Lillooet November 2021
Dear Eldon Yellowhorn,
My name is Michael and I was given your name by my sister, April, as someone knowledgeable, wise and trustworthy. She was attending archaeology studies there some time ago. I am sending a mailing of some objects that I have found and cared for over many years. I am a grandfather now and contemplating many things with a deepened awareness. I have recently felt strongly that the correct thing to do is to place these items in the care of another who can rightly see them settle in the best places for them, going forward into the future we are growing. I had no bad intent in holding these items, indeed I was proud to have them in my care. My strong feeling now is that they need to go home.
The two points are from Helen Point, on Mayne Island, here in B. C. My wife, I and my two small sons were hiking through in the 80s on vacation and a local lady lady came to talk with us as we fished in Active Pass. I told her my East Texas Cherokee story and she told the story of the very beach we were on. She said we hadn’t ought to be there but that she saw no harm after speaking with us. She was searching for points and told me that I had her permission to go in the woods to look for my first eagle feather. I found one and gave it to her, as she had instructed me according to her custom. I soon found another, which I took to heart and home. My wife found the points while I was in the forest. We always kept them in a place of honour where ever we lived after that.
The chunk of limestone is from Tikal, in Guatemala where I wandered when I was 20 back in 1977. I believe it to be a piece of the crumbling wall of one of the Mayan temples down there. There were no organized “tours” in those days. A runway lit by oil drums and a rickety small plane, were the extent of luxuries and management.
The pottery shard was found in Houston, Texas and could have come from anywhere. It was found in the apartment of a man who had been arrested by police and was never seen again. His apartment was full of many such things and I, as a curious fourteen year old “found” the piece while the apartment was being ransacked by police.
Finally, I want to express my thanks to you for all that you are doing and have done for Indigenous people. I first became aware of the Canadian Residential School truths after reading the books of Kevin Annet and listening to the songs of an aboriginal man, Archie Roach. The work I understand that you are doing now is so important and takes a very strong heart. I pray that my package is of no annoyance to you or your colleagues.
~Sugar Beets~
No longer can hockey pride
keep our maple-kilt myths alive,
when in residential schools, so many died
while pope-mobiles carted predatory priests
and fiduciary pundits sowed sugar beets;
now faces are splashed on the daily news
of the psychopaths who ran those zoos
and quiet ships with hingéd booms
offload chemical barrels
for hidden rooms
Sincerely, Michael Hawes