NativeCharm

Mah Dearest Bean Counting Geof: Seriously..has cowtown gone to your head..or are you just one of those red neckish types that always sticks their head in the sands just long enough to figure that you can't hold your breath for too long with a mouth full of $#!t ??????????????????? Dare to engage in a full discussion of 'qualified' officers in this country's nations? Go lay by your dish and think about what you just said. LOL " pro--majority- crap" at it's not so finest!

Riv, you CLEARLY have twisted words and are misreprestning what otehrs are saying... AGAIN!!!!!!! Firstly, the trillion dollar figure was mentioned only to estaimate the current VALUE of the dealings. Secondly, every single person here has said they would not want to evict these people. Why do you insisting on twisting people's words?????? We have all been weighing best and worst case scenarios here. Please refrain from misleading others as to what some had said only for reference.

Of course they would end there. You would rather submit funds to a foreign country for their aid than taking care of business in your own homeland (happens far too often). While on one hand I dont want to be paying more taxes either, but on the same note I love the country I live in and if I have to pay a little extra for sacrifices that were made so I can have a good life today, in this country...so be it. And " IF" you have no idea what those sacrifices are, then you truly are lacking the ability to learn anything thats is being graciously shared in these forums.

I don't know what they are teaching in grade schools these days, but this is what I wish would have been available as Canadian/ Native history when I was in school. Instead of this thanksgiving it's pocahontas crap.

Honest question, how were you stopped before? The Pope went to mass in occupied Poland, where it was illegal, actually, many Soviets practiced their religion despite a brutally despotic regime. The 'Traditional' (read: insane) Mormons pratice polygamy in Creston BC, despite it being illegal. How were you stopped, pray tell? Thought I'd help ya out. Native spirituality was suppressed by the U.S. and Canadian governments. Spiritual leaders ran the risk of jail sentences of up to 30 years for simply practicing their rituals. This came to an end in the U.S. in 1978 when the Freedom of Religion Act was passed. Some suicidologists believe that the extremely high suicide rate among Natives is due to the suppression of their religion and culture by the Federal Governments. This suppression is still seen in the prison administrations; Canadian prisons have only recently allowed Native sweat lodge ceremonies; most American prisons routinely deny permission. _ LINK you're welcome. Anything else?

How are relations between Aboriginal Christians and Aboriginals with Native beliefs? Intense. to say in the least, for some folks anyway. I had an ol' freind of mine who was Christian who swore at me for returning to the ol' ways, swore I was a heathen and she couldn't save my soul. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered she had never used sweetgrass in her life and had lived on the reserve her whole life. I was raised Catholic. Church with my kokum every sunday. It was until I took a reserach contract on residential schools that I lost my faith ( so to speak). I went into a really bad depression (6 months) and despite what my colleagues warned me about the contract, I took it anyway. I was truly mortified when I learned of the horrible and godless acts that were done to my forefathers. It was definitely a life changing experience.

Scroll up please. its the little arrow >>>> to the upper right of the screen.

This is interesting LINK Please sign and get all your friends and family to sign

Remember we JUST in the past 30 years or so have been allowed to practice our religion again. People are converting and actualyl quite quickly. I prefer the term "returning" to their original religion (spirituality).

I'm not too well versed on the bible, but arent the alterations etc also known as "new testaments" etc?

Oh no Rev, I have made it very clear how "short my fuse is" thus implying that I am aware of my own actions. Not only that but I am now a self-entitled Extreme Native Supremist. So I'm better than everyone, now get off my pedestal.... Lol, and I hope I don't have to warn you in advance about the Cree's and their humour.

Riv dahlin...Omg there is NOt enough room in this thread to even BEGIN pointing out all your racist remarks. Not only that but it would take forever. maybe some of us could gather into teams and tackle this challenge. save time and space, don't wanna flood the board.

Gotta love the new post our dear ol riverspin started "Native shakedown..." the same one that cries racist over and over is constantly proving over and over what a true racist he is. Fine specimen indeed. For all those that are going to insist on referring to me as an extremist or a racist, I would now prefer if you called me Native Supremist. It's probably more accurate considering that I constantly defend the things I admire of my heritage and what makes me proud of who I am. Wait wait wait, No I want to be an Extreme Native Supremist, it sounds more athletic. Yaaaaa that sounds good. Thanks in advance.

halfway? lol. well we share the same religion(Native) and there are many other commonalities with our culture. Land etc. I recognize my Cree side too, so if we had kids, they'd be mixed. I would do my best to ensure they had the best education possible on their heritage(s), and then hope they marry other Natives, lol.

