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Community grieving together three weeks after Colten Boushie’s death

Aug 31, 2016 | 7:19 PM

Since Colten Boushie was killed three weeks ago, his mother fears for her other sons when each of them drives somewhere on a back road.

“I have to sit there and pray that he comes back,” Debbie Baptiste said.

Her youngest son, 22-year-old Boushie, was shot to death after he and four friends drove onto a farm on their way home, to Red Pheasant First Nation. His friends said they were looking for help with a flat tire.

Boushie and his two older brothers, ages 23 and 25, were close and people knew them as “the Boushie boys,” Baptiste said.

The brothers grew up in Billings, Montana but the family moved to Red Pheasant after Boushie graduated high school.

“I took my three boys as a single parent out of the city and moved them out to the country here and I figured we were safe here because it was peaceful,” Baptiste said. “I did not know and they did not know the danger was right in our backyard all this time.”

Baptiste said her son had big plans for his future and was deciding what he wanted to study in school. He already took a firefighting course, and was interested in computers and carpentry. He was interested in construction and carpentry because he wanted to build houses in Red Pheasant, according to Baptiste. She said he also had dreams of travelling.

Baptiste, her sons, and other family and friends came together at the community hall in Red Pheasant Wednesday, Aug. 31 to pray and hear advice from elders.

Reg Bugler was asked to come to the function and speak to the family and the young people who witnessed Boushie’s death.

He said Boushie won’t be forgotten and will come to represent a change in society’s view of First Nations people. He said there has always been tension between First Nations and non-First Nations people and that needs to change.

“There’s a lot of stigma and ignorance and there’s other forms of systematic racism also, so the relationships have always been strained at times,” he said.

Bugler said the family and much of the community are disappointed by a lot of negative media coverage.

Because some media reports said the incident happened near Biggar, he said his friends in Biggar are also disappointed their town is getting a bad reputation across North America when the farm where Boushie died was outside of the town.

Family, friends, and supporters will be gathering again in North Battleford, outside the Don Ross Centre on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 6 p.m. for a candlelight vigil for Boushie. There will be speakers, drummers and performers.

 

Sarah Rae is battlefordsNOW’s court and crime reporter. She can be reached at Sarah.Rae@jpbg.ca or tweet her @sarahjeanrae.