Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 13, 1995, Winnipeg, Manitoba Inside Story Winnipeg free press a 1 v May drugs fuel despair Jeff free press left Whitedog children play at Reserve right Audrey a crisis Centre Volunteer to grieving suicide was her answer now she offers Peers a lifeline by Kim Guttormson free press correspondent there was a time when death was the Only thing that made sense to Audrey she was Young and struggling in an abusive shed lost Many of her friends to i thought it was the Only she so she overdosed on tuberculosis medication and ended up in a five Day i Felt there was no one to talk that no one would sitting in the family services trailer that doubles As the crisis she recalls trying to speak to a mental health worker in Kenora and it was like she knew when the hour was and that the main reason Mandamin has joined the More than 40 volunteers patrolling the Whitedog sign translated into ojibway language reads Community and answering crisis Calls around the she wants her neighbors to know that there is someone right around the Corner who cares and who has the patience to listen to their but As important As her own past is in her decision to lend an the present and the future play an equally Large of the four Young men who killed themselves in the two were her one was a Friend and one her 11yearold daughters her daughter woke her up one morning to Point out the yellow police tape surrounding her cousins Home across the Mandamin lives across from the two Homes where three of the deaths both of which Are being torn Down at the request of the when there i Tell them in grieving she says of the crisis Calls she we lost the same and when the crisis of the moment she knows she was of some it makes me feel Good knowing i played a that there with us that the motivation behind All the Volunteer coordinator Louie Cameron people see other people the volunteers make it he looking like the four hours sleep he got the night before want quite we have the Opportunity Here to affect some real change for the whole Mandamin sees it As a Way of affecting change for her Wabash Moong Independent nations Reserve who at 11 is already too aware of what is happening in the Shell say i heard so and so tried to kill i try to talk to mandarins also seen signs that her daughter has thought about which scares her to after her seven Earold son drowned two years her daughter began to leave notes saying How much she missed her brother and wanted to be with Mandamin recognized that her daughter needed to talk to but said Many parents there probably not sure who to go she everyone has to Start to open if they see after the second suicide people were just talking about not talking about How they All the recent suicides took place on a three of them in a Reserve struggling to take the Bullet out by Kim Guttormson free press correspondent Whitedog As you round the last curve and the Little Community comes into the first thing you see is a Lone Gas encased in mesh gasoline and its intoxicating fumes have been inexorably linked to the traumas of known As Wabash Moong in but the sniff of Choice these Days is lacquer More hallucinogenic than other now being smuggled into the Community by a variety of solvent abuse stems from the same hopelessness that has caused so Many Young people to end their lives at the end of a rope and the death of so Many Community Hope for the is its greatest chief Eric Fisher estimates there Are 10 to 12 people who bring the solvent onto the Reserve to sell and some band members living in Kenora and Keewatin sell it from their Minaki Opp say its being trafficked like a Hal full baby food Jar Selling for my Shes Shes on said first response member Leah we try and help her As much As we we try to watch Over i wish something can happen to Stop i have two i worry for ojibway tribal family services staff supervisor John Bunting said Many band members have been blacklisted in Kenora and can no longer buy solvents at the stores so they drive to Winnipeg or the sniffing and the suicides Are the result of problems old and band members cite a Lack of lingering effects of residential schools and children removed to nonnative Foster its like we were shot 250 years ago and we need to find ways to take the Bullet out so we can heal crisis coordinator Louie Cameron a generation of people have lost the ability along the Way to solve their own life there the product of a very tragic the Community has not sat idly by and wallowed in its been proactive in trying to help both economically and and has put aside any divisions to do Arnold with Nodin counselling said working together is the Only thing that can in surveying other first nations dealing with a suicide the ones who had Success Licking the suicide Cluster brought different groups he the Community senses some social some believe divisions within the Community have contributed to the Whitedog is actually three bands which were forced together As in the late one Man Lake was flooded by Hydro and moved to Swan Lake moved there some years later for Access to at one there was talk of splitting the Reserve Down