Transcript of Bishop Burton’s Conversation with Stanley Halkett Dec. 20, 2001

Mr. Halkett’s first language is Cree and readers will observe that his English at times follows Cree sentence and grammatical structures. For example, the Cree language has no gender-specific personal pronouns, so Mr. Halkett will occasionally say ‘he’ when referring to Mary Goodfellow.

Bishop – Stan tell me about yourself – Where were you born?

Stanley – I born in Moose Factory, way up north in Brochet, Manitoba. It way up north I was born over there.

B. Is it a little place—Brochet?

S. It’s a reserve. I got a couple of brothers that living up over there.

B. How many of you were there?

S. There was not even to count maybe about 5 men -- one woman and some men.

B. Was Adam [Halkett, Stan’s younger brother] born there too?

S. Yeah, all of us were born there. Adam was born there, Josephine -- all my sisters and brothers.

B. How did you end up in Saskatchewan?

S. My Dad must have moved to Saskatchewan here. When he was, he came back living in Little Red, eh. I’ve been traveling around from all over the places from Stanley Mission, La Ronge, and to Montreal Lake; and finally stayed in Little Red here.

B. Do you guys belong to Montreal Lake Band?

S. Montreal Lake First Nations, yeah.

B. Do you remember how old you were when you moved?

S. No I don’t. I was just little. I remember the traveling. I remembered we traveled by canoe all the way down to Stanley Mission with my sisters when Adam was small. We stayed there a couple of years then we moved to Montreal Lake—then we moved.

B. When did you meet Marlene?

I met him when I was 14 in Little Red. He wasn’t around the reserve that time he was raised by an old lady, Masaskapo’s grandma. He was at Sandy Lake and Little Red.

B. Had she moved to Little Red when you met her when she was 14?

S. Yeah.

B What did Mary Goodfellow have to do with Marlene?

S. They were raised together when they were small. The old lady was raising two kids.

Kind of sister like in a kind of way. That’s why they knew each other.

B. How old is Marlene now?

S. Forty.

B. So Mary Goodfellow was probably about 40 years old when your wife was born.

S. Yeah, yeah.

B. Was she living with Laura Masaskapoe still in those days?

S. Yeah.

B. She would have been more like a mother than a sister to her.

…

B. Was Marlene’s mother from Little Red?

S. Yeah. She was there the whole time and she was being raised by Laura [Masaskapo]. And Mary was in the house. They were born together; they were there together, raised together. They used to have a little black cat they used to like.

B. How many children have you and Marlene had?

S. We got five. One girl—four boys and one girl: Kevin, Elvis, Brian, Allison.

B. How old is Allison?

B. Kevin would be how old today—16 or 17? He was your firstborn. Tell me about him.

S. He was a quiet boy, kind to people, gentle to old people, quiet. He kind to everyone. He was quiet, pretty quiet. Honest guy: tells the truth. He would tell his mum what happened.

B.Was he into sports at all?

S. He used to be, he was playing football one time but he musta got hurt and did not want to play again.

B. How did he spend his time? What did he like to do?

S. He used to spend his time riding bicycles. I remember that when he used to be smaller we brought three bicycles for our new boys, three new bicycles we bought ‘em, and Kevin just about run into a deer with his bicycle. Run into a deer that time and we used to take them quite aways from Little Red; we used to drive along just to try their bikes.

B. Did he have many friends?

S. Yeah, he had lots of friends. He had a girlfriend too but I didn’t know that. Small, I guess, teasing him…one of the [name withheld] girls.

First time we heard about Kevin missing was her…

B. She would be an important person for the police to talk to. The girl is still at Little Red?

B. Do any of his friends come around?

S. No.

B. How are his brothers taking all this?

S. The brothers are kind of taking it hard. They’re not showing it to the family—to the mother to the father. They are kind of taking it hard but they still think about their brother especially at close to Christmas that’s where everybody’s having a hard time, especially my wife and my kids. My little girl is always thinking about his brother all the time, always talking about his brother. All the brothers—Elvis, Brian, Leon—they, all those brothers, think about their late brother. They miss him, eh? Even the old lady my wife -- especially my wife -- always miss that old lady Mary Goodfellow. They used to raise each other. [She is] always talking about her all the time. When, there in the house, close to Christmas that where it’s hard on us. Christmas everybody’s always lonesome. There’s always somebody missing at Christmas. And then towards my late boy’s birthday on August 7—that’s where his birthday is—that’s where they missed him. Every day they missed him, every day, every day. Even the boys, Brian, Leon, Elvis—especially my little girl—always talking about “my brother”. And my wife too always talking about Mary; they missing them.

