Zach LarkinsINDIAN AFFAIRS
I, for one, am getting pretty fed up with all the whining the Indians are doing. Oh, I guess I should say ‘aboriginals' or ‘first nation peoples' to be politically correct. Screw it, I'm too old for that nonsense.
CBC ran a report last Sunday on a planned day of action the Indians hope to carry off June 29. They have blockaded Caledonia for 15 months, saying the land is theirs and was never given up to the government, thus the government can't sell it to a developer who wants to build houses there. Throughout all this misery, we have seen two-tiered justice in action, where the police let the Indians have their way while the white man is held to the letter of the law.
They recently blockaded the CP rails between Montreal and Toronto costing industry millions of dollars in missed shipments and upset more than a few travellers who had to be put on buses to avoid the blockade. Again, the government takes no action against them. If it was white people, they'd all be in jail awaiting a hearing.
Now these fools want to stage another blockade of the railways. As one of their spokesmen, Chris Brant, said, there are two ways to gain the attention of the white man. One is with a gun and the other is to separate him from his money. How comforting to think he didn't go the gun routine.
However, Brant is full of it. He moans about how long it takes for cases of land jurisdiction to be settled. He cries that he has buried his own children because of the lack of government intervention and dollars. So the protest he is calling for is just another example of how these people wish to extort money from the rest of us. Well, what the hell? It worked for Quebec, didn't it?
First off, the Indians lost the war. The white man came out on top and laid down some rules (laws) that everyone, Indians included, should have to follow. They're not perfect rules by any means, but they are the best we have to date so learn to live with it. I won't go into the ‘ten people at a party, whisper something into your partners ear, see how much it's changed by the time it comes back to you' example. The Indians believe that something said 200 years ago is exactly what was said and hasn't changed. I guess that's why we want proof on paper. The Indians can say whatever they want and we're just supposed to trust them? I think not.
Second, there is no dispute that there is abject poverty on Indian reserves. However, if you travel through one, you will see mansions beside tar-paper shacks. Why? What did the one have that the other didn't? I've done a lot of work on Indian reserves and found the natives to be nothing if not forthright and honest. If they didn't want to do business, they told you so at the outset and you knew exactly where you stood. Many of the natives worked off the reservation, paid taxes on the money they earned and built themselves a good life. Others chose to work on the rez, not pay any taxes, and the result is they are the poor ones. I once asked a Mohawk if he was Chippawa. I didn't know and it was an innocent question. He slammed me against the wall so fast my head is still spinning. He explained to me that calling him a Chippawa was the equivalent of calling someone a nigger. I never made that mistake again, believe me.
The suicide rates on reserves are higher than anywhere else in the land. Why? Because the youngsters see no escape, or hope of escape, from their present life. Alcoholism and glue sniffing is rampant. It's an escape. One that ends up, usually, in death. But why do some natives prosper and others die? It certainly doesn't have to be this way.
But the likes of Brant want it to be this way. All his ills are government generated. Give us more money, he cries. Hogwash I say. The government already spends enough on the Indians to afford each native man woman and child $73,000 per year. Please note that figure is per year, it is not a one off deal. Perhaps Mr. Brant should be asking his chiefs, councils and elders where the money is going, instead of begging for more. There are people in the real world making a lot less money than that and turning out children who are not bent on a path to self-destruction. They even have decent housing instead of the squalor so evident on reservations.
His day of protest will not quicken the legal process that he claims he is fighting for. His hopes are for more greenbacks, plain and simple, from taxpayers. Just think what a life he could have if he worked on top of getting his 73 large.
No wonder everyone wants to go native. It doesn't look like a bad deal to me.
CBC ran a report last Sunday on a planned day of action the Indians hope to carry off June 29. They have blockaded Caledonia for 15 months, saying the land is theirs and was never given up to the government, thus the government can't sell it to a developer who wants to build houses there. Throughout all this misery, we have seen two-tiered justice in action, where the police let the Indians have their way while the white man is held to the letter of the law.
