What exactly have you or anybody in your family done that should make you feel guilty?  

Interesting question. Justice Murray Sinclair and Marie Wilson from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission came to speak at our Presbytery meeting last weekend. They had a very powerful message. They spoke of this as being a Canadian issue, not an aboriginal issue. They talked about how getting to know each other is one way to reconcile. Of course the process will take a long time.

I am not sure I feel guilt. Perhaps it is habit and teaching. I went to a high school with a large aboriginal population. The native and non-native groups rarely mixed. It was as if we lived in two different worlds. Actually we did live in two different worlds. It is difficult to connect sometimes when lives are so different.

Since that time I have worked for a local band and have gotten to know many First Nations people. I have learned a lot from this.

I guess I am saying it is a work in progress to change how we all relate. It is important work though and it must be done. Joining together in feasts is one wonderful way to break down the barriers. It has been my experience that community dinners are wonderful things. If you get a chance to do that again, mingle and meet people. You will be glad you did.

I am typing this on my Blackberry which has a very small screen. I hope my thoughts are coherant.

 Okay here is my poem!

Hurry Eagle Feather!

Gather your traps together

Let us paddle a short way down any brook

So that we may snare

A fortune from the foolish white men

From whom we will take

(Like candy from a babe)

Knives of steel that we can't make

And good  iron pots that never break

In return for the worthless skins 

Of  beaver that swim everywhere in

Our rivers and our lakes

That sparkle eternally in the sun

Like the stars in the summer night sky

Do I know any native people?  Yes, and no.  Unless you count my husband and children who may have had a Miqmaq ancestor, or my nephew and niece who almost certainly  had Miqmaq great grandmother only five generations ago.  

Or the Maliseet woman who worked with me at a trust company.  Or the assistant manager of that same branch who was half Maliseet.   Or my sil who is probably 1/2 Miqmaq. 

Or the nodding acquaintance who bought one of my puppies back when I bred Labs.  Or the people who sell fiddleheads at the side of the road in the spring.

No, I don't go to the reserve.  I don't play bingo.   But I do buy fish at the fish market at the edge of the reserve.  And I drive through at Christmas because they are known for their display of lights. 

Do I feel guilty?   Not personally.   Indian boarding schools - I don't believe that there was one in my province, although a few native people might have sent their children to the school in Nova Scotia to be educated beyond elementary school.  Poverty and lack of opportunity?   It also applies to the Acadians, the people of African descent, and to the rural people of Irish and Scotch descent who settled in this province.  

Do I get upset about a native person shooting a moose out of season?  No, he will probably have a feast with his friends, freeze some to feed his family, and sell the rest to friends and acquaintances.  That's fine with me.  I won't mind having a nice moose roast myself.

Do I get angry when a native person cuts birdseye maple on crown land and trucks it to the US?   Yes, people I know are in forestry and trying to make a living while obeying the laws. 

Am I always logical and reasonable?   No. 

Tough question.

If an object is stolen, does it remain stolen property forever?

If your father steals property then leaves it to you, is it not still stolen? If you are enriched by that property are you not also a thief?

Are we not morally obligated to settle all native claims as fairly and rapidly as possible?

And how long can we lease a land through treatys before it actually becomes ours?

Tough questions.

 I have been surprised by the depth and extent of racism I have found in Canada: few non-aboriginals speak or act in respectful ways towards aboriginal cultures, or show any inclination towards a positive interest in them. The media present these cultures as angry and inept, and that has not been my experience of them: my impressions would lean more towards dispossessed. alienated and bitterly wronged... as well as having been bundled out of the way, stigmatised and exploited, it is that case that for over a century (until very recently), aboriginal communities were stripped bare of their children who were taken away and deliberately and systematically alienated from their parents' world. 

Land claims -- which in the context of wider historical realities are extreme only in their moderation and humility -- trigger responses of denial and anger, even though the cities that are powerful engines of our enrichment stand rent-free and unpurchasedon native land, and our farming industry is based, not only on aboriginal land which, by and large, has never been paid for, but also on some staple crops, especially maize and potatoes, that owe their origins to aboriginal agriculturalists. Hundred of their healers' medicines have been appropriated by the modern pharmaceutical industry, without even passing acknowledgement to the cultures that identified them.

