2022
After nearly two decades of trying to find Billy Jay Sharphead, the historical search for the missing Enoch Cree nation man is coming to an end.
globalnews.ca
''Joanne Sharphead said missing and murdered indigenous men is an issue that needs more attention.
“I’m not trying to take away from the women, of course, but I always say our warriors are important and we should be telling their story,” Sharphead said.
She is sharing the story of her beloved brother as a kind man who loved art, his culture and his family.
“We just keep his memory alive because that’s all we can do at this point,” Sharphead said. “It helps us to cope.”
ENOCH CREE NATION, Alta.—There is no word for goodbye in Cree.
damrea.com
Oct 1 2022
''ENOCH CREE NATION, Alta.—There is no word for goodbye in Cree.
Instead people say
êkosi mâka, or “That’s it for now.”
The belief is that loved ones will always find each other, even if it’s in the spirit world.
It’s a thought that brings Joanne Sharphead-Arcand some comfort as she walks through a sprawling farmer’s field on the Enoch Cree Nation, solemnly stepping between freshly harvested rows of wheat that stretch endlessly into the horizon. Her brother, who went by Billy Jay, was last seen walking down a dirt road not far from here.''
But Sharphead-Arcand says Indigenous men and boys rarely get the same attention and sympathy from the public, or in how they’re portrayed in the media.
For the past two decades, her family has been consumed by questions for which they worry they’ll never have answers. They question how Billy Jay may have died, who may have killed him, or if he died by suicide.
They are torn by the thought they could have done more to help him.
And most pressingly, perhaps — where are Billy Jay’s remains?
“I tell people it’s like I’m living in a nightmare and I can’t get out,” says Sharphead-Arcand.''
''With no knowledge of how he died, she clings to memories of how he lived — she describes him as generous, kind and loving, someone who trusted too much and was sometimes vulnerable as a result.
He was also a grass dancer, and was delving more into traditional Indigenous culture at the time of his death.''
