Sagkeeng is a nice place to visit but would you live there

One of the homes on the North Shore of the Reserve. The Reserve is separated by the Winnipeg River. There is a Sweat Lodge in the yard.
There are Sweat Lodges all over the Reserve.








This is the Turtle Lodge. It was a Vision of one of the local Traditional Teachers Mr. Dave Courchene Jr. His dad was a very powerful Leader in the Native community He had a strong vision for the People. Mr Courchene, he is very busy doing Teachings all over the place.














This is the Ceremony grounds. Ceremonies are done here. The old lodges are left to decay on their own. People build new one every year. People also do Ceremonies at their own homes.






Poncho, my brother, he was supposed to be dead long time ago, but he keeps on going. He was in a very bad car accident years ago. He had to get a blood transfusion. He was given Hepatitis C from that blood. There was a big scandal in Canada, where many people received tainted blood.













This is the entrance to the Reserve.Sagkeeng is also part of Treaty 3 territory.















My sister Jean's house. It was purchased by her & Chris. Chris is gone now,cancer.














Oops this is not the Reserve, it's the farm and my brother-in-laws house out in the interlake of Manitoba.











Yes, I do love my Community. There are a lot of good people there.


The Reserve has a few small businesses that individuals try make a go. Some are successful, while many fail. But people keep going, keep trying to do new things there. The neighbour town benefits from the population of the Reserve and our numbers. Numbers create buying power. That power equates into thriving business in the town. You know Indians, they have a buck and they will spend a buck. Very good at driving the economy. Stimulus spending that's what Indians are. Actually it is a phenomenon of the poor. Poor people spend what they have. That's what drives an economy in some sense.

Sadly for the Town their paper mill closed down.They lost a lot of jobs. No real other industry in the area. The Reserve is an artificial economy, driven by social programs, education dollars and governance money. The jobs are all in the 'civil' area. No production dollars to be made. If it were not for the transfer payments from the Federal government to the Reserve, it would be a dead community. Sad, because the community is on the mouth of the Lake and has the river running through the Reserve. It's beautiful. Rich in that sense. We have to start appreciating the river and the land more. We have it nice there. Except for the social and economic ills its actually a very nice place to live. :)

This is now Poncho's house it was the house I grew up in. Nine of us kids. He put an addition to it on the east side of the house. We live on the south shore of the Reserve. You go east and drive through the town and cross over the river at the hydro dam, to get onto the north shore side of the Reserve.



Across the way is my cousin PutPut's store. She has a good little business going. A hardware/convrnience store.

The Personal Care Home, George M. Guimond. He and a number of the old people got the Care home going. He was my Uncle. Married to my Auntie Waabas. They are both gone now.