When the Europeans came to North
America they were not the first settlers. The Europeans took advantage of the
First Nations people. “They traded these pelts at the Hudson’s Bay Company… the
white man’s, goods … the Indians, found made life a little easier in that cold
place.” They were able to obtain furs and other goods for a low price. The
Native’s pay was very minimal, and the government was able to seize control of
the country. Later on the Natives got so used to the assistance of guns for
hunting and the ability to buy tasty, unhealthy foods that they were completely
incapable of being self- sufficient and had to rely on Europeans to be able to
have a simple meal.
Once the Government was able to control
the natives they took their children and forced their culture on them: “Then
they told them that they were no longer allowed to speak Cree. If they did
their mouths would be washed out with soap and they would be struck with a
switch.” But, they were rewarded when they did praiseworthy things in the form
of a sugary and sweet candy. “When the children were very good, they were given
a hard candy, sweet and brightly coloured, that they sucked on until the candy
became a silver then disappeared.” Later on in the Sugar Girl’s life the sugar
turned into an addiction and became her downfall.
Once the Sugar Girl was finally free
from the residential schools and the nuns she was unable to obtain basic
necessities such as food and clothing. Luckily she was given a little money
from the government. Once she was old enough she had her first taste of alcohol
and she later became addicted to it just like she was with sugar. “There were
mornings when the Sugar Girl would wake up sick, wanting alcohol.” She would
keep on sleeping with men and eventually got impregnated and had a son she
never was able to find a person that she actually loved and cared for to have a
child with.
Once the Sugar Girl had a child she
tried to get her life back together and be free from her abuse and problems.
“For a short time when she was pregnant and when she was breastfeeding her
baby, the Sugar Girl felt as healthy and happy as she had as a child”
Unfortunately, the memories of the nuns abusing her became the only way she
knew how to raise her child. “Sometimes it was easier to do what the nuns had
done to her, and spank her boy when he was naughty, and quiet him with candy,
and feed him the same things she ate.” She tried her best to remember the
proper way to raise her child, in the way that she was raised by her parents,
but she could barely remember her upbringing.
The Sugar Girl’s addiction to alcohol
and sugar was too strong and she fell back into her old ways. “She saw it in
the grocery store, at the restaurant, in her home.” She constantly thought that
her addictions comforted her but it was exactly the opposite; it was slowly killing
her from the inside out. She started to get sicker and sicker but her son
wasn’t able to help her because he was taken to the same school and forced into
the same abuse she had to live with. “The son suffered the fate of a
residential school child, and in painful ways, at the hands of certain sick
men, that his mother had fortunately never faced.”
The alcohol and sugar finally got to
the Sugar Girl and she passed away. When a child suffers from abuse they turn
to anything that is able to comfort them and they disregard the fact that it might
be unhealthy. This will eventually turn to addiction and the child’s life will
be changed irrecoverably.
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