Drug dealers ‘watching’ Indigenous kids

Families worried as dealers try to make friends with children and then take settlement money

It was lonely growing up without any friends, says Sam Orville.

And it was a desire to feel included, to belong, that allowed others to take advantage of him.

When others began to get close to him, the Indigenous man says he didn’t suspect they only wanted him for his money.

“People started noticing me, and people started making friends with me,” Orville said. “Suddenly I had friends.”

Ten years of addictions though, proved those people were really just taking Orville for a ride, he says, and when the contents of his bank account dried away, they abandoned him.

“I watched as those IOUs got forgotten,” he said.

Orville, who asked to go by a pseudonym for their safety, spoke at a meeting for the campaign Proudly Respecting Elders and Youth (PREY) in Curve Lake First Nation, about how he was taken advantage of for his treaty money.

A dozen people attended the campaign’s inaugural event. Mothers and families are now expressing concern that as youth gain access to funds received through the settlements for key historic issues, they’ll become targets for those looking to do them harm.

“Drug dealers in Curve Lake are watching and they have techniques to gain your trust,” said Angela Lavallee, the co-ordinator of the PREY campaign.

The issue became important to Lavallee after someone became quick friends with her child, she said. The person was allegedly doing drugs and she suspects was really trying to hook her child before they turned 18.

Lavallee, a former Peterborough This Week reporter, said it’s disheartening to see the money, which was earned after the suffering of their families and ancestors, turn into a potential for harm.

The past few years, various settlements have been reached between the federal government and First Nations over long-standing historic issues, such as broken promises of treaties, the tragedies of the residential school and child welfare systems and the recent First Nations drinking water settlement, among others.

Those settlements have included financial compensation for individuals, including payments for the Williams Treaties settlement, the first of which was distributed in 2018.

For children, that money is locked away until they are 18.

But there are already victims who can attest they were targeted for their money. Growing up in the area, Orville said he was a lonely kid who just wanted friends. In high school, more popular kids began to invite him to lunch or to hang out.

Hangouts turned into smoking cannabis, which then turned to harder drugs like pain killers and muscle relaxants.

Supposed friends would ask him to pick up the bill, and then one day when he tried to buy a sandwich, his card was declined. When he checked the bank, his account was empty.

“I was kicked out onto the streets once the money dried up,” he said.

Orville said he’s in a much better place now, thanks to his fiancé, which helped pull him out of that life. But he also says the money that should have secured a future instead was whittled away.

“I should have been set up,” he said. “I never should have had to take out a line of credit.”

Orville’s story is a key example of the risks facing Indigenous youth.

These people trying to get close to them exhibit “predatory behaviour,” said Lavallee, and will appear like friends to try and gain their trust.

“Suddenly when you’ve just met them, they’re very clingy,” she said.

They’ll offer freebies like alcohol or drugs before the teen turns 18, hoping they’ll return the favour and become their personal ATM down the road.

Testimonials shared by Lavallee with the group say people have left their phones out, only to find they’ve been taken and all the money has been withdrawn from their accounts.

Betty O’Brian is an elder in Curve Lake and said she grew up knowing there were drugs in her community.

But now the dealers are coming, looking to the youth for their money, and it’s on the community to educate their kids about it.

“These people have come in to your lives, and you don’t know them, but all of a sudden you’re their best bud,” O’Brian said.

The youth now have so many influences on them, she says, adding there needs to be more guidance for them so they aren’t pulled in the wrong direction.

“You just want to fit in, you just want to go with the flow,” O’Brian said.

Another member of the community who attended the meeting said she’s worried for the youth in the community and the challenges Curve Lake and other First Nations are facing.

“What do we need to do to help our families?” she said, asking not to be named to protect her safety. During the meeting, panellists and community members talked about the dangers of speaking out, and how they feared people potentially showing up at their doors.

She also expressed frustration that there weren’t more people involved in this conversation.

“Why is it just this many people here?” she asked, saying more agencies need to be included in this issue.

Youth need to be taught how to invest their money, Lavallee said, to protect their futures. You should be able to have “a little bit of fun with your money but put away the rest for your future.”