JOHN ARCAND
Master Métis Fiddler
(The following taken from his website http://www.johnarcand.com)

Originally from the Debden - Big River area of Saskatchewan, John now makes his home on acreage southwest of Saskatoon. He started playing fiddle at the age six, with coaching from his Father and Grandfather and by age twelve he was playing for dances. His impeccable sense of timing and flowing rhythm comes from learning to watch the dancers feet at this early age and from this he developed and refined a style of playing that has helped him become a legend in the fiddle world. People often refer to him as the “dancer’s choice”!

John has made fourteen recordings to date, and still plays and records the Traditional Métis tunes of his Father and Grandfather as well as those he continues to research, learn and pass on.   He is also a prolific writer having composed over 300 original tunes. Along with a busy performing schedule, John is active as a guest artist and judge at fiddle contests, is in demand as an instructor at many fiddle camps and has a growing list of private students. He and his wife travel extensively promoting the Métis culture through workshops and performances and do many school and youth presentations each year.

John is an avid collector of fiddles and accessories and a qualified Luthier who has been making fiddles for many years. The art of fiddle making is not a common one and his “original” instruments are much sought after. He also offers repairs and can provide appraisals.

John has spent his lifetime promoting and preserving the traditions of Fiddle Métis and Dance and old time fiddling.  His contribution to the music world encompasses the preservation of these traditions, and his on-going efforts to offer a venue where all of this can be seen, appreciated and shared - The John Arcand Fiddle Fest. Held annually on the second weekend of August on his acreage, the John Arcand Fiddle Fest has become one of the major fiddle events in Western Canada, celebrating it’s 10th anniversary in 2007.

His proudest achievement  include being selected as one of 27 people world wide to represent Western Canada at the Fiddles of the World Conference in Halifax in 1999. Being chosen as a delegate in an Irish/ Métis Cultural Exchange in 2001 where he played for and met the President of Ireland. And, of course playing for and meeting the Queen at the Lieutenant Governor’s Centennial Gala in Saskatoon in 2005.

His passions for the preservation of the Métis Traditions, old time fiddling and work with youth have been recognized by his peers and resulted in him being honoured with a National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Arts and Culture, and a Lifetime Achievement Award for his “Outstanding Contribution to Old Time Fiddling.” from the Canadian Grand Masters in 2003. In 2004 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Inaugural Lieutenant Governor’s Saskatchewan Arts Awards. In 2005 the Province of Saskatchewan honoured him with the Saskatchewan Centennial Medal, and in the Spring of 2006 he received the Cultural Diversity and Race Relations “Living in Harmony” Award from the City of Saskatoon.

To see John perform is to see a man serious about his music and in harmony with all that is good.   From playing for the Queen of England to “jamming” with regular folk – John is happiest and most at home with a fiddle in his hand.

WILLIAM COMMANDA, (MAMIWINNI)
Algonquin, Quebec -  Born: 1913

'Grandfather of the Algonquins". William Commanda is the most senior Elder of the Algonquin Nation of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg (River Desert Band), Quebec. He is now best known for sharing his spiritual beliefs and teachings of equality, harmony among peoples and respect for Mother Earth. He urges people to achieve a better balance between their priorities, values and responsibilities and to seek reconciliation and peace.

Commanda was born in 1913 in Kitigan Zibi, near Maniwaki, Quebec. Like his great-grandfather Chief Pakinawatik, he is also a keeper of several Algonquin wampum belts which are records of prophecies and historical treaties. Commanda is one of relatively few Elders in North America who hold their Nations' traditional prophecies and oral histories.

Elder, Commanda began teaching about the messages of the wampum belts in 1987 at the fourth First Ministers Conference on inherent rights and self-government for Aboriginal people. He was invited in 1990 to provide a traditional blessing of the Canadian Human Rights Monument in Ottawa (on traditional Algonquin territory) with the Dalai Lama. In 1998, Elder Commanda participated in a ceremony at which he presented then South African President Nelson Mandela with an eagle feather on behalf of the First Nations of Canada.

