LIVING WITH A PURPOSE
NOEL STARBLANKET HAS CONTRIBUTED TO INDIGENOUSE LIFE AS A POLITICIAN, EDUCATOR AND ELDER
Noel Starblanket was eating at a restaurant when someone said the only good Indian is a dead Indian.
It was shortly after Gerald Stanley was found not guilty in the shooting death of Colten Boushie, an Indigenous man. Starblanket had heard reports of from Indigenous people witnessing bigotry in the province following the trial’s conclusion in February, but didn’t want to believe it.
Starblanket’s partner, Reona Brass, first heard someone make the comments at a nearby table. Able to see that something was bothering her, Starblanket asked what was wrong.
Brass told him to start listening at what the people were saying, and he did.
Then he got angry.
"It was just really evident that these people were feeling very confident about their position, and they were starting to get a little bit louder,” said Brass.
Starblanket called one of the men who had made the racist comments over to his table.
"I told him ‘I couldn’t help but overhear what you were saying’, and I asked him ‘What do you think would happen if I pointed a gun at your head, and the gun went off accidentally and it shot you in the head and killed you?’ I said ‘What do you think a white jury would do to me as an Indian?’ ”
Brass said it got tense. The man became defensive. Brass said he began patronizing Noel, speaking to him as if he were a child. That only made it worse.
“I said ‘Now get out of here. Go talk somewhere else out of earshot of people like me.’ I said ‘because I’m not going to stand for it.’ "
Now serving as an elder who frequently speaks about reconciliation, Starblanket has a demeanour many describe as calming. He is soft-spoken, but he can also be the tenacious man who became chief of his reserve at just 24, a man who was not afraid to stand up for his people in the face of the Canadian government, or in this case, a 71-year-old man no afraid to stand up in the face of racism.
Starblanket doesn’t work 12-hour days like he did when he was chief of Star Blanket Cree Nation, but he’s still very active. He works with the Office of the Treaty Commissioner, and also does extensive work when it comes to reconciliation. He speaks students about treaty history and residential schools for the Regina Board of Education. He does similar work at the University of Regina’s Office of Indigenization, and is an elder in residence at Scott Collegiate.
On top of all that, Starblanket sits on various committees at his home reserve. He is also frequently called upon to conduct ceremonies.
Stablanket is a widely respected elder on the Indigenous community, and is praised for possessing a wealth of spiritual and cultural knowledge. He wasn’t always that way though.
The rock star politician
Funky bass music plays while a 26-year-old Starblanket wearing a suede jacket struts down a city street.
A narrator describes Starblanket as an ambitious young chief who “delivers the goods.”
The scene is from a documentary, titled Starblanket, that was made by the National Film Board of Canada in 1974. It covers the early days of Starblanket’s rise in Indigenous politics at a young age.
The documentary depicts Starblanket as a rebel with a cause. He was willing to fight for his reserve using the government’s own politics against it.
“So I’ve learned the wit and the cunning of the white man, and now I’m going to pit it against him, and if he doesn’t like it that’s tough,” said Starblanket during the documentary.
Starblanket describes his younger self as full of “vim and vinegar.” A man who worked long hours to ensure anyone on his reserve who wanted a job could have one.
Leadership is in Starblanket’s blood. His great great grandfather, Wapi Moostosis White Buffalo Calf, was a signatory to treaty four. Starblanket’s father also previously served as chief of their reserve.
Starblanket exudes confidence in the documentary, and also also hostility. He’s gruff, and speaks tersely about supporting his people at the expense of the government.
“I want to see the white man kiss my Indians’ ass on my reserve,” said Starblanket in the documentary. In another scene, Starblanket makes derogatory comments about white women.
Starblanket doesn’t look back on his depiction in the documentary with much fondness, admitting some of his comments may have been seen as disrespectful.
“I was energetic, I was irascible, I was all of those things, being a young person, and said some pretty irreverent things,” said Starblanket.
Underneath Starblanket’s tough exterior was a lot of pain.
He spent 11 years at the Lebret Indian Industry Residential School. The abuses he suffered there, followed by the toxicity of politics, formed a combined trauma for Starblanket.
