Tom Charles was recognized for more than 40 years of search and rescue work. (Lorne Stewart/Facebook)

By Derek Cornet

accomplishment

‘It’s a curse and also a blessing’: Charles honoured for search and rescue work

Feb 28, 2020 | 11:51 AM

It was a surprising and emotional day for Lac La Ronge Indian Band Elder Tom Charles who was gifted a ribbon shirt as an appreciation for more than four decades of search and rescue work.

“The RCMP gave me a certificate to hang on the wall and other things have happened in my life, but that ribbon shirt meant so much to me,” he said. “The speech I had in my back pocket I completely forgot about it and I focused on another topic. It was completely a surprise for me.”

Charles was honoured for his service by the Prince Albert Grand Council on Feb. 26 during the 2020 Saskatchewan First Nations Emergency Management Forum in Saskatoon.

It was back in 1979 when Charles first had the feeling his skills could be useful in locating lost or taken individuals. He was driving to Prince Albert one day when he heard on the radio of a teenage boy with the mental capacity of a child who had gone missing near Christopher Lake. Charles stopped in the community and asked the family if there was any way he could help.

Charles did end up finding the teen, but an RCMP dog was called in because the teen would run away whenever he was spotted. Seeing the joy from the teen’s family and friends when he was found was enough to convince him search and rescue was a job he needed to do.

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“When a person goes missing, the gift I have I’ve been told is I can see people,” Charles said. “I have a feeling where they’d go and things like that. When you get to a search site, you start to be that person and start wanting to head in the direction that person would go. At the time, what was that person doing when he went missing?”

Charles also knows what it feels like to have a family member go missing as his aunt disappeared from Prince Albert in 1970. He was too young to help with the search at the time, but he remembers the initial shock of it all happening and his aunt was never found.

In the years after his aunt went missing, Charles learned skills from residents of Grandmother’s Bay and Stanley Mission about search and rescue. Whenever they needed help, they’d call Charles and he noted he’s grateful for what those people taught him.

“I have slowed down a lot because I have lung cancer and I have been fighting that since September of last year,” he said. “I want to forward this trade or this gift to some other people. We need to be having these young people coming up more trained. More training has to be done with them, so they can be committed to it and help with the searches.”

Charles keeps a collection of books at home detailing most of the cases he’s been involved with. He noted the most emotionally draining are when a child is involved and time is of the essence. It’s also difficult, Charles noted, when he comes across an area when a body has been scattered due to wildlife.

Urban searches also tend to prove difficult as there are many places a person can be.

“It’s a curse and also a blessing when you do these searches,” Charles said. “I’m very thankful in my family I haven’t lost anybody to the wilderness or the environment.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno