The Storyteller Without Reservation

Bill is a Cree from northern Alberta. He was born and raised in the Whitefish Lake Cree Nation. He was sent away to residential school early in his childhood. He didn't make it easy on the people there. Actually, he wasn't allowed to go back.

And I thought about my Indian people, you know, when they would go into Kingman, my mom's tribe, the Haulapai's, only two or three of them could go into the store at one time. They wouldn't let a whole bunch of Indians in because we were Indians and they didn't trust us.

It's tough growing up when you feel like you don't fit in. For a little girl named Harriet, it was a lonely time. Listen as she reflects back on the early days of her life, and as she shares the most significant moment in her life... at a school away from home.

And I said, 'Do you happen to remember, back in 1949, your mother coming into possession of a little Apache Indian baby?' And she sucked in her breath - I heard it on the phone. And she said, 'Why, why yes. Why do you ask?' I said, 'Well I'm that baby.'

I remember, early on, wondering a whole lot about my place in the world and if there was any significance to my life, or was I just kind of drifting along here like a twig sitting on the waves of the ocean, no significance, no background, no future.

"Danny was the big man on campus. He was the meanest, toughest, most foul-mouthed boy on the ranch, and we all wanted to grow up and be just as tough and mean as he was. But he would kick us around, hit us, yell at us, force us to do his chores and things, just a very mean fellow, but one day Danny just changed, totally without any explanation, without any warning his life changed. His demeanor changed, his vocabulary changed everything about him, and nobody knew what had happened."