Elder's Circle
Donnie Labobe's Story
“At one point in time around Lennox Island, you could look out the window
and see horses, cows, and other farm life. We were never hungry. Trading
goods was a big thing back then. For example, someone would kill
a goose and share the kill with everybody. It was believed that sharing
with others in need, brought good luck. Every time someone went out
hunting or fishing, they never came back empty handed. I always wondered
if they (anybody) would find a barrel of fish buried down at the cove.
Everybody shared or traded food. We had a great life, but it was
hard to live back then. Jabit, was a person I knew who made homemade butter
and cheese. When we would go out hunting or fishing, we would bring
back some goods. We would trade these goods for her homemade butter and
cheese. It was all fair. The only difference from then and today
is, they shared everything back then and today it is different.”
Another Story by Donnie LaBobe:
“I went to Shubie School. There you had to learn everything fast. If
you didn’t know how to fight, you would learn. ‘Cause everybody wanted
to try you out’. There was a girls' side and a boys' side.
One fella, George, thought he was a fireman. He and a couple of other guys
soaked all the dormitories with water. We all had a good laugh out
of that. It was quite a school. A person couldn’t even pass
wind without getting in trouble. You even got in trouble for telling on
somebody. Man, for that you would get the tar beaten out of you,
but everybody learned to take care of each other.
Marbles was a game we played in school. I will tell you one thing
it passed the time away when you were in a place you didn’t want to be.
Even though marbles isn’t a contact game, some of the kids would make it
a violent game. If somebody lost all their marbles, he would fight
with the person who won all his marbles and take them all back including
that person’s.
Shubie School was a strict school. We had our good times in that
school, but mostly bad ones. I was some happy when I got home from
that school. Never again! I would not go back to that school.
A person could not speak Indian in that school at all. If you were to get
caught speaking Indian you would be punished. English was the only
language we were allowed to speak. I saw a lot of Natives lose their
language in that place.”
Below is a collection of stories from a few of our elders in
the community.
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