Pretty Fly for a White Guy

Conservation Minister Stan Struthers is about the last guy you could ever imagine in a sweatlodge, taking part in a traditional aboriginal pipe ceremony and getting all spiritual with Canada's First Peoples. Especially some First Peoples who have set up a blockade on his highway and refused to return his calls for the last month.Struthers is a nerdy white guy from Dauphin. Totally decent and hard-working, by all accounts. But, like, he's a member of the Rotary Club.Turns out, he's more first-hand familiar than most Manitobans with traditional aboriginal ceremonies. He taught in Norway House and then later took students to Peguis to participate in a sweat to get up close and personal with some native spiritual practices that few in this province truly understand."It's sombre. It's spiritual. It's a different setting than just meeting in my office," said Struthers of the sweat this Friday in Hollow Water. "I don't want to pretend I know as much as elders on this, but I'm not exactly a rookie."

Mary Agnes Welch, Winnipeg Free Press