give advice. And if you're so addicted to giving advice, do that with your own people. Do that with your own children, your own family, your own community. And see how they re react and behave with you. Have that courage.
to realize that you've gone way over your head. That's why I said I have no fear of c telling that to people. And for people to say, Marina, if you know, if something happens and and you ghost me, I will say, Marina, what did I do? That that's all a lie. That's all a lie. And and for those for those non-Indigenous people who who still are who still respect me.
Marina Crane (01:02:04.108)
Like I'm really grateful. I will always be grateful for that respect.
Marina Crane (01:02:11.886)
'Cause in in the whole midst of it, like times like this when my brother in law's dying. I have a cousin too who's who's, you know, got a a tumor. my sister's not well.
You know, I it's it's like like we we buried two elders this past p this past week. Every every we've had a death every every every week this month.
So, you know, th this this is a part of life. And and however however we choose to grieve over the people that we've known, we we we do it we do it with respect. Because because we know, you know, our time will come. Every human being, our time will come. And and how how we choose to be with the person we love, i it it's real.
I want you to understand this. When I when I was taking care of my mother, I took care of my mother for over a decade. When the ambulance would come, I'd be there in the emergency with her up to ten hours. If she stayed in the hospital for a week or two, I was there every day. I I was present when she died. I was present with my brother. I was present with my uncle. I go and see people who are dying.
I've dressed women in in their their last dress bef and put them in their coffins. I've helped give eulogies to help the families. I'm not sh I'm just one person. But imagine in every indigenous community, in every family, there we all do this. We all do this work as First Nations Indigenous and Metis people.
Marina Crane (01:04:08.578)
That's what it means to be indigenous. For me. That's my opinion.
Marina Crane (01:04:16.076)
But like I I said to my late mother, she was she was taken when she was five years old into Resignan residential school, had her hair cut, couldn't speak her language. Her dad used to write her letters in Sioux. The old Sioux lawyers used to come up and have translate the old Sioux. That's my grandfather.
James Guillecal, and his father was George Guillecal, who who took part in the Battle of Little Bighorn. And then on my dad's side his grandfather was One Face, a good orator,
The these people, our ancestors, handed these things down to people like myself through prayer and spirituality, rituals and ceremonies. So when my mom and I talked about her dying, I would try to comfort her. And I said, Mom, I wasn't there when you were five years old. I wasn't there to hold you as a five-year-old in those Indian residential schools.
I said, but Mum, I will be there when you take your last breath. I will be there holding your hand when you take your last breath. You won't be alone
Marina Crane (01:05:45.775)
Creator and the grandfathers and grandmothers made that possible for me to do this work. So don't ever underestimate what you want to do in this life with the people you love and those that love you. Your life means something. Even if you feel you're at your lowest of low and that nobody respects you, there are invisible helping hands.
This is what Creator has given us. And for a hell of a lot of young people who say, Don't share this information, there are pretendians out there who are gonna take it. And for me, I'm going, no.
Understand five hundred years of genocide, the Sioux people, how we shared everything our sweat lodges, our s our weepy, our our sundance everything is because we knew we could be wiped off the face of the earth. That's how much death
We saw, our ancest my ancestors saw. So no matter how much pretendian people want to adopt, especially Germans, especially those two in the United States Native Americans who who claim that they're Cherokee. It's just like in Canada they're claiming to be Metis. No matter how much people want to to pretend, karma, action.
I truly believe it. Cause 'cause like I I I understand. What I share, creator and grandfathers and grandmothers, it there's a pure there's a purpose. It it's not something somebody can conjure up and say, Look at how great I am. I was there at nine eleven.
Marina Crane (01:07:52.609)
I was coming down the the s the the the corridors of the big big towers. I I was there at at Orig U Irejima. I was there with the Titanic sake. I mean, you want to take everything historical and create it as your own? That's pretending. And in today's society, in terms of artificial intelligence, in terms of just the the
the amount of what people don't understand as mental health. You know, r karma's a karma will bite you like a dog. A wild dog bites you where it hurts and they're not gonna let go. Like like I said, I've seen it. I've seen people who wanted these things and got, you know, like and got and and they paid for it. Creator and the grandfathers and grandmothers humbled them.
Humbled them in a very big way. Like you look at Nathan Chasing Horse. Look at how Creator and the grandfathers and grandmothers have humbled him. All what he did in bastardizing his children, his mini children, hurting them.
