Intertribal Life Newspaper -

I grew up in Cumberland House, northeastern Saskatchewan. It's kind of an isolated place, about 200 km northeast from Nipawin, a larger town. The community is on an island in a delta region of the Saskatchewan River. Some of the people are still involved in fishing, hunting and trapping. My father was mainly a fisherman, so I grew up eating a lot of fish! As a kid, many times I went out with him in his boat, and then in the winter there was ice fishing, as well.

I wish I could say that Cumberland was a great place to grow up but, especially in my teen years, there were negative things. My mom...