They recently blockaded the CP rails between Montreal and Toronto costing industry millions of dollars in missed shipments and upset more than a few travellers who had to be put on buses to avoid the blockade. Again, the government takes no action against them. If it was white people, they'd all be in jail awaiting a hearing.
Now these fools want to stage another blockade of the railways. As one of their spokesmen, Chris Brant, said, there are two ways to gain the attention of the white man. One is with a gun and the other is to separate him from his money. How comforting to think he didn't go the gun routine.
However, Brant is full of it. He moans about how long it takes for cases of land jurisdiction to be settled. He cries that he has buried his own children because of the lack of government intervention and dollars. So the protest he is calling for is just another example of how these people wish to extort money from the rest of us. Well, what the hell? It worked for Quebec, didn't it?
First off, the Indians lost the war. The white man came out on top and laid down some rules (laws) that everyone, Indians included, should have to follow. They're not perfect rules by any means, but they are the best we have to date so learn to live with it. I won't go into the ‘ten people at a party, whisper something into your partners ear, see how much it's changed by the time it comes back to you' example. The Indians believe that something said 200 years ago is exactly what was said and hasn't changed. I guess that's why we want proof on paper. The Indians can say whatever they want and we're just supposed to trust them? I think not.
Second, there is no dispute that there is abject poverty on Indian reserves. However, if you travel through one, you will see mansions beside tar-paper shacks. Why? What did the one have that the other didn't? I've done a lot of work on Indian reserves and found the natives to be nothing if not forthright and honest. If they didn't want to do business, they told you so at the outset and you knew exactly where you stood. Many of the natives worked off the reservation, paid taxes on the money they earned and built themselves a good life. Others chose to work on the rez, not pay any taxes, and the result is they are the poor ones. I once asked a Mohawk if he was Chippawa. I didn't know and it was an innocent question. He slammed me against the wall so fast my head is still spinning. He explained to me that calling him a Chippawa was the equivalent of calling someone a nigger. I never made that mistake again, believe me.
The suicide rates on reserves are higher than anywhere else in the land. Why? Because the youngsters see no escape, or hope of escape, from their present life. Alcoholism and glue sniffing is rampant. It's an escape. One that ends up, usually, in death. But why do some natives prosper and others die? It certainly doesn't have to be this way.
But the likes of Brant want it to be this way. All his ills are government generated. Give us more money, he cries. Hogwash I say. The government already spends enough on the Indians to afford each native man woman and child $73,000 per year. Please note that figure is per year, it is not a one off deal. Perhaps Mr. Brant should be asking his chiefs, councils and elders where the money is going, instead of begging for more. There are people in the real world making a lot less money than that and turning out children who are not bent on a path to self-destruction. They even have decent housing instead of the squalor so evident on reservations.
His day of protest will not quicken the legal process that he claims he is fighting for. His hopes are for more greenbacks, plain and simple, from taxpayers. Just think what a life he could have if he worked on top of getting his 73 large.
No wonder everyone wants to go native. It doesn't look like a bad deal to me.
I have a Native American friend I'll simply call "Ed"...we were embrolied in a heated conversation one day about the Reservations and the casinos and how much the white man keeps taking from the Indians...
I paused a bit to let the tension seep out of the air between us, then I said, "I once heard that the Red man takes more from the Red Man than the White man ever did..."
He raised his head and looked me square in the eyes...
"He said, "Yanno Nick, that's one arguement I have no rebuttal for, because you're absolutely correct. The Red man has taken far more from his red brothers than the White man ever did or ever could..."
And that pretty much ended the discussion...
We have the same problem on the reservations down here...You drive through and see these fantastic elborate mansions on acres and acres of prime land, with tar paper shacks and broken down houses lined up all along side of them...
So what does that tell you? It's the same old story...Those who have shall have, and those that don't, well too bad for them...
But I don't think blocking railways and roads and shit is ever going to solve the problem...it just makes the Indians look bad and the government look even worse because it won't police the law breakers...
It's the exact same problem we face with Mexican immigrants...
I feel your pain buddy, I truly do...
Great post!
Take care,
Nick
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