That same year, Commanda organized "Elders Without Borders," a gathering of Aboriginal Elders and spiritual leaders from both North and South America. Over the last 20 years, he has made presentations and performed the traditional pipe ceremonies at both Canadian and international conferences in Switzerland, France, Germany, Denmark, the United States, Mexico and Japan, in addition to participating at the United Nations and the World Council of Churches.

In November 1998, Elder Commanda was presented with the Wolf Award for his contributions to racial harmony and cross-cultural teachings.
 

  CHARLES A. EASTMAN
Ohiyesa, Wahpeton Dakota
February 19, 1858 - January 8, 1939.

Physician, autobiographer, storyteller, essayist and lecturer. He was raised in the traditional manner as a Woodland Lakota by his Grandmother (1858-1874). Interestingly, this part of his life was spent in Manitoba where his band had fled following the Dakota defeat in 1862. He was thoroughly and eloquently conversant in the language, culture and oral history of his people. His father insisted he be given a 'white' education and thus he attended Dartmouth and Boston University medical school. He was the only medic available at the original Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890 when women and children of Chief Bigfoot's band were ruthlessly hunted down by the seventh cavalry and massacred. 150 died, 44 wounded. The cavalry brought back about a dozen wounded and left them to freeze in wagons in a blizzard while Eastman pleaded to have them brought into a nearby church for treatment. The spent the night treating the wounded and the next day organized a rescue trip in the same blizzard back to the massacre sight. They found piles of frozen dead and some in the last stages of life. "It took all my nerve to keep my composure in the face of this spectacle, and of the excitement and grief of my Indian companions, nearly every one of whom was crying aloud or singing his death song."

He was an original, a literate Native who could write eloquently about both his traditional and contemporary lives in the red and white worlds. He wanted to be a doctor because he saw it as the best way he could be in service to his people. After the Wounded Knee massacre he was unable to steep himself wholly in white culture despite immense pressure to do so and spent the rest of his life trying to reconcile the two worlds. He would not  abandon the beauty and power of his LakHota culture.

GANDOOX
Born: October 23, 1913, Prince Rupert, B.C.
Coast Tsimshian

Thunderbird and Kate's Mom. This photo was taken when she was eighteen years old. She broke new ground back in the 1930's and 40's as an Opera Singer as there were no First Nations artists to be found in the 'grand arts' in that period. Racism was rampant. She sang for the troops in 'Theatre Under the Stars' in Vancouver during the 1940's performing the role of Yum Yum from The Mikado numerous times. Her lyric soprano voice was magical, Thunderbird is fortunate to have inherited some of it. She was also a concert pianist and a master puppeteer, creating, designing and making a three-hundred marionette cast of unforgettable characters. As children, Thunderbird and her Sister, Kate, travelled with Gandoox all over British Columbia bringing singing, dancing shows and the puppet theatre to  enthusiastic audiences everywhere. She is a scholar, writer, intellectual, choir-mistress, skilled seamstress and costume-maker and on and on. She triumphed even though she suffered impossible racism during her early life. To this day she continues writing and researching. If the truth be known, she was born way before her time but even so managed to make a difference in the thousands of lives she's touched in over sixty years of healing circles, seminars and workshops. Nonetheless, her intellectual and artistic passions are embedded in her two daughters as they carry on her legacy.

KAHN-TINETA HORN
Mohawk, born 1940

A prominent Native activist since the 1960's, she was one of over fifty Native people charged with precipitating a riot and obstructing the Canadian army and police at OKA in 1990. A strong, Mohawk woman, who fought to be heard in a manner that, no doubt, pleases her female Ancestors. As her name says, she has spent a lifetime making the grass wave on behalf of her people. The following is reprinted from the Canadian Encyclopedia.

