This is the article printed in the Nanaimo News this
week that has created a big response by local first
nations and an apology from the paper.
It
was only 12,000 years ago, or less and this should
be considered:
In all those years they
-
Never discovered the wheel
- Never had a written language
- Never discovered astronomy
- Had no science or scientific discoveries
- Had no mathematics
- Made no medical discoveries
- Never had written music
- Only figured out a drum and a rattle for musical
instruments
- Had no metallurgy
- Had no sails for boats (only had canoes)
- Created virtually no mechanical devices
- Possessed almost nothing that required hard
manual labour over a period of time ie: building
with or carving out of stone
- Made almost no inventions
- Are just in the last 200 years getting caught-up
to most of the rest of the world
- Have a history that is notable only for
underachievement
Think where an equal number of Chinese would be
today; given only 10 years of the advantages
Canadian Indians have---no taxes on any money you
earn while living on a reserve free dental free
university, etc.
BTW
the hunger striking chief and her husband, were paid
$270,000.00 by the band last year.
Comments from a reader in the Globe and Mail. It's a
short history lesson on natives.... This land does
NOT belong to them! Why do some people keep saying
that it does? Is it because that's what they want
you to believe? Well then the marketing campaign
must be working well Let's get this straight...
1.
These people's ancestors did not just appear in
North America magically out of thin air one day
50,000 years ago. They came in waves across the
land/ice bridge from Asia. What's more these waves
in many cases were not related groups of people.
They came from various places around North Eastern
Asia and were from different genetic strains... in
other words the "natives of North America" are not a
homogenous group of people and more importantly....
They are immigrants too, like millions of immigrants
today.
2.
The idea that the "natives" were peaceful caretakers
of the land or benevolent tenants couldn't be
further from the truth. The various tribes warred on
each other constantly. They were violent. Want
proof? Ask the Hurons... oh that's right you can't.
The Iroquois wiped them out. How about slavery that
was rife among the first nation tribes until the
Europeans came over and freed the slaves and put an
end to this "valued cultural tradition"? Is slavery
peaceful and humane?
3.
The idea that we "stole" this land from them is also
ridiculous. A more technologically advanced and
numerous culture invaded and conquered. This is
exactly what has been happening since the dawn of
humanity all around the globe. To say we "stole"
their lands is just plain wrong. That is akin to
saying the Saxons should return England to the
Angles. Or maybe we should launch a campaign to have
Roman descendants give Italy back to the Etruscans.
4.
It is a nonsensical notion driven by the
politically correct bleeding hearts, some
intellectually deficient politicians, the
Government, and it will continue to cost this
country needless and wasted billions and billions
until we get some backbone and turn off the taps.
Are these people in trouble? Yes.
Do they need help? Yes.
Are they responsible enough to look after
themselves and efficiently spend the billions the
tax payers give them? Certainly not.
The only way to fix this situation is to bring them
into society as equals. They should be getting jobs
and paying taxes like the rest of
us because in reality, they are no more special than
any of the other hundred or more cultures that call
Canada home.
Turn off the taps. Do away with this "traditional
use" and "cultural" nonsense. Educate their children
to become modern citizens, instead of finding their
identity and source of pride in some folks who
occupied the land 15000 years ago. Let them stand or
fall on their own account. Just like the rest of us
have to do.
From the same correspondent that sent the above in
we also got...
I
can agree with everything except the patently false
statement that we didn't steal the land from them.
They had settled tribal regions which they fiercely
protected. We went in, effectively declared war on
them and stole their land. This was utterly unlike
the imperialism of other parts of the world, such as
India, where locals could keep their land and
property, provided they submitted to external
authority.
No, here they were dismissed as savages, much as
Churchill and others dismissed black Africans, and
they were offered nothing at all. The rest of it is
probably narrowly accurate, but consider the letter
of Chief Seattle who in the 1800's wrote a letter in
response to the government's offer to purchase
tribal land. Ask yourself whether this was written
by a "savage":
"The President in Washington sends word that he
wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell
the sky? the land? The idea is strange to us. If we
do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle
of the water, how can you buy them?
Every part of the earth is sacred to my people.
Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every
mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming
insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of
my people.
We know the sap which courses through the trees as
we know the blood that courses through our veins. We
are part of the earth and it is part of us. The
perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the
deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The
rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat
of the pony, and man all belong to the same family.
The shining water that moves in the streams and
rivers is not just water, but the blood of our
ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must
remember that it is sacred. Each glossy reflection
in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and
memories in the life of my people. The water's
murmur is the voice of my father's father.
The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst.
They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you
must give the rivers the kindness that you would
give any brother.
If we sell you our land, remember that the air is
precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with
all the life that it supports. The wind that gave
our grandfather his first breath also received his
last sigh. The wind also gives our children the
spirit of life. So if we sell our land, you must
keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can
go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow
flowers.
Will you teach your children what we have taught our
children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls
the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.
This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man
belongs to the earth. All things are connected like
the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the
web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever
he does to the web, he does to himself.
One thing we know: our God is also your God. The
earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to
heap contempt on its creator.
Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen
when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild
horses tamed? What will happen when the secret
corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of
many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted
with talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone!
Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is to say
goodbye to the swift pony and then hunt? The end of
living and the beginning of survival.
When the last red man has vanished with this
wilderness, and his memory is only the shadow of a
cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores
and forests still be here? Will there be any of the
spirit of my people left?
We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's
heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as
we have loved it. Care for it, as we have cared for
it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it
is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all
children, and love it, as God loves us.
As we are part of the land, you too are part of the
land. This earth is precious to us. It is also
precious to you.
One thing we know - there is only one God. No man,
be he Red man or White man, can be apart. We ARE all
brothers after all."
