I am my mother's son
As I started writing for the content for this website I was drawn to start therapy with an Indigenous psychologist from the Turtle Island reservation. She is of Cree/Ojibwa/Métis decent and practices a psychological discipline known as depth psychology. This form of therapy has no goal other than to reconnect us with our authentic selves. In an early session with her, She said "Once we return to the total being that we actually are everything else in our lives just falls into place".
My name is Brad Mix, Red River Métis, and closing in on seventy years of age and starting to think that if I don’t start sharing what I’ve experienced and learned during my life through personal struggle and reflection, traditional ceremony, as well as the extensive family research I've done, it will all go with me to the grave, along side the many other untold Métis stories that death has irretrievably snatched away from us.
I apologize in advance for the following narrative that could be misconstrued as name dropping or self agrandizement, However, I think the story I have to tell must be contextualized by the recognition of the epic events, familial relationships with the Great Metis leaders, the traumas endured, and the contributions of my family on behalf of the Métis people for my perspectives and opinions to be understood.
I was born in the Icelandic village of Gimli, Manitoba on the shore of lake Winnipeg, New Years Eve, 1954. I am the first born (only) son of Joan Delores Smith, daughter of Josephine Sauve the daughter of Charles Sauve (who along with Louis Lavallée, was sent by the Métis National Committee to retrieve the remains of Louis Riel after his execution for leading the Métis' North West Resistance in 1885). Josephine was also the God Daughter of Joseph Riel (the younger brother of Louis Riel who stepped into the role of spiritual touchstone for the Métis cause after Louis' death). Josephine was the daughter of Julie Lariviere and the granddaughter of Arsinoe Nault a first cousin of Louis Riel and sister of the hero of Batoche Napoleon Nault and Amable Nault both Veterans who fought along side Louis Riel during the North West Resistance. After the death of her father (Charles), Josephine was entrusted with the safe keeping of Louis Riel's Batoche Journal, a deeply personal record of Riel's spiritually motivated struggle to help Indigenous peoples, that included his thoughts and visions and the consequences of his decisions and actions. Josephine kept the Journal in her possession from 1932 to the late 1960's.
And lastly, Josephine was my Grandmother, and the person most trusted and responsible for raising me during my early toddler years which were marked by abandonment by both my Mother and my Father.
