Elsie Basque, nee Charles, was born to Margaret Labrador and Joe Charles at Hectanooga, Digby County, on May 12, 1916. She was the first Mi’kmaq to earn a teacher's certificate from the Provincial Normal College in Truro. Photo: November 1999

Click on the Link to read a Halifax Herald column I wrote honouring Elsie: October 6, 1995
http://www.danielnpaul.com/Col/1995/ElsieBasque-MicmacPioneer.html

Quoted from a Halifax Herald Story - December 31, 2009

Four Nova Scotians join Order of Canada

Named a member of the Order of Canada on Wednesday was Elsie Charles Basque of Saul­nierville.

“I was very, very surprised," Mrs. Charles Basque, 93, said in an interview. “I still can’t believe it."

Mrs. Charles Basque was hon­oured for her pioneering contri­butions as an educator and for her voluntary work on behalf of seniors and aboriginal people in Nova Scotia and the United States.

In 1937, she became the first na­tive person in Nova Scotia to earn a teaching certificate. She taught in one-room schools in Cape Bre­ton, Indian Brook and other loca­tions in Nova Scotia, and in Bos­ton after moving there in the 1970s. She also became an advo­cate for issues affecting the elder­ly in the American Indian com­munity.

Mrs. Charles Basque wrote a report on those challenges in 1974 and it was sent as a position paper to the U.S. Senate.

While she appreciates the hon­our of being named to the Order of Canada, she said her greatest satisfaction came from her stu­dents.

She recounted a 1993 reunion of students she had taught in Indian Brook between 1939 and 1947. Many had gone on to university and professional careers.

“They came back to say thank you," Mrs. Charles Basque said. “It’s the greatest gift a teacher could ask for."