Fred Sasakamoose: The First Aboriginal NHL Player

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About a year ago, I had the privilege of listening to Fred Sasakamoose, the first Aboriginal NHL player. Fred came to my work, Cosmopolitan industries (where individuals with disabilities come to work), to talk to the participants. Truthfully, before Fred came to talk to us, I had this perceived notion about what aboriginal individuals were like from my family, friends and the media. I thought this guy was going to tell some boring story on how everyone did not believe him and blah blah blah. I also had the assumption that he was not going to have much of a story to tell because he probably did not get to play much. However, something changed for me. The participants were extremely excited to be able to meet a NHL player. It did not matter …show more content…

At the time, I did not think anything of it. However, now that I am reading through the material on tobacco offering, I could not be happier that I was a part of the offering. That day, Fred had brought in an Elder to help him with the tobacco offering. I did not realize that a helper who has been trained by Elders, which Fred was, is usually the individual who performs the protocol. I always thought the Elder completed the offering themselves. Fred explained how most First Nations’ Elders desire to be approached by a helper who has an understanding of the protocol and can speak on behalf of the individual. “The Nakawe people recommended that when a person is seeking guidance or advice from an Elder, they should always give the Elder tobacco” (p.13). We were completely lost; we had no idea on what type of tobacco we should be giving as a gift. We were relieved that at the end of the presentation Fred could not thank us enough for the tobacco we gave him. However, when I was reading my material, I came across that some Elders do not want monetary gifts. That could have been awkward for us if he did not expect the tobacco because we would not of understand

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