Discouraging Demographics
A 2006 community profile prepared for the department of Indian and Northern Affairs by the community's tribal council, South East Resource Development Corp., lists the demographics of life in Pauingassi:
- 98 per cent of adults are alcoholics. That includes 99 per cent of the community's residential school survivors.
- 80 per cent of youth up to age 18 are solvent abuse addicts. There are youth suicides.
Half of the kids under age 18 are child welfare wards, the result of parental neglect and abuse related to alcoholism. Dozens live off reserve in group homes in Winnipeg. - 20 per cent of all youth under age 20 are suspected of suffering from varying degrees of fetal alcohol syndrome.
- Kids as young as 13 and under have sexually transmitted diseases and there are high rates of domestic violence, sexual abuse, promiscuity, family break-ups and sexual practices euphemistically described as "deviant" by residents.
- $100 will buy a bottle of bootleg whisky on this dry reserve.
Deaths from violence and drinking, despair, poverty and isolation go back 30 years. One woman disappeared 15 years ago; her body was never found. - This year, two girls aged 13 and 15 were charged in May with the beating death of a 22-year-old woman.
- One 15-year-old youth and two adults were charged in the death of Jeremy Crow, who died last year after being hit in the head with an axe.
- In 1999, the band went into receivership. One former chief was convicted of fraud.
[Ottawa Citizen]