It’s hard but they got to stick together, I always tell my boys pray hard, pray for everything be strong. Always my wife [and I find that] the spirit between Kevin and Mary is beside us. My wife…especially. My wife it’s really hard on her. It used to be always be Kevin and Mary. Me too still, but I don’t show it to my family. I don’t show it to my kids or anybody. Me and my wife were talking about Kevin and Mary. One time I don’t really want to hurt the kids. It’s kinda hard though on all of us, especially my wife. It must be hard on her. He was carrying this boy for nine months and was born, then suddenly just lost him. It must a been hard on him …..the time he was lost, it musta been hard. Kevin’s first Christmas ….especially my wife – the two people that he loves he lost and he’s always by himself. My mother doesn’t come and visit him.

Sometimes my sister-i- law comes and visits –sometimes go places – not used to the people I guess.

B. You’re a trapper, eh. Tell me a little bit about that.

S. I just trapping this year. Just start trapping around when I got my last baby. I call him Baby Boy. I let him in my trapline so we start doing some trapping. It was very interesting. I took my boy in there. All my boys were going to the trap line. All my family were going to the cabins. We stayed in the cabins off and on even my little girl went swimming. We like swimming there. so we stayed over there a couple of times. I took my sister Josephine. We went blueberry picking—my father-in-law, my sister in- law almost all of us went down there. We used to go down to that trap line in the summertime. It was nice to be there.

B. Where is your trap line?

S. It’s about 130 miles out of Candle Lake from Whiteswan – near Whiteswan area.

B. How did you get the trap line in the first place?

S. I went down to my late brother Ernest Halkett had a trap line. I went to the meeting and Calvin Naytowhow gave me the trap line. Now it’s my turn to be keeping that trap line [so] it stays in the family.

B. Tell me about your search. What happened at the beginning when you found out that Kevin and Mary were missing? How did you find out in the first place?

S. My wife phoned me. We were supposed to go and pick Kevin and Mary up for Easter holidays so we went down there. All of us went down there. We went to pick Mary and Kevin up and we didn’t find anything in the house. We knocked on the house. We checked around but nobody answered and we went to the back door and somebody must have kicked the back door because it was all messy around there. Me and Elvis walked in there and we looked around and we didn’t find nobody so we came back home and we had a phone call from a woman at Chitek Lake and she said Mary and Kevin are missing. So we went back there to look around.

B. Who was the woman?

S. A next door neighbour.

B. Was she native a woman?

S. Yes her name was Louisa something [Actually Rose]. We went down there, me and Elvis,.. went back again. We phoned the RCMP and called them but they didn’t come till the next day.

…..

S. Every time when he used to go some place he used to write a letter to us, write a letter to that old lady, he used to write to Marlene. If he was going to next door he would write a letter to me or to Marlene. When we got there we didn’t have no letter, nothing at all.

B. So she would leave a letter behind in the house.

S. Yeah, she would leave a letter.

B. Did Marlene have a key?

S. No, but she would leave the door open. You wouldn’t be that far; every time you write a letter to the next door neighbor Rose Black. On the steps you would put a rock with a letter under it. They didn’t find nothing there.

S. The fact that the house was messy, was that unusual?

No – not unusual. I know in my mind was it wasn’t like that it was somebody was wrestling or beating or pulling somebody up, that couch moved, like someone was hanging on that couch. But I didn’t tell the RCMP about it. I didn’t tell them about what happened because I keep it to myself that time. I was mad and angry. The couch was moved like someone was hanging. When my son Elvis checked the other rooms and a mirror in a bedroom was broken. It was very strange: the way we found the house was very strange; Mary Goodfellow never had this house messy, [she] always cleaned it.

B. Was the mirror just cracked?

S. It was in pieces like somebody was wrestling. Pieces on the floor in the bedroom Kevin’s bedroom and looked as though it had just happened. The mirror was on the wall.

