Elder looking to lead movement for social, political change in Blood Tribe
By Tim Kalinowski on June 24, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDtkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com Elder Roger Prairie Chicken (also known as White Water Buffalo and White Buffalo Horn) at first glance seems an unlikely person to lead a movement for social and political change on the Blood Tribe Reserve.Bespectacled, elderly, smiling, portly with a broad brimmed hat, Prairie Chicken seems more like someone’s good-natured grandfather rather than a tough-minded social radical. Indeed, the former Blood Tribe police officer and, until recently, the longtime crisis coordinator for the Blood Tribe, Prairie Chicken, (who does have 15 grandchildren with his wife of 40 years, Elder Charlene Plume), would say he is not radical at all: it is just the spiritual path he walks compels him into the position at this time in his life where he feels he must take a stand.
“My wife and I are Elders from the Blood Tribe Horn Society,” he explains. “The hardest life to lead in the Blackfoot culture is the Word of Truth. That’s what we deal with all the time, the Word of Truth. We look at and see things for what they are. We have to advocate for the people.”
Prairie Chicken says part of his role as a crisis counselor is to respond to sudden deaths on the reserve from overdose, suicide or other tragedies. In that role he has worked closely with the Blood Tribe Police for many years, and Prairie Chicken says from his policing days until the present he has been witness to the aftermath of over 500 deaths on reserve, one of them his own son who committed suicide at the age of 24.
“I believe the foundation of this whole reserve is grieving,” explains Prairie Chicken. “I have gone to many overdoses. A lot of these overdoses are related to addictions, whether it’s alcohol or prescription drug abuse. They call these things cocktails. They are mixing up all kinds of medications the doctors are providing. Right now you would think the opioids are really key on the reserve, but, no, it’s the cocktails of doctors’ prescriptions that are causing the deaths.”
Prairie Chicken says compounding the problem, in his mind, is a leadership and administration more interested in keeping their jobs than dealing with underlying social problems which have led to the overdose tragedy on the Blood Tribe- a tragedy, he says, which has been aggravated by the First Nation’s housing policies and, in particular, its recent evictions of dozens of drug addicted band members from their homes, leaving them no place else to go except the streets of Lethbridge.
“The best case scenario is our leaders and our administration have to understand compassion,” Prairie Chicken says. “Compassion for the people. That lack of compassion and healing for our people, we can see all the past wrongs that have run through our people to today. I believe a nation could arise within a nation once we can understand who we are.”
Prairie Chicken draws strength from his 25 years of spiritual training as an Elder to walk the path he feels he needs to walk in this current conflict.
“The people of the Blood Reserve want to be heard,” Prairie Chicken says. “They have a voice, and they need to be heard by the leaders and entities of the reserve as it relates to the current crisis at hand, with drug overdoses, suicide, homelessness, no job opportunities- the list goes on. What messages of hope do they have?
“I have listened to them and they want help for their traumatic experiences, and a place or structure in the community that would allow for safe detoxification to trauma treatment and onto being gainfully employed,” he adds. “The families also need help to overcome their traumas so they can raise healthy children and grandchildren that were left behind.
“And the community wants a concept of a trauma centre, for the sake of a name, that would be designed by community members because we live these traumatic experiences. The goal is to get healthy, get back on track, be gainfully employed,” he summarizes. Follow @TimKalHerald on Twitter 4
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