And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 08:02:51 -0400
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Siksika First Nation man missing
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Tuesday, July 27, 1999
Search for missing man raises tension on reserve
Suspicion raised that non-native may have been murdered
Lisa Dempster
Calgary Herald
BASSANO, Alta. - Nobody knows for certain what happened on the night last
June that Alex Sanchez drove his 1984 Ford Mustang off the Siksika First
Nation reserve and disappeared. But his fate has become the subject of
rumour and resentment, a mystery that has gripped residents of the reserve
and the nearby town of Bassano, about 90 kilometres east of Calgary. Some
Siksika residents believe 19-year-old Mr. Sanchez, a non-native, simply
drove away after a party on the reserve. But others hint darkly that he
never made it off the reserve. They suggest a fight got out of hand and he
was killed, after which his body and car were dumped in the Bow River.
Mr. Sanchez was attending an all-night house party on the reserve with more
than 50 other people, including his 17-year-old girlfriend, the mother of
their three-month-old child. There was an argument and Mr. Sanchez left the
party on foot, heading for his girlfriend's home more than a kilometre down
the road. At 5 a.m., he phoned his mother and father to ask for a ride as
he was too drunk to drive.
But when Maria and Antonio Sanchez drove out to the reserve, their son was
gone. His glasses -- he is legally blind without them -- were sitting on a
bedroom dresser and his girlfriend did not know where he had gone. "We're
not looking for a body. We're still looking for a missing person," says
Constable Roy Fairbrother of the Siksika tribal police "But it's been a
good month now, and it is kind of peculiar. He can't see without his
glasses. That's why kind of makes it odd." The case has driven a wedge
between the native and non-native communities, complicated by the
relationship between Mr. Sanchez and his girlfriend. Maria Sanchez says her
son had told his girlfriend he did not want their child brought up on the
reserve, which like many others is fraught with poverty and alcoholism.
She says her son's girlfriend was like a daughter to her, even moving into
the family's modest Bassano home before the birth of the couple's son. But
now Mrs. Sanchez says the Siksika family wants nothing to do with her and
does not want her to see her grandson. The family is unhappy with the
investigation, a fact acknowledged by tribal police. "I know they're
frustrated," says Const. Fairbrother.
The family and friends obtained a three-day permit from tribal
administrators to search the 2,500-square-kilometre reserve, a move that
upset many of the reserve's 4,500 residents. "There were a lot of
accusations and allegations made. This of course raises our guard in the
community," says Darlene Yellow Old Woman Munro, the Siksika chief But the
search may have turned up a clue in the Bow River, which runs through the
reserve. A large metal object was located at the bottom of the cold,
fast-running water, possibly the missing man's car. The runoff-swollen
river is now running more than five metres deep, with undercut banks, logs
and debris barrelling down the current. Rescue crews have to wait until
conditions improve to allow divers to search.
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks
www.angelfire.com/mn/mcap/bc.html
FOR K A R E N #01182
who died fighting 4/23/99
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.aches-mc.org
807-622-5407