B. Were there any other indications that something was strange?

S. That’s all the sign we found that was kind of strange.

B. So you were there on the 2^nd you didn’t find them, the back door was broken in, you found the house in a bit of a mess, you didn’t know what to make of it so you went home the next day you were called by the RCMP, not by Rose Black.

S. The welfare worker lady phoned us on the 2^nd and she was telling me that Mary and Kevin were missing. We weren’t sure where they were that time.

B. Did she say how long they had been looking for them? Why did she phone you?

S. I guess Mary used to phone to be picked up to go somewhere. They used to phone every day to check up on them. The welfare lady would check on Mary. She didn’t get a call that day and was wondering what was going on.

B. You went back on the 3^rd and checked around. You were in there and cops came after that?

S. They didn’t come right on the 3^rd. The police phoned us on the 4^th and met them. I met the police on the 4^th they took me in they questioned me. I was there all day questioning me. In Chitek Lake they questioned and the next day on the 5^th they took me to Shellbrook. Then they took to P.A. and questioned me there. So they’ve been questioning me since then…

B. When did they have a search?

S. On the 4^th. They had a dog to come around to sniff around the community. The dog would be running from the house around to the bar and back again. And the way that cop, those cops were looking and searching around the village to the end of the village only around houses and building not in the bushes or anything. They didn’t look around other places. One cop was behind me they were suspecting me so I went to hide on him when I came back that was my mistake maybe I shouldn’t. I wanted to look around alone at least I could think the same time where are they going to be.

I was at Chitek Lake that time when my brother was missing me and one of the councilors were looking around that time were searching…. I forgot that councilor’s name. I wasn’t sure what his name was. We were there. I was in there that time looked around driving all those places just yelling for Mary. They didn’t hear me or anything. They musta been hiding. I wonder if they were hiding that time. I’m not sure even they made a movie about Kevin and Mary that movie the cops made.

B. This is the Crime Stoppers [video of the reenactment of the crime broadcast on local television].

S. Yeah the Crime Stoppers.

B. You saw that just by accident, eh, you just turned on the TV?

S. Yeah, yeah ….musta been really hurting… They should have asked us…. My wife was said it wasn’t right. It would be alright if they tell us if they phoned us and said they were going to broadcast it the way.

[As] I understand it, I don’t really understand what’s going on in that house – lots of people in that area. How can two people disappear just like that without anybody [noticing?] There’s a house, there’s a bar, there’s people around that area. Me and [my] wife always talk about that how can two people that really wouldn’t even hurt a fly ..., how can a person hurt those two people—an old lady and just young guy? How can anybody hurt those two people?  We always talk about that.

B. What do you think might have happened? Do you have one idea or several different ideas?

S. I said yes, I just I think somebody musta hurt them. Somebody must have did something to them. That’s what I think, my own ideas. My wife always says that somebody musta hurt them or did something to them. Somebody musta hurt them and somebody must be hiding did not wanna tell what happened. It’s kinda hard to know what exactly happened. I’m not sure what happened. I think about somebody musta hurt them.

B. Mary ran a pawn broking business out of the house didn’t she?

S. Yep.

B. And what kind of people were pawning stuff there? Do you have any idea? Were you ever there when that happened?

S. No, I was never there. They always used to be the people that he knows, like the people that work, the people that work in the band office and things like that. They’d come and pawn something off for money.

B. Do you figure the people she was mostly doing business with were mostly native people or non-native as well?

S. Native people.

B. Do you think she would have been buying and selling with non-native people?

S. No, the only people was the people that she knows.

B. Tell me a little about Mary. She was a bit of a business woman, eh?

S. Yeah, not really. What she used to be the way it sounds like Mary Goodfellow used to try and help people. She was a religious woman. She used to believe in God. She used to always talk about God but she used to help people like the people that need help. He used to be trying to help people all the time. When a person come and found something for Mary it’s got to be a good reason if they need to go to town to see a doctor that how she used to help people. The people—she never used to turn people down. But not the people that drink, she never used to help them, only people that he knows that go to town to see a doctor and he always used to tell us that we supposed to help a person that needs help. Mary Goodfellow used to be a good person, honest she used tell us.