"Kahn-Tineta Horn, meaning "she makes the grass wave" in Mohawk, political activist, fashion model, civil servant (b at New York City, NY 16 Apr 1940), member of the Mohawk Wolf Clan of Kahnawake, Québec. She attracted national attention to native causes in the 1960s and early 1970s by her lively and controversial criticisms of Indian conditions. She had already been a model and public speaker for some years when in 1964 she was fired from her posts in the National Indian Council in a controversy over policy and organization of centennial celebrations. Throughout the 1960s she took part in numerous Indian protests, including one in which she dumped rats in a government meeting to illustrate illegal dumping on her reserve. She advocated "Indian apartheid" or separate development, including preservation of the reserve system, teaching by natives only, and the banning of Indian-white intermarriage. She founded and directed the Indian Legal Defense Committee from 1967-1971. Since 1972 she has held various positions in the social, community and educational development policy sections of the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs,"

In her own words: "The root of the word 'society' is 'friendship' and 'companionship'. This concept is the basis of the Kaienerekowa, the Great Law of Peace, the Constitution of the Five Nations Iroquois Confederacy. The Great Law is a way of life that was given to us as we saw it. It's how we are to relate to the universe, which is the way that I have tried to live."

WANEEK  HORN-MILLER
Mohawk, born 1975

Born on the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory reserve in 1975 to Kahn-Tineta Horn, Waneek has led a vibrant life in the service of her people. Always, keeping in mind that she is a proud Mohawk, she set out to prove it using her athleticism as one of the gateways. She comes from a family of high achievers, with three sisters pursuing varying aspects of higher education and in the theatre. In 1990, when she was fourteen years of age, she was bayoneted by a Canadian soldier during the OKA crisis while holding her four year-old sister, Kanieti:io. She till bears the scar on her chest to this day. Rather than becoming embittered by the experience, she chose to use it to help realize her dreams of becoming an Olympian which she did in Water Polo, Sydney, 2000. She and her team were triumphant gold medalists at the 1999 Pan Am Games. Over the years, she has won enough gold medals to start her own mint! She travels widely speaking to children and youth about pursuing higher education and is currently the Co-Ordinator of First People's House, McGill University. One of her favourite themes is that Indigenous youth need not sacrifice who they are in order to achieve better lives.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL COLIN W. MARMO, Phd (NISNAWA)

Coast Tsimshian, December 29, 1941 - January 18, 2009
Thunderbird and Kate's Brother, Shannie and Erin's Uncle

A fierce Canadian patriot and brilliant scholar, Lieutenant Colonel Marmo dedicated his  life, from the age of eighteen in the service of his country, first in the Armed Forces for  over thirty years, in which he became a leader as regards Canada's National security. After retiring from the military in 1990 after twenty-six years of loyal service, he moved full-time into national (homeland) security working with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). He spoke five languages and was one of the first during the Cold War years to be able to speak fluent Russian. His language facility brought him to the attention of the federal government and set him on the road to military and national security fame. His actions, decisions, policies, and sheer brilliance are legendary in the higher echelons of this country earning him fiercely loyal friends.  LCol. Marmo, also studied for more than two years during his graduate studies years at Carleton University under the tutelage of former Canadian Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson.

Like his Tsimshian Warrior Sisters, he feared no one, and his eccentricities were such that he didn't always bother to concern himself with the political  correctness needed to succeed in places like Ottawa. Yet, succeed he did. He marched to his own drummer, made an enormous difference by making the Army a better place, particularly after the Somalian debacle in the 1990's. It blows his sister's minds that he managed to traverse the often treacherous hallways of Ottawa reasonably unscathed for twenty-six years before finally calling it a day! He walked the walk, talked the talk, never wavered in the love of his country and people loved him for it.

