Study on native drug users brings elder to tears

[jbg]

Your post implies that all Aboriginal leaders are stealing money and preventing "aid" from reaching the rest of the Aboriginal community. Not only are you overgeneralizing, but you are also quite simply wrong.

Then why do so many band leaders live lives that are more than comfortable, and one almost inevitably finds shocking squalor on the reserves?

[charter.rights]

Then why do so many band leaders live lives that are more than comfortable, and one almost inevitably finds shocking squalor on the reserves?

That is because native leaders earn a moderate income - no more. When you compare $26,000 a year (the average councilor's wage) to no income per year, there is tremendous buying power and they would appear "rich" compared to the status quo. Band leaders and employees aren't the ones squandering our money. It happens long before it ever reaches the reserve.

So yes. You are simply wrong, as usual. BTW I'd like to see if you could live on $26,000 per year on some remote reserve when a trip to the doctor would cost you about $800 return, beef runs about $10.50 a pound, milk runs over $3.00 per litre and a loaf of bread runs about $4.00. You'll quickly see that a salary can allow you to buy some of those things from time to time, but for the most time the cost of living outweighs and benefit from a steady salary.

[g_bambino]

Times have changed - so let's kill the reservation system, department of indian affairs and send them out on their own. They claim to be ready and I see them as ready - provided of course they actually do take that personal responsibility.

Oh, and one more thing - provided they actually toss some of their crooked leadership and stop listening to those who would hold them back - those supposed wise elders. Those very same people who would allow poverty and drugs and sexual abuse and in some cases rampant criminal behaviour to run freely on reservations.

That very same leadership that manages to live well while their bretherin live in shameful poverty.

Borg

Reserves and support from the Crown are requirements set with centuries of permanence. To alter this would require the re-writing of the treaties which now form a part of the constitution. On the other hand, the treaties, from my undestanding, are pretty clear on the point that FNs are not to be under government jurisdiction; they were set up as they are because the FNs wanted to be left alone on dedicated lands except for supplies of weapons, food and, I think, medical services in exchange for giving up whatever land was agreed to. But, nowhere was it said the Crown was responsible for helping them with enterprise or maintaining a certain standard of living for them. Nor was there anything about setting up FNs self-government or funding any internal governmental operations like police and social services. So why, then, does the common thinking seem to be that the treaties did call for this and that it is the Canadian government that is responsible for all these things, as though FNs were actually Canadians like the rest of us?

[bk59]

Then why do so many band leaders live lives that are more than comfortable, and one almost inevitably finds shocking squalor on the reserves?

Why does the Prime Minister live a life that is more than comfortable and one almost inevitably finds shocking homelessness and destitution in major cities across Canada? Under your logic it must be because the Prime Minister is stealing money, or encouraging poverty, or engaging in some other impropriety.

It is true that corruption does exist on some reserves. But to generalize like you have is wrong. And the logic of your last post clearly does not hold up.

[eyeball]

So what you're saying is that once "white man" is involved, "indigenous" people have the right, forever, and to all generations, to totally shirk responsibility?

No, white people have the responsibility to get out of their way when they do. In many cases this means not impeding them from exploiting their resources or occupying their land.

What about the Muslims? They are probably "Exhibit 'A' in imperliasm, having spread at the point of a sword west from their origin through the Middle East, then Egypt, then the rest of Northern Africa, and on to Spain and part of France before being partially repulsed. Eastword they spread through Persia, modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan, large chunks of India, Indonesia, and large chunks of the Phillipines. Everywhere they exist they refuse to coexist with other populatins.

The unwritten and unspoken story is that they sold Africans into slavery to the Europeans for transport to the Americas.

And the Europeans were the worst imperialists? Hardly.

Over here they were. It wouldn't surprise me however to learn that Europeans have been in league with some of the world's worst bastards for a long long time, but as long as they were our bastards eh?

[CANADIEN]

Why does the Prime Minister live a life that is more than comfortable and one almost inevitably finds shocking homelessness and destitution in major cities across Canada? Under your logic it must be because the Prime Minister is stealing money, or encouraging poverty, or engaging in some other impropriety.

