To the family and friends of Clement Roy Doore, I send you greetings from my home in Cape Breton Nova Scotia.
The past few days have been saddened on receiving the news that my Nishnabe friend, Clement had passed away.
In September of 1961, at the age of 21, I arrived at the Crowfoot Indian Residential School located on The Blackfoot Indian Reserve . I was to take up my new position of Industrial Arts teacher along with a few other teachers from various parts of Canada.
My first impression was not the most positive. Coming from a forested province surrounded by water to what appeared to be miles of flat, dry grassland and clear blue sky was discouraging.
Not a tree or bush , and very few of them, that wasn't planted by human hands.
My new classroom/ workshop was located a short distance from the main building , it was rather rundown and might at one time had been a small house. There were open cracks in the floor and a broken window. I was advised that I would have to start up the oil space heater every morning before class. There was no water or washroom and if you had to “go” it meant a trip to the main building.
Needless to say, I was not a happy camper and took it up with the principal at the time , Father Fortier , who moved me to a newer and better location.
I was not used to the names that appeared on my class register. Allan Running Rabbit, George Calf Robe, Roy Drunken Chief, Cheryl Cat Face , and Sammy Born With A Tooth surprised me.
Getting around without a car was problematic. If you wanted to mail a letter or pick up groceries at Louie Hongs General store you had to see who might be going into town.
To see a movie or get a haircut meant a day trip to Calgary where the tallest building was the four story Hudson's Bay Company.
In the spring of 1962 I bought my first car, a Volkswagon Sports car which I didn't know how to drive. Sylvia Marsh, also from Cape Breton taught me to drive. With only a week of practice I flunked my first driving test.
Nineteen Sixty Two was the year of the Seattle World Fair in Washington State where my older sister and two brothers resided. I was desperate to go to the once in a life-time event.
None of the other teachers were interested and the thought of going alone was daunting. Sylvia suggested I ask one of the high school boys who already had driving licenses and suggested Clement who was not a student of mine, but I knew who he was from seeing him at basketball. With his parents' permission we were off to Seattle. Stayed with my relatives and did the tour, souvenirs and all. (Later I found Clement did a story about his trip for the school newspaper. )
In the summer of sixty-two, I had a job in Calgary and would go back to the reserve on weekends. Sometimes I would hook up with Clement who taught me how to ride a horse. Smokey was more smoke than fire, which was fine with me. We once did a cattle drive to the Running Rabbit farm for branding and other stuff.
He also invited me, on horses, to the sundance festival on the flats by the river. White folks were not usually invited.
That same fall, Clement attended Agriculture College at Olds. On weekends, the other teachers or I would pick him up and drive him back. Clement became one of the gang and would be our guide to picnics by the river where he would make a fire so we could do hot dogs.
One night, rather bored, he decided we should all take a drive to the sandhills which was an old Indian burial ground. The road to the sandhills is very soft sandy with deep ruts. It's very dark and scary with the bushes scraping the sides of the car. I'll never forget how glad we were to get outta there. Clement thought it was very funny. That's Clement!
The following summer, in 1963, I once again persuaded Clement to help me with the drive home to Nova Scotia which takes four days through all the major cities. There was no such thing as G P S, but thanks to his amazing sense of direction we never once got lost. Along the way we stopped at Niagra Falls, Toronto and Montreal.
I picked up some Blackfoot words and expressions, some traditional cultural customs which I found most interesting . The kids had Indian nick names for all the teachers, based on their real names such as Miss Train (Extsenagasie ) Bea Cepka was ( Namoo )which I believe is Bee. So the teachers never knew when they were talking about them.
After I got to know him better, I kind of saw that Clement was a natural leader and that one day he would be of service to his people. Just the experience of having travelled across the country and spending time out of his comfort zone could be valuable some day.
Clement and I parted company when I became tired of our cold Canadian winters and left Crowfoot for California in June of 1964. Patrick Ryan accompanied me and did most of the driving. Patrick passed away in 2022.
Later I learned that Clement returned to Nova Scotia to do a course in Community Studies at the world famous Coady Institute in Antigonish where Jade is currently studying.
I made several attempts to locate Clement after finding some yearbooks from Crowfoot. No help from the Post Office in Cluny due to confidentiality stuff. So, I knew about the R C M P detachment in Gleichen, and that is how I was able to contact him. I did have the pleasure of some great phone chats and was able to do some catching up. Plans for getting together changed because of his health and my own family issues.