Marina Crane (01:09:13.826)
You know how he disrespected their mums? Did he even care?
Did he even care?
Marina Crane (01:09:25.324)
You know, they were raising their children on their own. What would have happened if they died? And some of those ch of his children did up in did end up in foster care. He didn't care. He wanted to look like he was a a bachelor. Look at me, I'm the ideal Native American man that every indigenous woman should be chasing after. All you have to do is look at what Hitler did in World War II when it came to
You know, him recruiting, you know, the Third Reich, you know, all you know, all the Nazis, how how sexuality played into the recruitment and women having children, you know, all all that. I mean, I I I came across it on TikTok and it was really, really like eye eye opener. And I said, No, as indigenous people we have to be careful.
You know, as a young indigenous men, you have to be careful and accountable to each other. It's so easy to slip in to be somebody like Nathan Chasinghorse. Truth and reconciliation, restorative and transformative injustice, look them up. Understand them. You know, think, am I gonna associate with somebody who's actively hitting his wife? Am I gonna be associated with someone
Who's inf having infidelity against his partner. You know, as as men, like I said, I can I can talk as an Indigenous woman. I I can't talk as an Indigenous man because I don't know what it's like. But but I do know, I do know for all these things. I I was talking to a two-spirited young man and and we agreed.
In the majority the majority of countries that allow two spirited people to marry is so small and minute. There are more states and more countries in the world that allow adults, adult men to marry children.
Marina Crane (01:11:38.541)
Like Nathan chasing horse with ten year olds, thirteen year olds.
He you know, that's just that's just part of the United States. That's just part of this whole what's happening in terms of collapsing of a society. Like what happened with Nazi Germany. Like when they say re you know, history repeats itself.
I I I I don't know, I just find it I find things that we take for granted if we don't talk about it and we don't and we don't try and we and we don't try to hide it. We we we we we we can't afford to hide it. We we we can't afford to hide it because artificial intelligence i is the way of the future.
And if we as human beings do not have the tenacity to to talk about uncomfortable things, uncomfortable words, uncom uncomfortable ways of feeling, and I and grasping your like for me, when I do this podcast and I talk about this is what I've lived through. This is for me, this is what love is. Very, very important conversations.
that I that I think the majority of times women get, but is very difficult for for men, because men haven't been allowed to to totally embrace their own sexuality. That's why you have these conventions where you have Republicans shunning two-spirited people, all the LBGQ, and then what do they do at these conventions? Hook up hook up with other men. Crash
Marina Crane (01:13:30.509)
crash that what do they call bender or some sort of app where they hook up and have arrangements with men. It's historical. You know, I don't know why they have to put religiosity in that. You know, it's sh it's human sexuality. Anyway, such is life, like I like I said, it's a it's li men are interested.
I j I just you know, just the history just the history of wars and and philosophy and patriarchy is is interesting. Have a good day. what can I say? I just feel so relieved. I I feel so relieved because I I I think the bottom line here before I go is it's important you understand what respect feels like.
For for me for me it's like an oasis. I'm I'm I'm at peace today. I I feel I feel refreshed and and at peace. And and and y
I don't mean to sound pitiful but but in a way, in my in the Sioux Dakota philosophy, you know, it says it says, Unshika, we're pitiful. So so when you don't have somebody who respects you, and you meet somebody too who knows what it's like not to be respected, and you you both find each other and you both li uplift each other. That that's that's our purpose in life.
is to help uplift each other. My cousin said, she says, you know, it was in it was it was stuck sue people who killed Sitting Bull. She says, and from that time on, our own people do that to each other. She says, she says, this this is what what what was created. This disrespect. This lack of respect for
Marina Crane (01:15:41.871)
for our are our people who who are healers, for our people who are respected, that that people are jealous of of that that gift. That's why I told my mom, bless my mom's heart.
I said I I I know it. I said but I I I can't I said I I I can't comprehend why people would show me so much disrespect when when they don't realize what I've sacrificed for my voice for my narrative for my stories.
Okay, like I said, I know I'm in tears, but I am I am in a good space. I am. I I truly believe I am. And and I'm just grateful I'm just grateful for all all the young people in in Soutina who who may not even know me and and that's okay. You know, I I'm just I'm just gratefully enriched for having the decision decades ago to move back home.
I I'm just so profoundly grateful to have a community.
