Abstract
Hundreds of mourners stood in solemn repose as the blanketed coffin was lowered into the ground. Pallbearers lined both sides of the grave; all were leaders of the American Indian Movement, and each wore a four-color armband matching the stripes of the white trade blanket. As soon as the coffin had settled into place, they offered a raised-fist salute to their fallen comrade, then cut off their armbands and threw half into the tomb. Journalists tracked the committal service, photographers and cameramen elbowing their way through the crowd in search of the elusive angle. When it was over Nelson and Florence Small Legs said goodbye to their eldest son one last time, then turned and walked away, embracing as they wept.1
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Notes
Wendy Gray and Sam Erasmus, “A.I.M. Leader Stages Protest Suicide,” Native People 9, no. 1 (1976): 1–2; Barry Nelson, “Mourners Gather for Small Legs’ Burial,” Calgary Herald, May 22, 1976, 1–2; Joan Ryan, Wall of Words: The Betrayal of the Urban Indian (Toronto, Ontario: PMA Books, 1978), xv–xvi; Duane Champagne, ed., The Native North American Almanac: A Reference Work on Native North Americans in the United States and Canada (Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1994), 1163.
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Alanis Obomsawin, Christmas at Moose Factory, produced by Wolf Koenig, directed by Alanis Obomsawin (Montreal, Quebec: National Film Board of Canada, 1971), 16mm film, 13 min.; Speaking Together: Canada’s Native Women (Ottawa, Ontario: Secretary of State, 1975), 104–105; Alanis Obomsawin, Mother of Many Children, produced and directed by Alanis Obomsawin (Montreal, Quebec: National Film Board of Canada, 1977), 16mm film, 58 min.; Zuzana Pick, “Storytelling and Resistance: The Documentary Practice of Alanis Obomsawin,” in Gendering the Nation: Canadian Women’s Cinema, edited by Kay Armatage, Kass Banning, Brenda Longfellow, and Janine Marchessault (Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press, 1999), 76ff; National Film Board of Canada: Alanis Obomsawin, cited November 25, 2001, available from http://www.onf.ca/e/highlights/alannis_obomsawin.html.
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Paul Heelas, The New Age Movement: The Celebration of the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity (Oxford, England: Blackwell Publishers, 1996), 1–2, 5, 15–20, 28–29, 54–55, 84–90, 108–113.
Scott, May 30, 1979; Journal of Proceedings of the 29th Session of the General Synod (Toronto, Ontario: Anglican Church of Canada, 1980), 307–310; Hodgson and Kothare, Vision, 104, 13 5–136; John W. Friesen, Aboriginal Spirituality and Biblical Theology: Closer Than You Think (Calgary, Alberta: Detselig Enterprises, 2000), 148.
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John A. Price, Native Studies: American and Canadian Indians (Toronto, Ontario: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1978), 67, 95, 108–111; John A. Price, Indians of Canada: Cultural Dynamics (Salem, WI: Sheffield Publishing Company, 1979), 231, 236.
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“The Fifteenth Morley Ecumenical Conference for Indian Spiritual Life,” Messenger 2, no. 4 (1987): 5; Meili, “Lightning,” 1; “Some Make Admirable Attempts to Put Spirituality Back in Place,” 6; Dianne Meili, Those Who Know: Profiles of Alberta’s Native Elders (Edmonton, Alberta: NeWest Press, 1991), 81–82.
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© 2003 James Treat
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Treat, J. (2003). “To Implement Meaningful Change”. In: Around the Sacred Fire. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-05175-2_10
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