Canada
Pascall Bighetty was a rebellious high-school student. He lived
in Pukatawagon in North-West Manitoba - the home of the Mathias
Colomb Band (a Canadian Indian tribe). Their community was loaded
down with social problems. Nearly everyone was unemployed, the housing
was second-rate and there were practically no recreational facilities.
Young and old - Bighetty included - turned to booze to relieve
their boredom. There was widespread child abuse, solvent and glue
sniffing, shootings and killings. It was even dangerous to walk
down the street because when people were drunk they would fire shots
all around the place.
At the age of 25 he was elected Chief - 'probably because I was
one of the leading local drinkers,' he says.
An old priest, who had served the community for more than 55 years,
kept telling him, "Nothing in this place will change until
the Chief changes.'
One morning Bighetty woke up with the uncomfortable thought that
this was true.
He decided to stop drinking and start trying to deal with the community's
problems.
'It was tough,' he recalls. 'I had to look for a new set of friends.
Even my wife, who did not give up drinking until four years later,
said "There's nothing worse than having to live with a reformed
alcoholic".'
Gradually the Band Council began to follow the Chief's lead. They
started their own home-grown style of gun-law, making it compulsory
for all guns in the community to be kept under lock and key in the
Band office and only picked up when needed for hunting. It worked!
Over the next thirteen years they set to work - a 40-mile power
line was constructed; new industries were started; houses, a community
centre, and a senior citizen's home were built; and a Child Care
service was instituted. The police sergeant says, 'Today most of
the time the patrols don't have any police work to do. They spend
their time showing films to the kids and making friends with the
community.'*
* Both this and the example on the previous page are adapted from
articles in the magazine For a Change.
|