I see very few non-aboriginals rising in opposition to the crises that "development" is wreaking on the environment: environmental issues tend to be met by non-aboriginal society with the same sort of denial that ignores the relevance of historical injustices to aboriginal sufferings today. Aboriginal cultures and values have survived because they have a value above immediate short-term gain and economic rapacity. I firmly believe non-aboriginals have a lot to usefully learn from them before they extinguish them altogether. When that happens, if it is allowed to, the Canadians of today will be remembered by history as cruelly genocidal in their naked self-interest.

Despite all of that, the guilt some feel is not an appropriate response. The appropriate response is change... learning, humility, interest, justice and, where it is needed, compassion..

And, despite all of this, non-aboriginals will be welcomed, for example, at First Nations' pow-wows. They will be fed and invited to dance in the circles of friendship and outreach and treated with respect. But how many non-aboriginals dance in those circles or know a phrase or two of the local aboriginal language, just enough so they can use it to say "hello" and "thank you"? How many non-aboriginals have a non-patronising, non-appropriating interest in aboriginal history, heritage or insights and knowledge?

Please... THINK before you bite my head off....

Well said Mike.

Looking back at my heritage there is lots I could (and sometimes do) feel good for.  I mean I can trace part of ancestry back through south africa to Germany.  And we all know there are some not-so-pretty things done by both countries. 

On the other hand have I done anything?  Nope.  The sins of the fathers as they say...

In my opinion, the only way all problems could be solved on earth, would be if people forgave all pasts.  However I know that is impossible...

I deeply respect the native spiritual connection to the land, and it has influenced my journey greatly.  Living where I do, with the things I did as a child I probably know more about "being native" than some natives I know! 

I have seen first hand, some native people degrade white people for "their crimes" in blind hatred.  And I've seen some white people degrade native people through sheer ignorance.

Both disgust me, and I don't take sides because white or not, it's what a person does with their life that counts.  There are drunk natives, and drunk white people.  White business people, and native business people.  White politicians, and native ones.  The list goes on. 

As-salaamu alaikum,

-Omni

hi Elanorgold - sounds like a wonderful event you attended - I hope you will have more opportunities like that.

I do have two very good friends - Ojibwa & Cree - a couple from whom I have learned a great deal.  They are both accomplished & recognized painters, and she is also a film director and writer.   We have shared many a dinner, and conversation has taken us down many paths which are completely unfamiliar to me.   Yes, we've been to pow-wows with our kids too - lots of fun, and superficially enlightening, but there is so much more beyond that.

My own education here in Canada has not included much about native culture or about the twisted history of land claims in Canada.  Sometimes I hesitate to ask them questions - fearing my own ignorance and not wanting to offend.  But I do find they are rarely offended - and value the opportunity to speak of some their own perspectives and experiences.   I find myself learning startling and upsetting  things about the arrogance of our government - not only in the past but today as well.   I hope next time you will venture even further, ask questions and listen.

 Over the past couple of years I have gone to some local pow wows, and really enjoyed them.  People watching is quite interesting there, many whites appear to have a distant curiosity.  They seem to enjoy the event, but don't take part in the the open dancing.  Other cultures are attracted to these pow wows too, and they too also exhibit a somewhat reserved distance.  Something, however, pulls us all there.  The experience is always full of positivity.

Some people jump right in, encourage their children to dance, and join the dance circles.  Personally, I love interacting with First Nations people, I really enjoy the one on one conversations, particularly with artists and craftsmen, probably because that is what I enjoy too. 

I don't feel any guilt, anger perhaps, that one group of people can be so blatantly persecuted.    I think the survivors of the residential school experience are a living example, and reminder of what the negative consequences can be when religion is mixed with power and authority.  

I think it is the shameful "fruit" of the institutional church in Canada, perhaps North America. 

It is said that history is written by the winners, such as Hezekiah in the bible.  In todays age of easy information, perhaps with the sting of First Nations persecution, we can finally understand what the other side of the coin really felt like when, for example, the pagans were "christianized".  Imagine their pain.

For once, the other side is being heard, allowed finally to write their history of sorrow for all to see.  

Good thoughts Omni, and Mike, very well said. I concur, but I do feel guilty, even though I am personally not to blame. My British husband thinks it's disgusting. It's easier for him to see.

