Dylan was waiting for us at the trailer and welcomed us in out of the cold. The very first thing I noticed when I came in the door was a poster on the wall of a woman's silhouette. Beside the picture were the words, "Educate a woman, and you educate a Nation".

I turned around and noticed two teenage girls watching me carefully. "I really like this poster," I said to them. They smiled then went back to their work.

Dylan came and stood beside me and said, "I believe that statement. I've had over 150 students in the last 10 years and I'd say 120 were women. Women see education as a viable way of changing things. They spend more time with the children and influence them in positive ways. It is the women who will save the Native culture." As he spoke the two girls looked up and listened to Dylan with obvious respect.

Dylan and I went to his office to talk and as we made ourselves comfortable Dylan told me a little bit about the Boyer River Reserve. "There are actually two reserves here: Boyer River and Child's Lake. There are 500 people on each Reserve and we have about 10,000 acres of land. The people here are Beaver and because we are only 25 miles from High Level and maybe 15 miles from Fort Vermilion, they have a lot of contact with non-Native people. That keeps them from being too backward but it also means they loose a lot of their language and culture."

I remembered from his talk in Fairview that Dylan was not originally from this area. "I was born in Manitoba," he told me. "I would like to go back and teach on my reserve but I am glad to be working here for now. The way I look at it, Indians are Indians. While the language and some of the customs may differ, certain commonalities between Indians are recognizable. Like the Indian humour is the same here as in South Dakota. It is nice to have that. No matter where I have gone I have sought out places where I will find Indian people. I strongly identify with my heritage and I feel comfortable around Natives. When I am in a situation with mostly non-Native peoples, I never feel totally comfortable; I can handle it but I'd rather be around my own people."

I described my trip to Meander River to Dylan and commented on how right it seemed to me to hire Native people to teach Native students. "Having an instructor from their own culture gives students something they can identify with. Lots of Native people have a problem with a non-Native person coming in and asking them to do things - no matter how altruistic that person's intentions are. Sometimes the Native attitude is, 'Well, that's just another white person talking bull to me: But I can come in here and say things to these guys that they probably wouldn't take from someone else just because they have that mutual trust and respect."

I was becoming more and more aware of how much the Native people respect the insights and experience of the elders and the leadership of the Band members. I asked Dylan if he had had a strong role model in his life. "I was fortunate to have had a lot of good people throughout my life," he said. "Most of my role models were non-Native people, mostly teachers. I remember one teacher I had in Grade 11 - Mr. Sinclair, my history teacher. He saw something in me and gave me a brand new copy of The Unjust Society by Harold Cardinal. He gave me a special assignment to read it. The book made me angry and made me want to do something about the plight of Native people. He knew how it had affected me and we talked a lot about it. Mr. Sinclair was the one who influenced me the most about doing something with my own life so that I could help other Native people."