It is true that corruption does exist on some reserves. But to generalize like you have is wrong. And the logic of your last post clearly does not hold up.

One cannot forget that the governance structures that makes corruption more likely on reserves were imposed by the government uupon First Nations. Indeed, finding people that would easily be corrupted and imposing them as leaders was a very efficeint method of exercising control.

It had been said that the government should not help finance self-governing First Nation institutions. Those institutions are in fact structures imposed on First nations. They held their own forms of government before.

[eyeball]

It had been said that the government should not help finance self-governing First Nation institutions.

No, they need to be institutions that are financed with things like royalties from natural resources that are exploited on their lands.

[DogOnPorch]

No, white people have the responsibility to get out of their way when they do. In many cases this means not impeding them from exploiting their resources or occupying their land.

Over here they were. It wouldn't surprise me however to learn that Europeans have been in league with some of the world's worst bastards for a long long time, but as long as they were our bastards eh?

According to the Aztec's own writings, 84,000 slaves were sacrificed at one of their larger temple's inauguration in 1487 over a four day period...five years pre-"you-know-who". The Haida used to range as far as California to import/capture slaves. The Comanche, Pawnee, Yurok and numerous other tribes practiced slavery...both hereditary slavery (ie born into slavery) and from amoungst prisoners of war.

It's quaint though to imagine an idealic pre-Columbus North and South America where everyone danced in a field hand-in-hand. But, they fought amoungst themselves as the rest of the planet did...and when Europeans showed up, they chose sides...some pro-British...some pro-French...etc. Everyone wanted one of those cool Brown Bess "bang-sticks".

------------------------------------------------------

It is infinitely better to transplant a heart than to bury it so it can be devoured by worms.

---Dr Christiaan Barnard

[eyeball]

According to the Aztec's own writings, 84,000 slaves were sacrificed at one of their larger temple's inauguration in 1487 over a four day period...five years pre-"you-know-who". The Haida used to range as far as California to import/capture slaves. The Comanche, Pawnee, Yurok and numerous other tribes practiced slavery...both hereditary slavery (ie born into slavery) and from amoungst prisoners of war.

It's quaint though to imagine an idealic pre-Columbus North and South America where everyone danced in a field hand-in-hand. But, they fought amoungst themselves as the rest of the planet did...and when Europeans showed up, they chose sides...some pro-British...some pro-French...etc. Everyone wanted one of those cool Brown Bess "bang-sticks".

------------------------------------------------------

It is infinitely better to transplant a heart than to bury it so it can be devoured by worms.

---Dr Christiaan Barnard

What does this have to do with responsibility? Do you think native people will automatically want to revert to something like you've described. Why on Earth would you think that?

I'm reminded of how outraged people get when natives do something like hunt a whale with a 50 caliber gun instead of a yew-wood harpoon fitted with a mussel shell point. Its no surprise native people use modern technology it works better. The same will likely hold true with regards to interacting with other people. Diplomacy works better than a bang-stick.

[g_bambino]

What does this have to do with responsibility? Do you think native people will automatically want to revert to something like you've described. Why on Earth would you think that?

I'm reminded of how outraged people get when natives do something like hunt a whale with a 50 caliber gun instead of a yew-wood harpoon fitted with a mussel shell point. Its no surprise native people use modern technology it works better. The same will likely hold true with regards to interacting with other people. Diplomacy works better than a bang-stick.

You entirely missed the point: Europeans are not the inventors of slavery, genocide, or other nasty human traits that non-Europeans never seem to get blamed for. He was pointing out a double standard.

[DogOnPorch]

What does this have to do with responsibility? Do you think native people will automatically want to revert to something like you've described. Why on Earth would you think that?

I'm reminded of how outraged people get when natives do something like hunt a whale with a 50 caliber gun instead of a yew-wood harpoon fitted with a mussel shell point. Its no surprise native people use modern technology it works better. The same will likely hold true with regards to interacting with other people. Diplomacy works better than a bang-stick.