Judd, well said. I feel the same way.

Northwind, I would never have guessed you wrote that on a blackberry. Well formed thougths.

These are difficult issues that take guts and exposure to find the truth, and begin to look at potential long term solutions. I don't know that we can ever solve this. The only way I can see is cultural integration and loss of pure culture, and that is sad, and something all cultures avoid. I have often been sad at the loss of my ancient pagan cultures, which my ancestors surrendered to their conquerers.

It is what happened in central and south America, largely. Most people there have native and Spanish blood. I think it was the Argentinian president or prime minister that said none of his citizens get special treatment, all are equal, all are Argentinian.

I don't want them to loose their culture. We do have two cultures here running parallel. They are dispossessed, defeated, and struggling. But Northwind and Mike, you both see the beginnings of answers.

I once wished I was a native person, so I could deserve to live here, and call this land my ancestral home. It is not. I am European living on stolen land, amongst the loosers. So I went to England in '96, but I came back again, to buy land, because land in England is expensive beyond belief. The same reason our ancestors came here. Cheep land. So I did it again.

I was once or twice verbally stabbed by native people for being white. Little did they know how badly I already felt about it.

Last night we were invited to sing a song after a little native girl sang one. "Does anyone else have a song?" We were all too chicken.

I think the Metis have a good thing going. Half French, half native, makes all native.

Carolla, Thanks. Yes I hope there will be more of these events. It seems to take a lot of events together for the two sides to start mingling. We learned absolutely nothing about native history in school too. It was completely ignored. I only knew bits from tv and films. Nice new avatar btw. : ) I hope one day to know a native person, or people, well enough to share my feelings with them. I have though, pointesd out to a silversmith once, that their solar wheel, the swastika, was also a solar wheel in pagan Germany. He did not know that and didn't know what to make of that.

Oui, it is good that they are being heard. I was surprised how much Native American stuff I found in new age shops in England. They really revere native spirituality there. ANd the Germans are very keen on Native culture too. You use the word shame. That's a good one. Do you think we as white Canadian culture have a collective shame? That would seem an apt description.

As to the question of how long do the treaties act as lease agreements for this country.  The terms used are as long as the grass grows and the river flows.

Peace

Joel

Elanorgold - a person in my church, a retired & award winning history teacher, had a long time connection with First Nations people in our area.  A few years ago he wrote a book ( targetted mainly at school children, but I found it interesting too!) about the complex history of the relations between First Nations & immigrants.  I'm not sure how widely it was distributed, but perhaps you can find a copy if you're interested - the title is "Your Home on Native Land - The history of land claims in Canada" by Alan Skeoch, published by JackFruit Press (located in Orangeville Ontario) in 2008.  The publisher's site is www.jackfruitpress.com   It's written in a dialogue style, between a young native person & an elder, with some 'graphic novel' type sectiions, lots of illustrations, excerpts, etc.   He's also included a great bibliography of other sources, and internet links as well, for those who want to know more.  It's been endorsed by First Nations people. 

I taught aboriginal adults in the Lesser Slave Lake area and taught for 7 years in a First Nations School run by a First Nations Council. (mostly Cree and Dene for both)  I just finished 1 1/2 years of doing supply ministry at a church on a Nakoda Souix reserve.  I spent many hours talking with the deans of the residence of an adult education centre, learned some Cree, and a little bit of Nakoda Souix.  The policies of the federal government beyond the residence school issues created an almost impossible situation for First Nations Peoples in Western Canada (ban on working off reserve, ban on organizing advocacy groups, plus many more destructive policies).  Combined with the residential schools issues, these policies have left a terrible legacy in First Nations communities.  Significant progress was made in the 60's (thanks to John Diefenbaker) and 70's.  By the 90's, people around the world were developing the attitude that, if something terrible happens to them, other people need to fix the situation.   When people in some communities affected by the Boxing Day tsunami were sitting and waiting for someone to fix their situation, I felt deep concern for this change in our world.

