First Nations Voice

PAGE 2 • FEBRUARY 2017 HOW TO CONTACT US OWNER/PUBLISHER/EDITOR of First Nations Voice Trevor Greyeyes (204.282-6341) All Rights Reserved. Phone 204.282-6341 Toll free 1-800-542-8900 E-mail: trevorgreyeyesnews@gmail.com 100-per-cent First Nations owned No material in First Nations Voice may be reproduced without permission of the copyright owner. First Nations Voice is published monthly by the First Nations Voice. All payments for advertisements in the First Nations Voice should be directed through the Winnipeg Free Press office. No out of office sales rep will collect cash outside of this office. Please direct questions to Trevor Greyeyes 204.282-6341. 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, MB Canada, R2X 3B6 Advertising Sales Laurie Finley, VP Special Projects / laurie.finley@freepress.mb.ca Barb Borden, Manager Niche Publishing 204.697.7389 / barb.borden@freepress.mb.ca Subscriptions $26.25 annually, payable to First Nations Voice c/o Winnipeg Free Press 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, MB Canada, R2X 3B6 ADVERTISING MATERIAL SPECIFICATIONS First Nations Voice creates an opportunity for advertisers, businesses and all levels of government to reach First Nations audiences in Saskatchewan, Manitoba andt Ontario. With a focus on training, education and employment opportunities, this publication serves to showcase opportunities available to First Nations and all Aboriginal people. All digital advertising files, whether on disk or delivered electronically, should be Mac compatible. Please include all files necessary for output. Call the Winnipeg Free Press pre-press department, 204-697-7020, for more information about file types accepted. The Free Press can also build your ad. Please contact your First Nations Voice ad sales rep for details. NEXT ISSUE: MARCH 1, 2017 The advertising deadline is February 16, 2017 For your ad placement and contents CONTACT TREVOR GREYEYES (204-282-6341) trevorgreyeyesnews@gmail.com By Jordan Wheeler In 1972 my family moved into a house on Ashburn Street. Two months later we moved out. It was too haunted for my mother's liking. We rented a house on Craig Street and mom bought the identical house next door when it came up for sale in 1977. Shortest move ever. Being a traditional family we had ceremonies in both houses over the years so spirits had made themselves known, but there was never a sense of a haunting. Not until we made some renovations in 2011. Apparently renovations stir the spirit pot. The last straw came one night when my stepdaughter was in our bed alone for a couple of minutes while the Mrs. came downstairs to check on me (I'd been up late writ- ing to a deadline and crashed on the couch). In that short time the bedside lamp turned itself off and the door slammed itself shut. The Mrs. found youngest stepdaughter curled up and shaking under the blanket. Who you gonna call? Ghost- busters! Or in our case a Medicine person who smudged our place out. The paranormal activity abated. A few years later John and Ur- sula, our neighbours to the north (the home I used to live in) moved out. Renovations were made and a new family moved in. Pot stirred. Soon enough Evelyn asked that awkward question. Were we expe- riencing paranormal activity? And we had been. The stirring of the pot had spilled over to our house, but in a benign way compared to what she described. Her entire family was seeing black shadows in hallways and coming up the basement stairs. They'd see an old man standing in the corner near the upstairs bathroom who tilted his head when he looked down. They saw a little girl walking around. A foam chair was ripped out of Evelyn's hands as she took it upstairs after her kids fought over it. When Evelyn had first visited the house, and John showed her around, he clearly bumped into something on their descent to the basement. "Don't worry, they mean no harm," he told her. Evelyn was no longer sure. We had both houses cleansed again and all was well for a couple of years until Evelyn entered a new relationship with a traditional Indigenous man and single father with a teenage daughter sensitive to said phenomena. The spirits awoke, culminating one late night when one grabbed Evelyn's side while she lay in bed. She was para- lyzed for a time, then broke free, called the boyfriend to pick her up and never slept in the house again. Cleansing a house, it seems, is not an exact science. Doing it once doesn't mean you won't have to do it again, and again, and again. Cleaning House

• Cover