Dr. Blair Stonechild, a professor at the First Nations University of Canada, has known Starblanket for 60 years and also attended residential school with them. He described Starblanket the politician as blunt, aggressive man who didn’t mince words.
"By his own admission he was a bitter person, and I think his politics probably could be described as fairly confrontational and hardnosed,” said Stonechild.
At 29, Starblanket was elected president of the National Indian Brotherhood, what is today called the Assembly of First Nations. He was re-elected in 1978.
While he was reaching the height of Indigenous politics, Starblanket was at a low point spiritually.
“I was operating like a white man,” said Starblanket.
Cut off from his culture by his experience in residential school, he sought comfort in alcohol.
At the end of his second term in 1980, Starblanket decided he wanted a change. He quit politics and drinking.
He then began travelling all over North America in search of spiritu- ality. An elder later questioned Starblanket why he was seeking it in South Dakota or British Columbia when he could find it at home.
Starblanket took the advice, and started connecting with local elders who mentored him in Indigenous culture.
The spiritual side of his life began right here in Saskatchewan.
When asked to do ceremonies, Starblanket will hold out his pipe and refer to it as his degree.
“I studied this for 38 years, and so that’s a life-long acquisition of learning and it continues to this day,” said Starblanket.
Finding a new purpose
Starblanket’s political past precedes him to this day. His image as a young, bold politician has been passed down in stories, and immortalized in the documentary. However, it’s education that ended up being his true calling.
Starblanket got started in the field 10 years ago. He got a call from the Office of the Treaty Commissioner asking him to conduct a history seminar with teachers for their treaty certification. That slowly led to other opportunities.
Starblanket now visits the 50 public schools in the city to teach about Indigenous worldview, history and residential schools.
At Scott Collegiate, where Starblanket serves as the elder in residence, he shares traditional teachings with students.
Shannon Fayant, Scott Collegiate’s principal, said Starblanket has a soft gentleness that students are drawn to. Outside of their les- sons with Starblanket, students will often want to have lunch or smudge with him.
"They love him very much because he cares about them, and he will tell them that he cares about them,” said Fayant.
Starblanket said he appreciates the energy and open-mindedness of the youth. To say working in education has been fulfilling for Starblanket would be a gross understatement.
After exiting from politics, he wasn’t sure what his purpose would be. He’s found it now.
"If I die tomorrow I will have at least said I’ve lived my dream,” said Starblanket.
Starblanket’s wealth of knowledge and experiences is also being used at the University of Regina, where he works with the Office of Indigenization. The goal of the office is to make the U of R’s campus a welcoming place for Indigenous students, and to ensure that First Nations culture is reflected in campus life.
The knowledge he’s accrued isn’t readily available in textbooks, making him invaluable.
"It’s good to have people such as him who maintain their language and their culture and their teachings, because those are oral teachings. Those are teachings that are passed down from generation to generation, and that’s something that you cant find in a book, you can’t Google that information,” said Langan Goforth, a cultural and traditional knowledge keeper leader at the Office of Indigenization.
Reconciliation
The word apology is often used in the same sentence as reconciliation. It’s not a word Starblanket is fond of.
For him, an apology means nothing if it isn’t followed by action. He applauds efforts by teachers in Regina who are teaching Cree to their students, or the president of Campion Collage accompanying him to sun dance. That, Starblanket said, is real reconciliation.
"I’m not pushing for an apology. I’d rather see somebody doing something,” said Starblanket.
On a personal level, Starblanket has learned to forgive. He’s become good friends with members of the Catholic Church, despite having attended a Catholic residential school.
One of Starblanket’s friends in the church is Donald Bolen, Regina’s Roman Catholic Archbishop. The two met at a police round dance, and had dinner together shortly after. Bolen called Starblanket “an artisan of reconciliation,” and commended him for challenging the church.
“He helps us find a way forward, really insisting that we look honestly at the past and what happened in the residential school, but he’s not looking to punish, he’s looking to find healing for his people and for the church,” said Bolen.
While recent national headlines have focused on whether the church will officially apologize for residential schools, Bolen said he wants to work on reconciliation at a local level where he has influence and authority.