Combine the past with an increasingly disfunctional present, and we have very slow progress in terms of First Nations individuals and communities achieving healing.  There is deep ignorance in the non-aboriginal population about the past and present, and deep divisions in the First Nations communities.  After participating in one event aiming to bridge the gap along with much discussion with aboriginal and non-aboriginal people, I am increasingly uncertain what we can do to be helpful.  Perhaps the most important thing we can do is to work for healing in the non-aboriginal communities, but we are hampered by political partisanship that aims to triumph by dividing people rather than work for developing a new Canadian consensus on our essential values and goals as a people.

As long as non-aboriginal people do not come with an attitude of superiority or being great rescuers, they are generally well-received by most aboriginal people.  Their culture of hospitality is one that would be helpful for all of us to adopt and develop.

Enough said for now.

excellent thoughts Jim Kenny - thanks for sharing your experiences.   Yesterday I was listening to a bit of an interview on CBC radio re burnout - the speaker made an interesting statement about approaching healing/therapy/medicine with an attitude of servitude not a "fix-it" position - I know this seems a bit divergent from this topic, but I think that sense of servitude is one we might develop in respect of this situation as well - it has certainly not be there in our governments' interactions, or I think historically in the approach taken by churches.

Intersesting enough I  find myself cringing at the word "white" but not at the word "native"

Do I have native friends. Yes. and some of my children's friends are also status-indians.

Do we have friends on reserve? Not at the moment. Our friends are city dwellers-like us.

I have worked on a reserve and attended dances and funerals there. I used to know a smattering of cree words (10 or so).

Cringing at the word white seems to suggest cultural shame. Modern Germans bear a lot of shame too, for the holocaust. But that was a much shorter period of history. We whites were wiping out native culture for a few hundred years, just like the witch trials, the systematic destruction of paganism and independant thought in Europe and Britain.

Thanks Jim for your thoughts. You have had quite a bit of experience with their culture and issues. It does seem like the government wants to keep us apart. Like maybe they're even hoping the natives will die out one day. That's what's happened in other parts of the world. They've died out completely or been integrated invisibly into society, amalgamated in a future soup.

Thanks Carolla, I'll try the library for it.

I don't feel guilt.  I do feel the whole system within which we all operate needs to change but I am not a seer of all and thus I don't have a good suggestion.  Are there problems with the Indian Act: Big Time, can it just be balled up and thrown out: NO.  I feel that for myself it is to the point where I see the problems First Nations face but I don't have any solution other than time; which may not be enough.

Also qwerty as to your poem I agree that First Nations have been portrayed as excessivly exploited and almost child like.  However you have pushed it too far the other way to the point of ridiculousness and almost ignorance.

Peace

Joel

I think  "white" reminds me of the "white man's burden"-the mistaken belief that we were the all knowing, smart race.

Anyhow good discussion.

Don't any other races think that?

Historically, most races took on only the burdens of wiping out or dominating or exploiting other races.  The only race that I know of that believes it is responsible for fixing other races is the white race, and, it is really mostly the English and, maybe, the French.  Maybe we should call it the WASP burden instead of the white man's burden.

 Well preecy thank you for noticing my point.  I suppose it might be worth observing that nobody ever makes a trade unless they are of the opinion that the thing they are trading for is more valuable than the thing they propose to trade away. 

For instance, at the time that Chief Joseph Brant was clamouring for the right to sell off the Haldimand Tract, the Haldimand Tract, although considered valuable now, was just another stretch of bush ...  in a nation of bush ... located in a continent of bush and Brant considered it better not to have the land but rather to have a wallet full of pound notes.

Also I note that you talked about "a lease" of the lands to the Indians.  In fact there was no "lease" as a lease is a grant of possession for a term of years (in return for the payment of rent).  Neither in most cases was there a grant of an estate in land because that must be done by Crown patent.  In most cases (such as along the Grand River in Ontario) there   was only a "license" ... A grant of a right to use the property but if all rights were quitclaimed and/or released to the Crown (as in the case of the Six Nations on the Grand) then the Crown had full right and title to dispose of it as it willed. 

Carolla I almost always agree with the things you write ... but not with this.  Many of those involved in teaching at and operating the residential schools have testified that they became involved because they wanted to help; that they were serving God; that they were assisting the aboriginal peoples; that they wanted to help the children.  In other words, if I understand the use of the term correctly their actions were based in an attitude of servitude.  Unfortunately they could not or did not understand the damage they were doing. 