"I had a great visit with LCol Colin Marmo and on behalf of the Army thanked him for his remarkable service to the nation and all of us. I presented him with the Army coin, to which he was thrilled, proud and quite emotional. We had a great chat covering all of our past moments together, and received well reasoned advice on how to equip the army of the future, and some thoughts on junior artillery officer training....On behalf of us all I wished him god speed and peace on his last adventure. He is very proud to have served the Guns and Canada and he sends to his many friends his best wishes."
(LGen Andrew Leslie, Chief of Land Staff - January 15, 2009
Photo left: General Leslie and his Adjutant salute Colin)

On January 23, 2009, at his military funeral, the Canadian flag flew at half mast as Lieutenant Colonel Colin William Marmo was laid to rest in the beautiful and historic Beechwood Cemetery, National Military Section in Ottawa, ON.

 To paraphrase the words of the great Shawnee Warrior, Tecumseh,

"Colin's purpose was in the service of the Canadian people. He prepared a noble death song for the day when he went over the great divide. He always gave a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. He showed respect to all people and bowed to none.

When it came for his time to die, he was not like those whose hearts were filled with the fear of death, so that when their time came they wept and prayed for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. He sang his death song and died like a hero going home."

All My Relations.

Travel peacefully, Brother, you have done well.

NORVAL MORRISSEAU
Copper Thunderbird, Ojibwa
March 14, 1932 - December 4, 2007

Founder of the Woodlands School of Canadian Art, Mr. Morrisseau lived a life that was often tortured but always creative. He was a self-taught artist who was known for his thick black lines, bold colours and depictions of shamanic stories stemming from his Ojibwa heritage. He helped keep his culture alive and vibrant even though in his early days he was criticized by his own people for painting pictures about Ojjbwa spirituality. His life was a combination of mysticism and the magical world of the Spirit Doctor. His work will live to the end of time.  Travel well, Mr. Morrisseau, you've done well and we are grateful and honoured for your presence in the world. Your Ancestors are pleased and your life was finished in beauty.

LORI PIESTEWA
Hopi  - 1980 - 2003

Native American tribes united in grief when Army Pfc. Lori Piestewa, 23, was killed in action in 2003. Lori Piestewa, daughter of a Hopi man and a Hispanic woman, was the first woman (and Native woman) to die in the line of duty in Operation Iraqui Freedom. Rest in Peace, Lori, your Ancestors are well pleased.

FIRST LIEUTENANT,
JULIA (NASHANANY) REEVES)  (left)

Member of the Potawatomi Tribe of Crandon, Wisconsin. She joined the Army Nurse Corps in 1942 and was assigned to one of the first medical units shipped to the Pacific. The 52nd Evacuation hospital unit was sent to New Caledonia before its members had even received their army uniforms. Julia was assigned temporary duty aboard the ship. The following year, she was transferred to the 23rd Station hospital in Norwich, England, where she was stationed during the invasion of Normandy. She remained in Norwich through V-J Day, returning shortly afterward to the United States. During the Korean War, Julia mobilized with the 804th Station Hospital.

PRIVATE MINNIE SPOTTED WOLF  (right)

From Heart Butte, Montana, she enlisted in the Marine Corps Woman's Reserve in July 1943. She was the first female Native American to enroll in the Corps. Minnie had worked on her father's ranch doing such chores as cutting fence posts, driving a two-ton truck and breaking horses. Her comment on Marine boot camp, "Hard but not too hard."

ROBBIE ROBERSTON, Mohawk
Mohawk - Born: July 5, 1943

 Legendary Musician has sold millions of recordings going way back as a founding member of  "The Band". Inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2003. Bob Dylan hired The Band for his tours in 1965 and 1966.  Dylan famously praised him as "the only mathematical guitar genius I’ve ever run into who doesn’t offend my intestinal nervousness with his rearguard sound." The now legendary Martin Scorcese film, The Waltz (1978)  documents The Band and its subsequent break-up. He has numerous recordings with The Band, as a solo artist and in films. Thunderbird's long held dream is to sing with 'the Mohawk' one day.

