35 ~ Sunday, July 10, 1988 - North Shore News kay Ascending with etiquette 2 PAGE 36 UE i WALDORF SCHOOL Potlatch experience ents insights me to wipe out the stereotypes of Indians. Even though they do have a drug and alcoho! problem up there, the community is very strong,”’ Reuter said. Said 17-year-old Julia Wilby: ‘‘I felt the trip really showed me an Indian reserve is a very special place. The people were very friend- ly and generous. The respect for their elders had a profound effect on me. | respect their culture. We THEY FEASTED on oolichan, seaweed, salmon, herring, seal, moose and deer, And in the process a local group of Waldorf schcol students crossed cultural bridges as potlatch guests of the Bella Bella (Waglisa) Heiltsuk Native com- munity of 1,000, living on the east coast of Campbell sland. The group joined Ontario cx- By MICHAEL BECKER change students, and other Native News Reporter representing tribes, in- groups cluding the Kwakiutl and Haista, to collectively recognize important rites of passage in the Queen Charlotte community. The first large potlach was held to bring an Alert Bay woman, married to a Bella Bella man, into the tribe. It was attended by ap- proximately 900 people and lasted 9% hours. A second potlach was held the following day to recognize the suicide of a young Bella Bella man. A third potlatch was held the fol- lowing week in the nearby com- Said 18-year-old Eric de Monye: “The potlatch is a ceremony of giving. It was very powerful. I learned a Iot and talked to some of the older people about their sense of the future. The community lives through the potlatch.’’ The trip was arranged as part of the school’s commitment to understanding by experiencing. The 15 graduating students par- ticipating in the two-week field trip came away with an enriched sense of Native reality. The experience helped 17-year- old Andrea Reuter dispel went there with a bit of apprehen- siveness, but they took us in with open arms.”’ Said 18-year-old Amin - Miremadi: “it was a really good experience. | saw the Natives as a people together. They know who they are. You don’t see that stuff in the city. The government gives you a picture of Natives as past history, but they live on with a strong identity.”’ The trip to Bella Bella was reciprocated June 20 with one of the Heiltsuk’s chiefs, David Gladstone, attending the Waldorf munity of Klemtu and marked the reintroduction of the potlatch, an