This is not to suggest that there were not more than a few dastards doing great mischief and damage at the same time ... but that is always true in every time and in every society including our own. 

 Querty... I do accept what your point. But those "good" feelings were driven by the enormous conceit that white is right, that everything of the aboriginal was Satanic, that Europeans had a divine right of appropriation, more than amply justified by the "improvements" it brought, and that nothing preceding European colonisation had any worth, order or meaning. 

The only consequential part of the relationship was white, Christian, civilising and transforming. The brutality of that mind-set was extraordinary and abhorrent. It was as savage as the Roman conquest of Western Europe, and the European invasion of Africa. The difference was the rationalisation demanded by hypocrisy. Elements of the rationalisation are with us to this day, and continue to impede Canada's maturation as a nation.

Aww yes the poor white man being taken advantage of by the natives. I guess the white man did not really want those worthless beaver belts. Oh wait the Hudson's Bay trading post wasn't interested in those pelts either I guess.

qwerty, I owe you an apology.  I thought your poem was written tongue in cheek with deliberate irony.  I did not realize you meant your poem to be taken straight up.

Hurry Eagle Feather!

Gather your traps together    (Trapping was a costly activity that took time and resources away from other life systaining tasks; not taken as lightly as suggested by this poem)

Let us paddle a short way down any brook (the ones who did most of the trapping lived hundreds of miles away from the market -- the Cree were the main "middlemen".)

So that we may snare

A fortune from the foolish white men  ( I doubt many of the first nations people thought the white men were foolish -- they were burned a few times by bad deals, and learned to be just as devious)

From whom we will take

(Like candy from a babe)

Knives of steel that we can't make  (quite an exaggeration--many hours of labour were exchanged for those knives, more hours than most of us would willingly trade today)

And good  iron pots that never break

In return for the worthless skins  (considering the cost of acquiring them, hardly worthless)

Of  beaver that swim everywhere in

Our rivers and our lakes

That sparkle eternally in the sun

Like the stars in the summer night sky

Reading along and just thinking. Still, wanna go back to England.

Jim ... if they were getting such a bad deal, why did they trade?

I would suggest that one reason was that iron and steel was something that the aboriginals (whose metallurgical technology had not progressed much beyond the stone age) lacked the knowledge and capacity to make and so was, especially for them,  a whole lot scarcer (and therefore a whole lot more valuable than it is today).  My understanding is that most of those beaver pelts went into the hat trade (for the making of top hats whose soft grey surface is made by brushing all the guard hairs out of the pelts).   So the Indians were receiving rare (for them) and useful materials that gave an immediate improvement in the efficiency of their household and hunting operations in return for supplying the raw materials for the production of frippery for the upper classes of Europe.  I would say the Indians were trading a whole lot smarter than the Europeans.  

Now, on the other hand, I just read that efforts were under way in Scotland to reintroduce the beaver which had been hunted to extinction there for the purposes of supplying the hat trade.  The extinction of the beaver in Scotland is a development which would have caused the Europeans to view a beaver pelt as a rare and hard to find commodity.  So perhaps the proper view is that the Indians and the Europeans were both trading rarities for rarities and that perhaps neither I nor you either, ought to be so quick to judge ... either side.  If the parties thought they were making a good trade, who are we (now so far removed from the conditions and motivations of the time) to judge.  And if we do choose to judge, can our judgment be superior to theirs?

Trade before the late 1800's was generally mutually beneficial.

Not just metals but wool was very popular as it could get wet and still keep warm. It was a great luxury.

The diseases of a shrinking world were the worst disasters native Americans faced, along with the apathy of the newcomer Europeans.

qwerty, I was not trying to say the First Nations got a bad deal, just that it was not as one-sided as your poem implied.  Originally all trade was rarities exchanged for rarities -- travel and trade were dangerous activities, and there needed to be a good profit for both parties for trade to be worthwhile.

qwerty

Please, I don't want to hijack the thread but your comment  "What exactly have you or anybody in your family done that should make you feel guilty? "  reminds me of the Native Schools. 

This happened before I was born, happened before I became part of the UCC, and YET, I am supposed to feel "guilty".  Why?

There, I've said it and am signing off.  Sorry, but just had to say it.

IT

Russ

I used the term lease because the agreements are not simple land transactions they are on going and considered sacred.

