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Moving Beyond Culturally Bound Ethical Guidelines
The nature of the breach, the decision by the Cree elders in council,
the fate of the culprit, and the circumstances under which he eventu-
ally resumed his social life in the community, were all richly described
in the paper the student handed in. I was so enthusiastic about the
material that I suggested it be published in a journal where it could
shine as a prime example of aboriginal justice enduring despite de-
cades of government and Church assimilation policies. Hearing my
suggestion, the student hesitated. He reminded me that he had been
told this story by a Cree elder who had been his teacher and mentor
in the Cree world. The story, therefore, could not be published with-
out the elder’s authorization.
“Well, then ask him!” I said. “But he is dead,” the student retorted.
“It does not matter; ask him anyway,” I insisted. As soon as I had spo-
ken these words, we both fell in deep silence. Clearly our conversation,
in an Ottawa university classroom, was not proceeding according to
standard Euro–North American canons of academic exchange. Far
away from the homeland of the Cree and of the Dene Tha, what was
going on? I realized that I was speaking out of Dene Tha convictions
that I had inadvertently come to share with them over the years after
countless conversations and experiences with them in their world. The
student also realized that I was addressing him from a vantage point
with which he had also become familiar among the Cree.
Startled at the turn of our conversation, we nevertheless carried on.
The student asked, “Well, how do you ask someone who is dead?”
I answered, “I don’t know how the Cree would do it, but I do know
how the Dene Tha would. They would take some tobacco, pray with
it before going to bed, and ask the question that they would want an
answer to and then go to sleep with the tobacco under their pillow.
Then they would see what happens.” The student said he would do
the same. A week later, he eagerly came back to me with the answer:
the Cree elder did not want us to publish his account of the events in
his community.
How did the student know? He had done as I had described for the
Dene Tha, and he had slept with tobacco under his pillow for three
consecutive nights. Each morning, as he woke up, he remembered a
dream image. The Cree elder would look at him while holding a pipe
