Indian: Winnipeg

Mixed Marriage Dept: As a child of this mixed marriage, I had no status, and never felt the need for it, according to Globe and Mail. For me, the decision not to seek status was one of resistance, and of pride. I knew where I came from, who my people were, and a government telling me that I was an Indian would not make me any more so. I was raised in the city, I never lived on the reserve, and I did not need support from my mother s band to pursue an education. I found that the way to strengthen my connection to my roots and to my culture was through work, through education, through my elders and my teachers, whom I found in books, and in schools and on the streets of the cities in which I lived, Winnipeg and Saskatoon and Toronto and dear Mrs. Nolan, it read, thank you for applying to become an Indian. I knew I was Indian because I was my mother s daughter. I knew I was Indian because my little brother s elementary-school teacher lifted his long hair in disgust and called him a dirty little Indian. I knew I was Indian because in the summers we would travel from Winnipeg to my mother s home community of Kitigan Zibi, where we would live in the bush with my aunties and uncles and cousins in my grandparents camp. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.