Peace

Joel

Also I should add that although people from both sides of the fur trade beneitted at the end it was suddenly ended and the trading posts closed without telling the traders or traders.  This meant that a  lot of First Nations faced starvation for some years. 

Peace

Joel

Russ,  I agree.  

Additionally, I would say that those who seem to demand that you and I should feel guilty for the history and fate of aboriginals seem to assume/envision that those who were white ("the whiteman") were privileged and rich and from that position took advantage of the "poor" and "ignorant" native peoples.  I don't buy that.  

My family has been in Canada for seven generations but I don't have to go very far back to know with a certainty that they were far from rich and privileged and that, on the contrary, they too were ignorant and poor.  My great grandfather, who was "third or fourth generation Canadian" (depending I guess on how you count it) and who I had the privilege of meeting before he died 53 years ago at the age of 84 was turfed out of the house by his father at the age of 12 because he "had enough schooling" and "ought to have been out working".  His first job was for room and board and little more with a brutish farmer who beat the boy and cheated him of his pay.  My great grandfather moved on when the farmer knocked him around and threw him over the wood pile (which being situated near Victoria Harbour in the days of wood heat would have made it quite a prodigious throw).  

My point is that this is indicative of the conditions and existence of the common working man in that part of the world (ie. this part of Canada).  Almost everyone was desperate, not just the Indians.  Almost everyone - white or red - was uneducated.  My great grandfather was not sent to a school (residential or otherwise).  He was booted out on his ass and told to work.  If he had known about the residential schools he probably would have thought (much as his flinty father would have) that those aboriginal children were being allowed a frivolous and unjustifiable existence of indolence when they ought to have been out toiling for their supper,as my great grandfather himself had, rather than accumulating the useless ornamentation of an education beyond rudimentary reading and arithmetic.

I don't feel guilty at all.  I know where I came from and how I got here. 

My uncle is married to six nations woman, her family, warm-hearted and nice live on the reserve out in Brantford outskirts. I visited once. They still live on basics, welfare is common.

They are marginalized and  poor by the average standard, and the girls all get pregnant very young. Drugs and Alcohol are prevalent in the culture too.

My uncle and his wife do foster care for native indian children and CAS is always involved in birth mother of the two kids they look after.

But they are very peaceable people like many and have strong family relations and live simply for nature and modest lives.

I appreciate native culture and would love to try a bow and arrow to snag a salmon!

Indian art especially fascinates me like Haida.

 .

 What should concern us all is that, as a result of systematic government policy, a group of citizens has been placed in an invidious position, and that those people whose children were removed from their homes by force force for generation after generation (and continue to be) happen to be the people whose land was also appropriated for the benefit of new arrival "Canadians", a taking of land and resources for which no legal transfer of property and rights has ever taken place in a fair and respectful way... and that -- right now -- this situation continues, the present government having immediately upon taking office canned one long-negotiated attempt at reparations and reconciliation simply because it didn't like it and score some brownie points with bigots by its perfidy.

The crap continues and it's being dished out in your name by your elected representatitives. If you do not see this as any of your business you should maybe live in a more totalitarian state.

I agree Mike. The systematic attempts to destroy and assimilate a group of people affects us all.

My grandfather left home at the age of 9 to make his own living, but he had the choice of where to go and what to do.  He became a cowboy, rodeo competitor, mule skinner, blacksmith and carpenter.  He had the freedom to become politically active, if he chose to do so.  First Nations people were prevented by law from leaving the reserve to work, from voting, and from joining any groups formed for political activity.  Everybody had a tough time making a living, but non-aboriginals had a great deal more freedom of choice.

The government of Canada made treaties (by the way, treaties are only made between sovereign nations --> these treaties imply the Canadian Government of the day recognized first nations as sovereign nations); the government made the laws; the government chose not to meet their obligations.  Therefore our government has a moral, ethical, and legal responsibility to compensate First Nations people, and, as their government, has a responsibility for their current well-being, just as it has for the rest of us.

I am affected, and concerned. It's a difficult situation and a complicated issue. It is a terrible and shameful thing. What are we to do, as white decendants of settlers? This land is your land, this land is my land? Really? Our home and chosen land? We're guilty, but not guilty... This is not my land.

