Rod Bishop Interview

Rod was interviewed in La Ronge, Saskatchewan. He was one of the leaders involved in the creation of the Métis Association of Saskatchewan. Rod was the president of the Association of Métis in Prince Albert and then the vice president of the Métis Society of Saskatchewan. Rod grew up in Green Lake. He recalls that at the population traded with European traders and that the area was fertile . Moreover, they worked in the logging industry around Big River, Dory Lake, and Green Lake. Rod claims that the Canadian government sought to assimilate the indigenous peoples and the Métis in various ways. For example, the missionaries tried to remove their cultural identity through catechism. Furthermore, the school system culpably ignored the "Riel Resistance" or the war of 1885 as educational topics. When he grew up, he realized he was living in a "white supremacy society." His father was an educated leader and much appreciated by his community - He was sometimes at odds with the government or the church, fighting for the rights of his community, e.g. fishing rights for Green Lake. For this reason, Rod’s father had a hard time finding work in his district. He highlights the fraction in the Métis diaspora, after the Riel Resistance. In general, “the Metis people in the north really developed completely separately from the Metis of the Red River and Saskatchewan Valley.” From 1948 to the mid-fifties, the government relocated some Métis families in Green Lake (from “Punnichy, Lestock, Balgonie, just south of P.A. around Kinistina, Glen Mary”), promising them land and a house - which they never received. Rod also discusses the experiences he had growing up and receiving limited and religious healthcare, his experiences in a trade union, Indigenous political movements, the provincial Liberals and CCF, and how the government uses welfare as a "suppressive weapon." --------------- Keywords: Fur Trade, Federal Governance, Religion, Racism, Employment, Resource Degradation, Land use (Subsistence Patterns), Warfare, Community Breaking/Fracture, Housing, Elections, Treaties