EDEN ROBINSON
Haisla, Born January 19, 1968

She who grew up near Kitamaat, BC. Her previous collection of stories, Traplines, was awarded the Winifred Holtby Prize for the best first work of fiction in the Commonwealth, and was a New York Times Editor's Choice and Notable Book of the Year. She lives in North Vancouver. Monkey Beach was published in the New Face of Fiction program in 2000 and she received the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for it. Thunderbird can attest to the fact that it is a wonderful read. Her sister, Carla Robinson is a Television Journalist at CBC Newsworld.

ERIC SHIRT

Eric Shirt lived in his car and spent every waking hour planning, plotting, scheming and cajoling both his own people and the Alberta government into setting up Canada's first in-patient addictions centre for Native people.  He lived on handouts, donations and the energy of his dream. It took seven years to get the building built, government opposition causing delay after delay, but Mr. Shirt would not go away.  It was his vision that led to the creation of both the Poundmaker and Nechi Treatment Centres in Alberta. No legacy can be greater than one that was built on sacrifice and in service for the greater good of his people.

CHIEF ROBERT SMALLBOY
Cree Ermineskin Band, 1898 - 1984

MARIA TALLCHIEF 
Osage/Scottish - Born: January 24, 1925

Acknowledged to be the first Native American-born Prima Ballerina. Daughter of a Scottish mother and a full-blooded Osage Native father, Maria Tallchief spent eight years on the reservation lands of northeastern Oklahoma. Much of the world had never seen anything like her. Admired by millions, she became America's pre-eminent  Prima Ballerina, and in 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower declared her "Woman of the Year." She also originated the role of the Sugarplum Fairy in George Balanchine's version of the Nutcracker. After her retirement she founded, along with her sister, Marjorie the Chicago City Ballet in 19181 and served as its artistic director until 1987. From 1990 to the present she has been artistic advisor to Von Heidecke's Chicago Festival Ballet.

JAKE (JACOB EZRA) THOMAS
Hadajigrenta (he-makes-the-clouds descend)
Sandpiper Clan, Cayuga Nation Hereditary Chief
January 6, 1922 - August 18, 1998

"The sky has opened, the clouds have parted. The Earth Mother weeps for the parting of one of her most giving children. The respect and honour I feel for having known and the wonderful opportunity to have worked with the gifted and inspired Chief Jade Thomas, words cannot describe. I was enlightened by the dedication and teachings of Jade to compose the song on my latest CD, the Code of Handsome Lake. And like the great Seneca prophet, Handsome Lake, Jade devoted his life and work to spreading The Good Word. And for this I know in my soul the Creator has great pride in having bestowed upon this earth the loving presence of Jade Thomas. May we the people of The Longhouse, and people all over the world rejoice in the spiritual teachings of our brother and be ever supportive of his deeper understanding of peace and love among mankind. Bless His Soul." (Robbie Robertson, August 18, 1998.)

Thunderbird also had the privilege of working with Mr. Thomas when she organized an Elder's Gathering at York University a number of years ago. Spending the weekend with such a gifted speaker and educator has been one of the highlights of her life.

JIM THORPE
Wa-Th-Huk, bright path, Sac and Fox   
May 28, 1888 - March 28, 1953
 

Considered one of the most versatile athletes in modern sports. He won both the decathlon and pentathlon at the Stockholm Olympics. King Gustav V called him the greatest athlete in the world. He replied, "Thanks King." He played professional baseball with both the New York Giants (three seasons) and the Cincinnati Reds.  His final baseball season was in 1919 with the Boston Braves. He also played professional football between 1915-1920 with the Ohio Bulldogs and the Cleveland Indians in 1921.

Of particular note, he played on a professional football teams comprised entirely of Natives. He was influential in forming the American Professional Football Association which eventually evolved into the NFL, National Football League.  After retirement from sports in 1929, he spent time in the movies, as a merchant marine, public speaker on Native issues, Superintendent of the Chicago Parks system. In 1950, the United States Associated Press selected him as the most outstanding athlete of the first half of the 20th Century; in the same year he was also named the greatest American football player. He died of a heart attack at age of sixty-five and had three wives and eight children. In 2001, he was named ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Century.