B. Would you describe her as a strong woman?

S. Yeah, he used to be a strong woman. He used to be kind of a shy woman never used to go to other places, never used to go to the store or anyplace.

B. There was a store two houses away and she would not go in there?

S. No, too shy. He’d been like that all his life. He musta been in the house off and on– not used to much to people like that. Only ones that he used to know were religious, used to talk to him. Used to be a strong woman, used to be said used to help people all the time. Used to be shy. Even my wife or me or one of my boys used to go to the store for him. Send his cheque over to cash it for him. Used to come and stay with us in my place kept him there, used to bring him home, always used to stay with us in the house. My wife told “why don’t you come and live with us?” …used to come to that place.

Mary Goodfellow and used ask about my boy Kevin when my boy was small. When Kevin was 3 years old Mary Goodfellow used to ask for Kevin all the time she wanted to keep him. Just then my wife had him she was 16 my wife went to St. [unclear]. At the same time he could go to school over there, Mary always wants to keep Kevin a long time since he was small. Mary used to be always honest, never used to get mad at anybody, used to treat us right all the time, and he used to be honest

B. How long had Kevin been living in Chitek Lake before they disappeared?

S. About a year.

B. He ran into trouble with cabins…

S. That’s what I heard.

B. Was that at Chitek or Little Red?

S. It was at Chitek Lake.

B. That seemed to be fairly common. The police said that was fairly ordinary with the young boys down there.

B. Do you like the idea of this web site – do you know what I’m talking about when I say web site?

S. Yeah, not really

B. It’s like…a very simple TV show…that will appear on people’s computer screens. It goes through the telephone lines and they can go and find it if they are interested. They can put into their computer “Kevin Charles and Mary Goodfellow”, then all of a sudden this little sort of TV show comes up. It would be half way between [the] Crime Stoppers [video] and maybe a book, some writing and some pictures—stuff like that.

I was thinking we would put this interview [on the site]. I’ll get Mary, my secretary to type it out so they can read it.

S. We were talking about that me and my wife, we were going to write down about Mary and Kevin but he not strong enough yet. Every time he gonna write a letter it always hard for her. My wife was gonna write a letter and explain her ideas about Mary and Kevin just tell us where they are if they are gone or not but I guess they never contact or tell us what happened. It’s kinda hard day and night. It’s hard on us between me and my wife. Especially my wife one day they’re here the next day they are gone and my wife always tells me that they are in a good place. It used to be hard on us the first time we couldn’t talk about Mary, Kevin before we used to cry and fall down wailing and I asked my wife one time why don’t you write a letter about Kevin and put in the paper? I was gonna write what happened what kind of a story you hear about Kevin and Mary when you are traveling around; there’s always different stories, eh? Like me I heard about different stories when Mary and Kevin were missing but I wanted to keep it to myself. I didn’t want to say it to my wife or kids. Some of them are awful stories that I hear. I told my wife about what I hear. I was talking to my wife but me and my wife together we keep it to each other don’t share to our kids. If my boys heard about they’d get mad I’m kinda scared they growed up they might get revenge when they hear about stories. But I don’t think so I never can tell what kids… But my wife she still couldn’t write it down till she feels strong.

B. If she feels strong enough and she writes those down she can put them on this web site.

S. Yeah, yeah.

B. I think it would be interesting to get… [tape ran out].

B. We’ll just have to keep praying that by making this public and getting people to talk about it again, that it will affect somebody’s conscience so that they will come forward and tell us what they know.

How important is it for you to find the bodies and how important is it for you to know what happened?

S. It is important for us at least to put our minds back together and go back to our lives almost the same as we did before. If we find them at least they’d be buried right where the relations are. If we ever find out… bury them right to lay in a peaceful place, in a place that they are buried at least to bury them right so that the way I always say that at least we could get back to our lives again me and my wife and kids could come back the same way they are instead of always getting lonesome or upset.  If anybody ever comes forward and tells where they were buried or what happened we would probably appreciate or probably be happy at least. If they ever find the bodies. The way my wife says if they were buried right, the way my wife says, one day they were alive the next day they were gone. And towards Christmas and toward evening it gets he worst. Especially today it gets close to Christmas -- it really hard on us -- but that would be nice if somebody would come forward.

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