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Stoney Creek Woman: The Story of Mary John
IN 1932, ANTHROPOLOGIST DIAMOND JENNESS published a comprehensive work, The Indians of Canada, in which he examined the Carrier tribe in central British Columbia.
"...the Carrier do not understand the complex civilization that has broken like a cataract over their heads, and they can neither ride the current nor escape it. The white settlers around them treat them with contempt and begrudge them even the narrow lands the government has set aside for them.
"So they will share the fate of all, or nearly all, the tribes of British Columbia and disappear unnoticed within three or four generations."
Several generations later, the indominatibility of the Carrier people has not gone unnoticed. Bridget Moran's Stoney Creek Woman: The Story of Mary John (Tillicum/Pulp $9.95) is a memoir that also chronicles the Carrier tribe from the time of the arrival of missionaries and settlers in the Bulkley Valley to the present.
At the core of the book is the inspirational story of Mary John of the Stoney Creek Reserve, a dignified survivor of racism and innumerable tragedies. Now 76 years old, John became Vanderhoof's Citizen of the Year in 1979.
"Over the years, between 1930, when I was 17, and 1949, when I was 36, I had 12 children, six girls and six boys. Some were born in the village, some on the' trapline or at our hunting grounds. "Not one of my children was born in a hospital. My mother acted as a midwife for me; when I lost her, my aunts or other relatives were with me.
"Some of the midwives practised the old ways of Native medicine. We call it the laying on of hands. We believe that some Native women have a gift of healing in their hands. ..
"And oh, that cup of tea that was brought to me after each child was born tasted so good!"
Mary John's story has been transferred into prose by Prince George's Bridget Moran, a social worker and Native advocate who first visited Stoney Creek Indian Reservation in 1954. Born in 1923 in Northern Ireland, Moran made headlines in 1972 when she was evicted from the visitors' gallery in the Victoria legislature in 1972 for staging an anti-poverty protest.
Moran and Mary John met in 1976 at the time of an inquest into the death of another Stoney Creek woman, Coreen Thomas.
"I have vivid memories of Mary at that inquest," says Moran, "I remember watching her gather some of the young people together, speaking softly to them, advising them to tell the truth...
"Time after time, as we talked together, I have heard her reconcile the irreconcilables, and laugh at the doing of it." attended the Roman Catholic Church in Stoney Creek village with her, for example, and I heard that wonderful voice of hers soar over all the other parishioners as she sang, 'How Great Thou Art'."
Mary John acknowledges the hardheartedness of nuns and priests who controlled native residential schools, and she believes the Canadian government and the church have destroyed her people's language and culture. Nonetheless she remains a devout Catholic. Now into its third printing, Stoney Creek Woman received the Lieutenant Governor's Medal for Historical Writing from the B.C. Historical Federation in May. In January Moran was also the recipient of the Jeanne Clarke Memorial Award for local history. Today there are approximately 540 Stoney Creek Indians, compared to 166 in 1929.
[Summer/BCBW 1989]
"...the Carrier do not understand the complex civilization that has broken like a cataract over their heads, and they can neither ride the current nor escape it. The white settlers around them treat them with contempt and begrudge them even the narrow lands the government has set aside for them.
"So they will share the fate of all, or nearly all, the tribes of British Columbia and disappear unnoticed within three or four generations."
Several generations later, the indominatibility of the Carrier people has not gone unnoticed. Bridget Moran's Stoney Creek Woman: The Story of Mary John (Tillicum/Pulp $9.95) is a memoir that also chronicles the Carrier tribe from the time of the arrival of missionaries and settlers in the Bulkley Valley to the present.
At the core of the book is the inspirational story of Mary John of the Stoney Creek Reserve, a dignified survivor of racism and innumerable tragedies. Now 76 years old, John became Vanderhoof's Citizen of the Year in 1979.
"Over the years, between 1930, when I was 17, and 1949, when I was 36, I had 12 children, six girls and six boys. Some were born in the village, some on the' trapline or at our hunting grounds. "Not one of my children was born in a hospital. My mother acted as a midwife for me; when I lost her, my aunts or other relatives were with me.
"Some of the midwives practised the old ways of Native medicine. We call it the laying on of hands. We believe that some Native women have a gift of healing in their hands. ..
"And oh, that cup of tea that was brought to me after each child was born tasted so good!"
Mary John's story has been transferred into prose by Prince George's Bridget Moran, a social worker and Native advocate who first visited Stoney Creek Indian Reservation in 1954. Born in 1923 in Northern Ireland, Moran made headlines in 1972 when she was evicted from the visitors' gallery in the Victoria legislature in 1972 for staging an anti-poverty protest.
Moran and Mary John met in 1976 at the time of an inquest into the death of another Stoney Creek woman, Coreen Thomas.
"I have vivid memories of Mary at that inquest," says Moran, "I remember watching her gather some of the young people together, speaking softly to them, advising them to tell the truth...
"Time after time, as we talked together, I have heard her reconcile the irreconcilables, and laugh at the doing of it." attended the Roman Catholic Church in Stoney Creek village with her, for example, and I heard that wonderful voice of hers soar over all the other parishioners as she sang, 'How Great Thou Art'."
Mary John acknowledges the hardheartedness of nuns and priests who controlled native residential schools, and she believes the Canadian government and the church have destroyed her people's language and culture. Nonetheless she remains a devout Catholic. Now into its third printing, Stoney Creek Woman received the Lieutenant Governor's Medal for Historical Writing from the B.C. Historical Federation in May. In January Moran was also the recipient of the Jeanne Clarke Memorial Award for local history. Today there are approximately 540 Stoney Creek Indians, compared to 166 in 1929.
[Summer/BCBW 1989]
Submitted on February 5, 2004 in By David.
