Rankin Inlet (Oct 06/04) - Odile Rusk wants to make sure her children and grandchildren know what her real name is.

They wouldn't find out by peering at her birth certificate, so she figures it's time she remedied the problem by getting a new one issued.

Her name appears as Sheeloo E3-589 on the laminated card she received in 1969, more than 20 years after her birth. It was a result of well-meaning missionaries misspelling Silu in the late 1960s and tagging her with a number at the same time as most Inuit people who lacked last names and identification.

Her brothers and sisters took the last name Kaunak in the early 1970's, but Rusk was at school in Churchill, Man., and then Ottawa, and she wasn't included in the shedding of her E3 number.

"Everybody I know, they all have last names now," said Rusk, who married into her current name.

With all the confusion of Inuit taking last names during that time, Rusk isn't even sure what her name should be.

She'll settle for Odile Silu Sammurtok, after the name her grandfather adopted. It's better than the number she has dealt with her whole life.

"Why would I be the only one with a number in the whole of Nunavut?" she asks.

Rusk went so far as to go on the community radio station recently in Rankin to ask if anyone else has the same problem.

"I haven't had a reply at all. I was hoping if someone else had an E3 number, (they could tell me) how they went about getting their last names," she said.

Rusk needs to apply for a legal change of name through the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit, which will forward the court order to NWT Vital Statistics in Inuvik.

She will then have to apply for a new birth certificate once the process is underway.

Despite how she feels, Rusk isn't alone. According to the NWT Vital Statistics office, many Nunavummiat are still branded with E3 numbers. A number of them apply for new birth certificates each year.

E3 makes for ordeal

Back in her home territory, Rusk's quandary is easier. In the south though, Rusk had a series of unpleasant experiences trying to explain her strange birth certificate.

She had to do some fast talking when renewing her driver's license in Manitoba while living in Winnipeg.

A number doesn't jive with their computer system, making the otherwise simple process a drawn out affair.

"I said I don't think you want to see it (her birth certificate). I'm just a number," she says, able to laugh about the encounter.

She isn't able to correct the misspelled Silu on most government issued identifications either, until she gets her name legally changed.

Carry a letter

Another time, at Disneyworld, Rusk had trouble gaining entry. Rankin Inlet RCMP had to verify that she was who she said she was.

"I had to carry a letter with me that this birth certificate was original," she says.

"It's embarrassing. It's unbelievable," she says.

So, for now, Rusk is still Sheeloo E3-589, until she decides to undertake a lengthy paper process, which she will likely do so her kids have a mother with a proper last name.

While she's at it, Rusk may even amend her date of birth, which is actually Dec. 13, not Dec. 12, as stated on her birth certificate.