Indians in the city

Drafted this post over a month ago ...

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So I'm running around the Eaton Centre a couple nights ago when I was approached by this dude.

Actually he came up to me as I was shopping for shorts.  I couldn't decide between the ones that fall way past the knee with lotsa baggy pockets, or the ones that fall way past the knee with no pockets, when I turn around and here's this Hawaiian lookin guy saying, "Are you Cree? Anishinabe?"

I thought, is that the dumbest, most Northern Ontario-slash-middle Western Canada question ever?!  So I said, "No!  Haudenosaunee, Mohawk."  He said, "Oh, okay."

I will dare guess that most the Indians in Toronto are from the far North, mostly because all of us "southern" (read: Haudenosaunee) Natives already live close enough to the big city that we don't actually have to live there.  So, upon further thought, it really was a logical question for him to ask.
He held out a CD.  You see this happen at pow wows a lot.  I thought, here comes the sales pitch.  He said, "My friend asked me to come over and say hi.  We figured if there's an Indian in the mall, he must wanna spend some money."  I thought, now that's a good one.  That line alone was worth five bucks.

Then I figured: we're not the kind of people to just walk up to strangers and try to sell them something.  If it's $20 or less, I'll get it.  But I won't make it easy.

"How much is this?"

"Twenty dollars."

I've always been good at The Price is Right.  So I said, "I guess I can get one, but you have to sign it!"

We walked over to the cash register area and asked for a pen.  He tore open the packaging, slipped out the card from the case, and then pointed at himself in the picture before he signed his name and added the letters "IN..." then asked me "How you spell 'enjoy'?"

I said "uh... E-N-J-O-Y but how you got it, that's even better!"  It was like an unintentional mix of Injun and enjoy.  I liked it, but didn't take the time to explain.

Apparently, him and a few friends recorded this CD.  It's all new material that they wrote, set to pow wow music.  I asked, "How old are you?"  He told me he's 21, that he hitchhiked to Toronto from his home in Saskatchewan three years ago and has lived here since.  He works at the Native Child & Family Services Centre here downtown where he teaches little children about their culture, and sings to them.

Isn't that cool?

My heart was warmed a little.  "You hitchhiked all the way from Saskatchewan when you were EIGHTEEN?" I asked.  "Yep."

"Well, hang on before you go," I said. "I gotta get a picture to commemorate this brush with celebrity."  So there we stood, by the cash register at the American Eagle, two Native North American Indians posing while a store clerk took a photo with my phone.