Regular visitors

Last year, they wandered down our street on Christmas Eve, no doubt on their way to join up with Santa's reindeer for the big annual voyage across the skies.  This year, about seven sauntered along in front of our house on Christmas Day night, no doubt relaxing after a long night of zooming over the world on their annual mission.

Welcome visitors in downtown Cochrane.

The deer in Cochrane are ubiquitous and fearless and, so it was cool to see them on our front lawn at the feeder in the moonlight last night, as they emptied it.  That was the height of our Christmas excitement; B has COVID, so we quarantined instead of celebrating with family.  Christmas feast?  We had beans and wieners:

Christmas dinner, ugh!

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The scourge of Alberta's natives.

"People have stopped counting how many people are dying of drug overdoses," said Will Jerry, an elder from the nearby Siksika Nation, in an essay on the problem in 'The National Post' the other day.  "We're burying people every two or three days," said Jerry.

It's so bad, first nations communities recently declared a state of emergency over the addiction crisis that is crippling reserves and extinguishing thousands of lives.  Millions are being poured into these communities in a vain attempt to stop it.

But money won't do it.  Neither will sweat lodges or smudging ceremonies.  As always, the colonialism trope is being blamed for the loss of Indigenous culture and the resultant drug crisis.  Really?  That's a cop-out, but people like Trevor Pelletier who spent six years working in the Siksika on-reserve shelter and recovery centre -- where 19 people have died from overdoses anyway in the past three years -- still insist that "pharmaceutical colonialism" is to blame.

That's a new one for me, but very creative in the blame-the-White-man game.  Prescription drugs are rampantly available everywhere in native communities because there's lots of money to be made.  Even children are becoming addicted and dying.  It's beyond tragic, but it's not White people who are selling the drugs; it's natives.

Why?  In my view because there's nothing else to do on reserves.  Diverted opioid drugs are the main industry.  The Indian Act must be abolished and replaced to enable natives to live off-reserve and lead productive and meaningful lives.

But it won't be because the act is how the money flows.  It's as simple as that, so residents stay there and die.  So many well-meaning politicians (well, maybe not well-meaning, but you get my drift) and recovering addicts are earnestly trying to fix the problem, but with nothing to do on reserves, and peer pressure and idleness ratcheting up the problem, it'll just keep happening.

"On first nations, we've got so much poverty that anything that can make money, like opioids, somebody's going to do it," added Jerry.

Poverty!?  Did Mr. Jerry miss the news that Chief Ouray Crowfoot just inked a juicy $1.3 billion land-claim settlement with the Canadian government -- over and above what the 3,479 souls who live there already get annually?  Time for Will Jerry to ask the chief:  "Where's the dough?!"

Something is very, very wrong and native leaders must be held accountable.

But they won't be.