CHAPTER IV
Civilian Life
After demobilization Tommy Prince returned to the Brokenhead Reserve. Like many other returned veterans, he found that few things had changed. He once again turned to the drudgery of a lumberjack's life.
Hard work in pulpwood camps and heavy drinking became Tommy's lifestyle. Carousing on weekends became his major form of recreation and, as is usually the case, trouble arose. In 1946, while attending a dance, a woman attacked him with a broken beer bottle. His right cheek was badly cut and required 64 stitches. This incident was a turning point in his life, for he resolved to leave the reserve and get a job in Winnipeg.
Unskilled as he was, the only job available was as a cleaner and he went to work for the Bradford Janitor Service. He quickly learned the skills involved and determined to establish his own business.
In order to assist veterans to reenter civilian life, the Department of Veterans' Affairs had created re-establishment credit based on months of war service. Prince used his money to purchase a half-ton panel truck and all necessary cleaning equipment, such as sponges, mops, cleaners and polisher, and began to take contract work from his previous employer as well as from private individuals. Business was going well when he heard another call to duty.
For some time the Indians of Manitoba, through their provincial organization, the Manitoba Indian Association, had been seeking a strong spokesman. On December 1, 1946, the chiefs unanimously chose Prince as their chairman and gave him extensive powers to negotiate on their behalf with the federal government. It was an opportune time to chose a new leader for the government had recently announced the formation of a Special Parliamentary Committee to revise the Indian act.
The Indians had five major areas of concern. They sought better housing, improved educational facilities and opportunities, financial assistance to start farms and small businesses, money for the improvement of roads on reserves, and a halt to the slow encrouchment of their hunting, fishing and trapping rights.
Prince had strong feeling about all five concerns and felt that he could ably represent the Indians. He arranged to have friends operate his small but profitable cleaning business, and threw himself into the task of preparing a major brief for presentation to the committee. Consulting with Indian bands throughout the province, he developed arguments for the changes in government policy that were reasoned and abundantly documented. The brief was written in a clear, straightforward manner that made evident what the basic issues were.
On June 5, 1947, the brief was presented to the Parliamentary Committee In an eloquent and emotional introduction, Prince pointed out that over 3,000 Indians had served in the army during the war. These men had broadened their knowledge of Canada and now, he argued, should be given the opportunity to provide leadership among their fellow Indians. They needed money to start businesses and farms which would employ band members. While Indians were "catching up" with the rest of society, Prince argued that their special rights to fish, hunt and trap must be protected until the transition to a modern lifestyle had been made.
He was bewildered and frustrated by the legal verbiage used to counter his arguments. The committee hearings dragged on for two months and each day Prince became more discouraged Angry at the lack of progress, he tried to persuade representatives from other provinces to travel to London and make a special plea to King George VI, a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, with whom the first treaties had been signed.
Although some minor changes were made in the Indian Act, the life of the Indian people was to remain largely unchanged. One thing was impressed upon his mind at the committee hearings. He came to realize that the Indians lacked prestige. Non-Indian society viewed them as rather simple-minded people who were not capable of making a contribution to Canada. The changing of this view became an obsession with him. Somehow or other, the prestige of Indians had to be raised as a first step towards future progress.
Meanwhile, on returning to Winnipeg with the intention of building his small cleaning business into a prosperous firm, a great shock awaited him. The business no longer existed. His "friends" had smashed the truck in a car accident and sold it for scrap. All his other equipment had disappeared. Heartbroken, Prince returned to life as a lumberjack, and spent the next couple years cutting pulpwood for a paper mill at Pine Falls in the winters and working in a local cement plant in the summers.
During the summer months, he resided on the reserve and entered fully into the traditional sharing habits of Indians. He shared his earnings with relatives and friends by supplying food and liquor to those who had little or none. He opened his house to those who needed a place to stay for a night, a week, or a month. As is so often the case with generous people, Prince's sharing and hospitality were often abused by some who were simply too lazy to work. At times he still spoke wistfully of starting up as little business of some sort but he never seemed able to save any money.
When the opportunity came to enlist for service in the Korean war, Prince was one of the first to volunteer. He was to make a further contribution to the prestige of Indians by performing more heroic deeds in that distant conflict.
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