About Richard Sanderson
I was born and raised in a predominantly non-First Nation area in Prince George BC. I moved with my family to my father’s home reserve (James Smith Cree Nation) when I was about twelve years of age.
As the son of a First Nation Man, and a Non-First Nation Mother, I did not have the noticeable features of a First Nation youth. This, along with being the new kid on the bus going from the reserve to the nearby town, to being the new kid in school coming from the reserve made for a lot of conflict and challenges.
I still remember one of my first days on the bus going to school I had sat on one of the first seats at the front. One of the older boys spit at me and it ended up in my hair. I sat there and did nothing because I was new and in a new situation I had never experienced before and I did not have a history of fighting. By me sitting there doing nothing, resulted in more taunts and laughter which made me angry not only at them, but at my parents and the situation in which I was put into by moving to the reserve.
I am not sure if what happened was due to being new, a different skin color, coming from a different background or perhaps for some other reason that I was not aware of. I do know that what occurred is something I look back at and realize you should really truly know someone before you judge them.
My mother would always be there to listen to what I had to say, but one thing she would often say is “nobody said life was fair”. To me, I always thought this was her way of saying just suck it up, accept and move on.
In high school, I was a student who could only be described as “Hopeless”. I chose to act up in class, be disrespectful to teachers, a smart ass, and thought education was a joke. I lost three years of my life by sticking to this type of behavior and had to repeat grades a few times over and eventually dropped out for a year to work.
I was then working and getting a steady paycheck, but eventually found I would never advance or have a career and I would continue living from paycheck to paycheck and could never make enough to own a home or to support a wife and kids. I remember thinking like others, you got to have at least a grade 10 education (Which I had) and you will be fine. I soon learned this was not the case and went back to get my grade 12.
There are a number of things that occurred from my childhood, teenage years and even into my adulthood that could be used as excuses for not succeeding or even attempting to succeed.
I have experienced many lows in regards to relationships, finances, careers and health that I could have chosen to blame others for, but in the end it was how I chose to deal with these situations that really determined the outcome and my future.
During this time, a First Nations RCMP officer by the name of Beatrice Lavalee had stopped me while I was driving and asked if I would be interested in going on a ride along sometime.
It was the interest she took in me, and hearing the challenges that she faced as a First Nation woman joining a male dominated field and still making it that encouraged me to go for it. A year later I joined the RCMP.
It was during my career in the RCMP that I wanted to help other youth choose a career or a path in which they would like to take. This led to the creation of the First Nations Cadet Corps.