Oh yes I am very aware of the battles in Metis homelands. My mother is a proud and active Metis living in the peg. I've always liked Yvonne Dumont, personally.

Ahhh Me too know all about the Metis. Good ol' Winnipeg eh? How is David Chartrand doing anyway? lol

They don't condone your relationship? In Canada, there are an estimated 300,000 to 700,000 Metis. *That* is a lot of intermarriage in our past. And it is still happening today. Urbanization is the melting pot. That has been happening for a long as humans have walked the earth. Many Metis marry Metis. This contributes to them to being a distinct society. Just because they are a Metis DOES NOT mean they are simply half-breeds. They are truly a distinct society of their own, including their own language ~ Michif.

Ahh yes. The great Canadian melting pot.I don't think it is as mixed for many Natives tho. Yes there are many intermarriages, my significant other is Ojibway. Love is love and I haven't met an elder yet that condones this. There is however many elders that frown upon "love" outside of Native descent, which is largely due to the history of abuse to the Native people's from their "white brothers". However, many rural people(those on rez) and others do marry into their own, which contributes to the strength of the cultural lineage.

How do native communities keep the balance between respecting and learning from Elders and from not becoming a gerontocracy like some other cultures have found? Each community and nation is different. It's very important to keep that fact in mind. Being Native does not imply that we are all from the same tribe nor share the same customs & beliefs. Currently, the generations recovering from the effects of the attempted genocide, have been making vast improvements in ensuring that we are strengthening our knowledge from one generation to the next. " Native spirituality was suppressed by the U.S. and Canadian governments. Spiritual leaders ran the risk of jail sentences of up to 30 years for simply practicing their rituals. This came to an end in the U.S. in 1978 when the Freedom of Religion Act was passed. Some suicidologists believe that the extremely high suicide rate among Natives is due to the suppression of their religion and culture by the Federal Governments. This suppression is still seen in the prison administrations; Canadian prisons have only recently allowed Native sweat lodge ceremonies; most American prisons routinely deny permission. _ LINK More and more young people are now learning their Native language and old traditions and customs are being revived, and some even updated. More and more pople are returning to the spiritual Native path as it is no longer outlawed/ banned. Balance is the hardest thing to achieve in life.

As if the white man always had a Safeway store on every corner. Of course they didn't. They had natives giving them seeds, and showing them the ways of the land. DUH! Oh wait...you wanna deny that too? Another history rewriter perhaps?

I'll make an attempt to answer your question, but I'm sure someone older than I could answer much better. A Native traditionalist which is best suited for what we are discussing should be most knowledgable in the lands of the chosen region. Knows how the land functions, grows, changes, the historical and current patterns and has extensive knowledge on all the species within. The traditionalist will have generations of knowledge from farming and nurturing to preserving and harvesting. The persons who would best decide what/who a traditionalist is...is the elders, as they are the keepers and givers of knowledge and would best know which person knows what on specific things. I don't think they would be anti-urbanization if it did not have harmful long term effects on the land in question.

I think I understand the first part but I'm not sure about the last part. What does that mean? It's a spiritual thing. When you become disconnected, you become unbalanced. When you are unbalanced you are prone to illness, mental, physical, emotional and spiritual.

To answer your question jdobbin, An old respected elder by the name of Rose Auger ( who recently passed) stated this: "One becomes disconnected when their feet leave the soil of their homeland". Some elders say, then when you travel overseas to take something from the Mother (earth) of your soil. To help dis-ease the pain of the disconnection.

It was your claim that Natives should govern land based on their connection to the land that raised my eyebrows. I couldn't help wondering how a Native company cutting down the forest is different than than a non-Native one. Of course you wouldn't pick a murderer to be in charge of salvation. I think you're standing to close to Riv. you're starting to pick up his twist habits. I meant a Native traditionalist with/access to traditional land knowledge, would probably have a stronger committment to a positive outcome than someone without that type of knowledge. And who better than the Natives who know the lands far better than anyone else. I'm sure that many of you stomaching the concept that we could be an expert in anything probably deplores you. Twist away.

Why do I have the feeling your knowledge on our oral history is extremely limited?