Verla Chatsis
Although I am a member of Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation in north-central Saskatchewan, I didn't grow up there. My mother, Noreen, was from Ahtahkakoop, and my father, Donald, from Poundmaker Cree Nation. We never lived on a reserve because my father was disenfranchised when he was a teenager-so we were non-status Indians, with my mother losing her treaty rights when she married my dad.
At the time my parents met, my dad was in the Army, stationed in Chilliwack, BC, where my sister and I were born. After my dad was eventually discharged from the army, he worked in a copper mine for a few years in the...