Guilt isn't especially helpful. Helping native peoples get a few laws changed is halpful; changing our own attitudes and those around us to respect and interest is helpful. Seeing the degradation of so many native peoples in prisons, slums and under-resourced reservations is something that we can go a long way towards solving if we make it a priority... that is helpful. 

Native cultures have a lot to teach us, if we're open to them; they simply need to be opened to, with respect. We need to listen with care.

Yes, indeed.

The saddest thing to witness about most reservations is their struggle to recreate an identity. Stripped of a glorious and proud past and replaced with a white man's version of who they should be, generations pass and the ghosts of their former selves struggle to come to the surface.

Would the spirits of their great chiefs even know where they were as they enter this cage that was created to "cripple" their culture?

If ever there was a reason for preserving story and myth, this is it.

Rockin' The Res

by John Trudell

Listen to the skies, listen to the sound.
Something on the land,
Something going down.
Downdressers speeding by life,
fevers heart burning rivers to cross.
Walls of Babylon material noise
thinking they've touched the moon.
Freedom takes a rocket blast.
Just another day like yesterday.

Rockin' my heart, rockin' the Rez,
Woman like you, times like this.
All that's real connects to you
Happy medicine making me smile.
Seeing you laugh getting so near
Rockin' our hearts, Rockin' the Rez.

Carrying on like he ain't been gone,
War-maker's back, back in town.
His notion of taking care of us
not the same as, not even close...
Not even close to our notion of taking care of us.
Nowhere to hide, nowhere to run,
got no job and prices going up.
War-maker's back in town.
Just another day like yesterday.

Rockin' my heart, rockin' the Rez,
no chance we're gonna ever give up.
Together we'll dance
a personal dance.
Sweet start surrendering
only to each other.
These days holding the night, holding on tight.

Rockin' our hearts, rockin' the Rez.

Startin' wars with the stars and
working on offing Earth,
what kind of future is that?
Some weird kind of living.
Who needs that lie?
Pretending we aren't stars too,
really isn't very bright.
Earth Stars
with jail break in our hearts.
Just another day like yesterday.

Rockin' my heart, rockin' the Rez,
woman I want, woman I need.
Times when times do get hard
you sure are some comfort.
Rising up love, living on carries on.
Rockin' our hearts, rockin' the Rez.

Rockers Hearts, Rocking Rez.

Finally someone mentioned the alcohol and drugs.  I think those two things have done far more damage than any treaties or schools could have done.   The recent development of gangs has escalated native-on-native violence.

I was raised to be non-racist.  I have tried.  But as someone mentioned upstream, we do live very different lives, and have very different values.  My relationship to the land and the Creator is much more like described 'native spirituality' than what I see lived out by the natives themselves...

I blame a lot of the problem on alcohol.  And drugs. Violence, disregard of tradition, inability to tell right from wrong, or imagine the consequences of your actions, or care about any of it, is debilitating and dangerous.  To them and us.

And this isn't new. I disagree that 'we' have been oppressing 'them' for hundreds of years. My great-grandfather was the first white missionary in an area of our north, and his diaries describe the native way of life in not very noble or glorious terms. My grandfather was deeply passionate about helping them to find healthier ways of living, better treatment of their families and so on.  The people he worked with had not been damaged by the white presence. They were already not good for themselves.  Alcohol just made it that much worse.   Complaints are rampant about the availability of health care for native people, but smoking, alcohol abuse, poor diet and lifestyle are their worst enemies--not the healthcare system. What are we to do?  Why are we to feel guilty? 

There will be an angry backlash as people read this.  But if even our beloved teachers, who really were innocent of the terrible imperialism you accuse them of, and created safe places for many of the children, protecting the little ones from the bigger ones,--if even they are accused of being racist, then there is no hope for me.  If all that you say is true about land ownership etc. then I should be going back to Scotland to reclaim my ancestors' lands from the marauders who ran them off, forcing them to disperse, penniless and broken. 

Well weeze no one is stopping you from going back to Scotland and doing just that.

 If you ate today

thank a farmer...

If you FARMED today

Thank a NATIVE PERSON

I did not flag weeze's words as offensive, they break no rules that administration needs to address and may not be offensive to some people. I am just calling them such for me and then walking off.