...

g_bambino: You entirely missed the point: Europeans are not the inventors of slavery, genocide, or other nasty human traits that non-Europeans never seem to get blamed for. He was pointing out a double standard.

Exactly...and as far as 15th-19th century diplomacy worked, it often involved 'bang-sticks' in large numbers.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The nations, not so blest as thee,

Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall;

While thou shalt flourish great and free,

The dread and envy of them all.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves:

Britons never will be slaves.

---James Thomson & Thomas Arne

Edited May 18, 2008 by DogOnPorch

[Oleg Bach]

...

Exactly...and as far as 15th-19th century diplomacy worked, it often involved 'bang-sticks' in large numbers.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The nations, not so blest as thee,

Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall;

While thou shalt flourish great and free,

The dread and envy of them all.

Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves:

Britons never will be slaves.

---James Thomson & Thomas Arne

The informed black realizes that his own nobilty cut the deal to sell his ancestors to get some of that black beauty..gun powerder and weapons so Royalist African tribes could conquer other tribes..slavery begins at home. We in Canada have the nicest slave state on the planet..the best slave quarters..and the best food in this quazi feudal system that we live in...If the average Canadian slave rebels..well there are warnings all over the city not to do so...They are the threats that are the homeless cruxified on heating grates. They could get rid of the homeless problem but then how would the powers that be continue to coerce the common working corporate Canadian....there should be a governmental sigh over top of a sleeping homeless man that states.."Get up and go to work for us or you will be one of these" _ All power is conducted though emotion and mostly FEAR..

[DogOnPorch]

The informed black realizes that his own nobilty cut the deal to sell his ancestors to get some of that black beauty..gun powerder and weapons so Royalist African tribes could conquer other tribes..slavery begins at home. We in Canada have the nicest slave state on the planet..the best slave quarters..and the best food in this quazi feudal system that we live in...If the average Canadian slave rebels..well there are warnings all over the city not to do so...They are the threats that are the homeless cruxified on heating grates. They could get rid of the homeless problem but then how would the powers that be continue to coerce the common working corporate Canadian....there should be a governmental sigh over top of a sleeping homeless man that states.."Get up and go to work for us or you will be one of these" _ All power is conducted though emotion and mostly FEAR..

I'm not sure what you're smoking but if I send you a money order will you get some for me, too?

-----------------------------------------------

A satisfied customer...we should have him stuffed!

---Basil Fawlty

[Oleg Bach]

I'm not sure what you're smoking but if I send you a money order will you get some for me, too?

-----------------------------------------------

A satisfied customer...we should have him stuffed!

---Basil Fawlty

I don't smoke anymore...it ecentuates the negative and increases hoplessness....but if you wanna sit down and drink some gin with a water chaser under a spreading black walnut tree overlooking a corn field..then you are welcome. The subject here is the sadness that dope brings parents..and the worry that they may be enslaved for life..and the tears that are from experience in the fact that a lot of us are twenty years behind our destiny because we got sucked into the dope scene in the 70s..it's a waste of time and you don't see an immigrants son from China smoking pot and gobbling mushrooms...he's doing his home work..and in the end will succeed. Don't mean to be so serious....I am the king of self abuse in my youth...and it was a mistake.

[bk59]

You entirely missed the point: Europeans are not the inventors of slavery, genocide, or other nasty human traits that non-Europeans never seem to get blamed for. He was pointing out a double standard.

This discussion about who is worse than who is pointless. Shall we spend all day comparing Muslim imperialism (post #28) with those European bastards (post #55) with Aztec or Haida slavery (post #58)? Maybe we can throw in some stuff about the Crusades, or Japanese treatment of the Chinese in World War II, or let's even throw in something about the Nazis.

This double standard you speak of is a straw man. The conduct of the Aztecs or Muslim empires have nothing to do with the situation facing Aboriginal communities in Canada today. The fact is, when looking at many of the problems found in Aboriginal communities the sources of those problems are primarily the treatment of Aboriginal peoples by non-Aboriginals. In Canada, generally Europeans. The report that started this thread showed the link between the residential school system and incidents of sexual abuse and substance abuse. Shall we blame non-Europeans for the residential school system?

