By: Krystine Nichols
Biography
My name is Kevin Littlelight, and I am one of the council members of the Tsuu
T'ina band. I grew up on a reserve Southwest of Calgary. I currently work on LittleLight Angus Ranch and I also write, produce, and direct
films for my own company “Thunderhorse films.” In the summer of 2004, one of
my short films, "Samurai Kid" was featured in the Calgary Society of
Independent Filmmaker’s ImagineNATIVE("Zoominfo: Kevin Lttlelight," 2012). I studied English and Psychology at
Mount Royal College and graduated with a degree in 2011 (facebook).
During my time as a Council member, the Tsuu T'ina band signed the First Nations Land Management Regime. This gave my tribe the ability to fully manage our own land, and allowed for faster economic development. Under this regime the band has been working on creating a “proper place for the Redwater sewage” (Littlelight, 2012). However upon building these pipes, we discovered that an individual had recently poured concrete into the existing sewage system; creating a blockage (Littlelight, 2012). The we had no choice but to divert the sewage to a reseve because the pipes had been shut down for little over a week. Unfortunately the reserve was the forest floor just 500 meters away from the Elbow River. Under the my direction, the pipe has been fixed, and we are now working on the cleanup of the forest (Tsuu T'ina confirms,, 2012). This is not the first form of financial vandalism that we have faced. This is just an example of the various forms of animosity that the Aboriginal people deal with on a day to day basis.
Over two thirds of
the population that live in Inuvik is aboriginal, and more than one fifth of
the population makes less than 30,000 dollars a year ("Inuvik: statistical profile"). It is disgusting that an
individual vandalize an organization, such as the food bank, that it trying to
help the families in need. This non-profit group now needs to start over. In addition
to acquiring the essentials again, they also need to invest in cameras, steel
bars and various other security precautions ("Vandals trash inuvik,," 2012)
It seems like across the country aboriginal people are being
sabotaged financially. The money that is needed to set up a security system
could have gone to better use; such as building a playground for the children.
Over the summer my community was too struck by various forms of financial
sabotage such as: pouring concrete in the sewage pipes, and people driving on
our greens on the golf course (Littlelight, 2012)
When will people see that we are just like you? What good
does it do to vandalize a food bank, or to pour concrete into a sewage system?
What does this prove?
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/kevin.littlelight
Inuvik: statistical profile . (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.statsnwt.ca/community-data/Profile PDF/Inuvik.pdf
Windspeaker, S. N. (2012). Land management regime gives more control to nations. Aboriginal multi media society, 29(12), Retrieved from http://www.ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/land-management-regime-gives-more-control-nations
Yahoo Newshttp://ca.news.yahoo.com/photos/tsuu-tina-band-administrator-kevin-littlelight-says-nation-photo-195659316.html
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