I would spend time with my parents, but not a whole lot. So, mostly my grandparents raised me. My parents never hit me, my grandparents. I didn't know what, what it meant to be hit, physically abused. All I needed was one stare, or one look from my dad, or my grandfather, and my grandmother or my mother would always say "wâpam awa"20 [look at that one], then I would stop what I was doing, because I knew how to respect my grandfather and my dad, didn't have to hit us, just, just took one look. [laughs] And so I grew up with that. And if we were acting foolish, or anything like that, or misbehaving, or whatever, they, they would just, they would just tell us in a good, kind way not to behave like that, and or if we were acting too silly, or whatever, they would tell us to calm down. They would always tell us that if you're gonna hit a high like that, you're gonna hit low, and I'll always remember that teaching, 'cause I tell my grandchildren the same thing. When they get too excited, or too animated, or laughing too hard, or tickling, or whatever on an emotional high, I'll just tell them what my grandparents said, and I'll never forget that.[1]
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Patrick James Hall was born in 1960 and grew up in what is now called the Dakota Tipi First Nation.
And, I remember, I remember a lot of times, I guess, with my grandfather, my grandmother. One of them in my mind, I remember. My grandfather used to haul wood on a sleigh. He had horses. And, so, my older brothers would go with him, too, and we just, he'd take us for horse rides. And, he used to talk with us all the time in Dakota. I mean, we used to, we used to remember what he said because we'd always be laughing, having fun, and.… My grandpa was very, very active guy. He, he always made sure, you know, he made sure that we had everything for the family. We used to go hunting, deer hunting and fishing, trapping. And, my mother, too, she was a very hard worker 'cause she used to be hauling water, cutting wood. And that was just during the winters. It was very hard 'cause we have to cut wood, and break the ice for water, and heat it up for the stove.[2]
Growing up in Sandy Lake, Saskatchewan, Leona Martin learned how to live off the land.
But my granny taught us some valuable lessons on, I didn't really know what they were until I got older, that she would. And my dad too, used to wake us up at 5:00 in the morning and we used to go snaring rabbits. He told us, "You have to get up before the animals," he said, "and you'll, otherwise they'll take your whatever you snared the rabbits or hogs … the prairie chickens," that, "you had to get up early, don't be lazy."
- ↑ TRC, AVS, Noel Starblanket, Statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Regina, Saskatchewan, 16 January 2012, Statement Number: 2011-3314.
- ↑ TRC, AVS, Patrick James Hall, Statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 21 December 2010, Statement Number: 03-001-10-036.
