National Adult Literacy Database

September 11, 2000

This story was written by September Daniels from the Nakoda First Nation, Morley, Alberta. The Nakoda Reserve is located halfway between Calgary and Banff in the breathtaking Rocky Mountains. September is 23 years old and has been diligently pursuing her goals of upgrading for 2 years. She is doing upgrading so that her daughter can look up to her and to be more independent and intelligent.

The following introduction was written by an Elder on the reserve, Irane Baptiste.

I tell all my sons and grandsons to stay in school. Education is important. But they don't want to listen. So I've come back to school for myself."

Untitled

by September Daniels

It was six years years before I came back to school. At a young age I had a baby, she was my responsibility. I raised her till she attended school herself. That is when I decided to come back to school to upgrade my education so my daughter can look up to me. To be more independent and intelligent and to see that education is very important to aboriginal people. The other reason is in the future I would like to see or even run a bank on the reserve. Why I want to run a bank is in the first year I attended school, I got a summer job, it was called "Aboriginal Stay in School Program". It was in Cochrane, AB at the Royal Bank. That's when I looked at the reserve and notice that it will be good to have our own bank on the reserve. That's my goal.