Status symbol: Rejected Qalipu applications devastating for band members

For Sherry Stevens of Main Brook, telling her two sons that their federal applications for Indian status in the Qualipu First Nation had been rejected was difficult.

Her 10-year-old recently made a Mi'kmaq drum that he was excited to bring to school for show and tell.

"He was right proud," she said. "He showed them how to use it, certain spots on the drum to hit to get that nice sound, the soft spot that makes the nice sound. He couldn't wait to get back home to show the kids at school."

About 10,000 current members of the Qalipu Mi'kmaq band are being notifiedthat they will be losing their Indian status, aftertheir applications to the federal department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs wererejected.

• 18,044 applicants eligible for Qalipu First Nation Band

Stevens, who received her Indian status card under the Qalipu band in 2010,was told she didn't meet the requirements for status, and doesn't know why she didn't garner enough points to qualify.

She's appealing the decision, and is concerned about losing the education and medical benefits.

The medical benefits had been a great help, said Stevens.

"It helped cover their prescriptions, their eye care. Their dental was a big thing for us," she said. Her older son is 17, and is concerned about paying for post-secondary education.

Loss of benefits will be difficult

"Knowing that there was help out there for us, and now it's taken from us? It's just not right," she said. "We'll still do our best to put them through school, but this would have been a great help."

Knowing there was help out there for us, and now it's taken from us? It's just not right.- Sherry Stevens

Denise MacCormackof Mount Moriah grew up in Benoit's Cove, and learned about Mi'kmaq culture through a friend. She later learned one of her great-grandmothers was Indian, and began the work to document her own identity.

"Between the family, there's 18 of Mom's brothers and sisters, and so they all took turns looking and delving into the archives of what they could find until we could piece it together, to find out more about our ancestry," she said.

"And it was very very interesting, and I learned a lot about myself during that time as well."

That's all gone away now, with the rejection letter erasing the status she was granted by the Qalipu band about five years ago.

"I was disappointed," she said. "However, I'm sure there's many others out there that are very disappointed as well, and probably a lot purer race than what I am, when it comes to Miqmaq. However, [it's]disappointing to be given your status card and then have it revoked."

Brothers, mother kept status

What's more puzzling to MacCormack is that not only does her mother still haveher status, buther younger and older brothers do too. She doesn't know why she alone lost hers, and wonders if it had to do with her living in Ontario at the time she applied, before moving back to Newfoundland, where she grew up, in 2012.

"That might have some factor regarding it," she said, although she points out that her older brother, who lives in Calgary, maintained his status.

She said, "Mom, how can I be an Indian for five years and all of a sudden not be an Indian?"- Denise MacCormack

"However, they also had a stipulation there that you should have visited. I visited at least twice a year during Christmas and the summer. For as many times as I could get home, I certainly did get home to visit and take part in most of the native traditions and powwows and smudgings as well."

She's also had difficulty explaining it to her daughterand, like Stevens, she worries about the loss of educational and medical benefits that come with Indian status.

'My blood hasn't changed any'

"She said, 'Mom, how can I be an Indian for five years and all of a sudden not be an Indian?'" said MacCormack, who has appealed the decision. "I'm sure there's others out there wondering the same thing, and hopefully with time it'll all be rectified."

Whatever happens, MacCormack says, the loss of a federal designation will not change who she is.

"My blood hasn't changed any. I'm still the same person," she said. "Very proud. Very proud to be Qalipu."