‘People of the Water’ BC Chief Rueben George at Rights of Mother Earth Gathering

By Brenda Norrell


Rueben George and Tom Goldtooth, IEN, at Rights of Mother Earth Gathering

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HASKELL INDIAN NATIONS UNIVERSITY, Kansas — Rueben George, Sundance Chief and Member of theTsleil-Waututh First Nation in northern Vancouver, BC, spoke at the Rights of MotherEarth Gathering, April 4 — 6. George, grandson of Chief Dan George, beganwith thanks to the stewards of this land and caretakers of this land.

George honored the caretakers of this land with a song of hisgrandfather Chief Dan George. His nature song is “Honor Mother Earth.” (Listen below.)

Rueben said his grandfather shared with him how to be ahuman being. His grandfather said, “We are the last of the human beings tofollow this way of life.”

Tsleil-Waututh are the People of the Water.

He told how First Man came from wolf. First Man saw that others increation had companions and wanted a companion. He swam to the bottom of theocean and picked up sediment and placed this on the earth. The creator madethis into woman. The Tsleil-Waututh people came from the waters and the earth.

“That is where we came from.”

Listening to the stories of other Native people at theHaskell gathering, George said, “Our stories are the same.” In 1930, 80 percentof Canadians went to residential schools. Of those, 50 percent died before theywere 19 years old.

George said at the strongest point, there were 15,000Tsleil-Waututh. Then, there were about two hundred years of the attempts to wipe out his people. The assimilation process followed, with these words: “Killthe savage and save the man.”

During the period of his childhood, Rueben George had natureand water. The children played in the water. They swam in the water andhad ceremonies in the water. In the sweatlodges and longhouses, there is aconnection with the water.

Describing his people relationship with water, he said it isas the ice melting into water, becoming the water. “We grew to have a lovingrelationship with that water.”

“That is who we are as human beings.”

George said Tsleil-Waututh men are instructed to first take careof their woman, then their children, family, community, and then themselves,while honoring their relationship with the Creator.

Serving as director of community development, he workswith day care and youth programs. The people want to incorporate the values ofhumanity and a spiritual way of life into these programs. These values are love,honor, respect, dignity, pride, forgiveness, passion, compassion and understanding.

“All of those things make us a human being.”

“When we have those within ourselves, how can we ignore thatconnection with nature.”

George remembered Phil Lane Jr., who was at home praying for the gatheringhere. Speaking to those gathered, he said, “Wherever you go home to, I knowyou’ll be like a pebble in a pond and you will ripple out to the people.”

At home in British Columbia, George’s people in the area ofBurrard Inlet are fighting the crude oil tankers coming from the tarsands inAlberta, Canada, and the clear cutting that is leading to the snow and glaciersthat are melting.

“The most powerful thing that brought us through these timesis prayer.”

Seventy percent of British Columbia citizens opposeoil tankers of the pipelines. He said if they were the owners of those oil pipelinesand tankers, they would make decisions to make better choices.

The work that is underway is to maintain the spiritualconnection with the land and water, and the ice melting into the water. “That’swho we are.”

He said this work of following the ways of the ancestors, isso all people can make better choices.

“It is not only for our children,” he said, “It is also forthe people who are causing this destruction.” That includes the 1 percent whoare making the money at the tarsands and with the clear cutting. Perhaps oneday they will have that connection and not be clouded by the need for wealth andpower, he said.

The greatest gift is the connection to this earth, the connectionto one another, the gift to breathe clean air, the gift to drink clean waterand the gift to walk upon this earth.

“Let’s go home to our territories and talk of this.”

“Let’s lead and let’s make something beautiful happen.”