the Middle and electing two Fisher but he believes Only the older generations remember the divisions and the Young people All feel they come from the occasional resident brings it saying something those people from one Man Lake no Way to wish Habbi he Rel a Community in a1 think they can be the Boss of the Reserve is also divided among those who practise traditional ways and others who find alternatives in an alternative Josephine Mandamin they hang they there is a resurgence of As you drive the Long gravel Road All the reserves Homes Are built sweat lodges can be seen behind the often alongside satellite Cameron said the Young people have showed a renewed interest in their and that part of the the band has also tried to get away from relying solely on government handouts for its while Many individual band members live in the band itself has having received an million settlement in 1983 from Ontario Hydro because of the Fisher said initially the Money was used to provide Small business Loans for band but most of the businesses didst materialize and the majority of the Loans we rent paid he said the Soonia Trust now contains about million and has been Frozen until when the band will decide what to do with the band recently purchased the nearby Minaki Lodge for hoping it will provide Security and employment in the while housing is a with Many Young couples forced to live with parents or other Young the band spent million Over the past two years to build about 50 Fisher As the band picks up the Tab for the rent on about 80 per cent of the 48 Canada mortgage and housing corporation Fisher adding it comes to about a the band pays because otherwise the renters would Fisher said after Hydro Bills that often total More than people have no Money left Over for the an irony considering the Reserve is situated Between two Ontario Hydro the band established a solvent abuse treatment program six years using traditional Healing methods to help both youth and adults kick their they Are planning to build a facility on the Reserve to House the the first thing to Deal with is alcohol and solvent Fisher Many see the shortage of medical services in the Community As a contributing Factor to the present ojibway tribal family services staff supervisor John Bunting said he requested a mental health worker last but was told there were no funds one nurse is in the Community on a Par time usually three Days a there is Only one native alcohol and drug addiction program Nada worker in the Fisher said they believe the Community needs at least two mental health workers and someone to answer crisis Calls 24 hours a a Job now being done by volunteers from the tomorrow at solvent abuse officers save Young dads life by Kim Guttormson and Paul Wiecek although he left his Home in Whitedog to escape the Bleak future he saw stretched before the Young father cant seem to evade the tragic legacy of the mourning the suicide deaths of two cousins on the the 21yearold put a Cord around his neck and tried to kill two City police officers broke Down the mans door and saved his life just seconds before it was too he said he Felt like it was the thing to do because he was from said Brian Barker who was called with his partner Jim Uletsky to the mans Magnus Avenue apartment by three friends also from Whitedog who had been drinking with Barker said he and Uletsky sped to the apartment and ran from the Cruiser straight to the mans door and then right through it without once inside the they found the Man hanging from the got him Down and got him breathing with Mouth Mouth sunk into a Corner of the distracted by the television and his Twoy Earold the Man agreed yesterday to talk about his Home Reserve but asked not to be wearing a Turtleneck under his he didst really want to talk about what happened the Day in just trying to get Over he in a quiet voice that difficult to the who police said has said he was very sad about his cousins that he was very close to them and misses them a scares me sometimes it scares what Treyve been doing at he he was in Whitedog the weekend his first Cousin died the first of four suicides on the Reserve in six hed been partying with his Cousin the night before and he seemed in a Good the next morning the House was surrounded by police cars and his Cousin was hanging Banning alcohol from the Reserve is the Only he i think the Only time this happens is when somebody drunk or his Girlfriend both were sniffers when they lived on the i Stop when i was he he finally went to the solvent abuse Camp run by the band and says he Hast sniffed in two her Mother is glad there raising their son in she Doest want him growing up Down she watching him play with toy cars on the he might be sniff when i was growing up things were just getting badder and he moved just to get away from the but he sees a Ray of Hope in the tragedy that has engulfed the Reserve in that the Community is working to do something about the its like they were sleeping now they woke up or Winnipeg police Ron Dawson said he Hopes the officers who saved the mans life will be recognized for their Ken free press Uletsky Barker commended for ;