This is not to say that we should just point the finger at white Canadians and say "shame on you." And this does not mean that all of the responsibility is on non-Aboriginals. As I have said in earlier posts, there are some Aboriginal leaders who do not serve the best interests of their people. But the only way we can solve the hard issues is by having everyone face their share of the responsibility and then moving on together to find solutions. Nothing is gained by trying to avoid responsibility by claiming that someone, somewhere, in a situation that has nothing to do with the topic under discussion, committed worse acts.

[charter.rights]

This discussion about who is worse than who is pointless. Shall we spend all day comparing Muslim imperialism (post #28) with those European bastards (post #55) with Aztec or Haida slavery (post #58)? Maybe we can throw in some stuff about the Crusades, or Japanese treatment of the Chinese in World War II, or let's even throw in something about the Nazis.

This double standard you speak of is a straw man. The conduct of the Aztecs or Muslim empires have nothing to do with the situation facing Aboriginal communities in Canada today. The fact is, when looking at many of the problems found in Aboriginal communities the sources of those problems are primarily the treatment of Aboriginal peoples by non-Aboriginals. In Canada, generally Europeans. The report that started this thread showed the link between the residential school system and incidents of sexual abuse and substance abuse. Shall we blame non-Europeans for the residential school system?

This is not to say that we should just point the finger at white Canadians and say "shame on you." And this does not mean that all of the responsibility is on non-Aboriginals. As I have said in earlier posts, there are some Aboriginal leaders who do not serve the best interests of their people. But the only way we can solve the hard issues is by having everyone face their share of the responsibility and then moving on together to find solutions. Nothing is gained by trying to avoid responsibility by claiming that someone, somewhere, in a situation that has nothing to do with the topic under discussion, committed worse acts.

Well see...I will point the finger at the average Canadian because the same kind of thinking that created genocide and the residential school system is present in their thinking today. One need only read through this thread to see how under educated and terribly myopic certain average Canadians can be when they want to solve a problem. In 200 years of trying to do something to fix the "Indian problem" (as Duncan Campbell Scott liked to say) perhaps it is time to realize that acting on this backward thinking IS the problem.

I do believe Redjacket, Seneca Sachem had it right when he said this in 1802:

"If you wish us well, then leave us alone."

AH, but most of you closet racists really don't wish them well now do you......

Edited May 19, 2008 by charter.rights

[Remiel]

If we were to transport Seneca Sachem to the present and show him the state of the world, I am sure that he would be wise enough to realize that splendid isolation is no longer even possible. Engagement with the rest of the world is the only option.

[DangerMouse]

Holy Moses! I leave for a few days and all hell breaks loose! Borg good luck on your evolution beyond puberty--you and others need it, especially with that certain mentality you, and most other possess here. As always CR knows what he or she is talking about...Canadien and Eyeball as well--you others , good grief! Whoever brought up Mozart, Bach and Pink FLoyd! Holy SMokes what were you smoking this weekend? Sure technology was crude but whose to say, and can say where it would've went if the europeans never showed. Thats why the whiteman flew to the moon, because they heard the natives were claiming land up there What about all the other tecnological contrubutions made by natives? Didn't the USA use a model similar to the Iroquois Confederacy as well? Isn't "caucus" a aborignal word? Those of you who whine about aboriginal leadership, don't forget they are sadly puppets for your benefit. All these years you wanted to have aboriginal people assimlated like you--now that some are--crooked, etc you whine about that? As for the guy in the hospital bed, I pray that you recover happily, and if you werent so busy worrying about the indians you may have been better off! Finally what I've come to see, is that the people that really complain about natives alot--have issues and need to vent on somebody or something...natives are their convenient avenue...good grief some of you--get a life--get a grip

[jbg]

Reserves and support from the Crown are requirements set with centuries of permanence. To alter this would require the re-writing of the treaties which now form a part of the constitution. On the other hand, the treaties, from my undestanding, are pretty clear on the point that FNs are not to be under government jurisdiction; they were set up as they are because the FNs wanted to be left alone on dedicated lands except for supplies of weapons, food and, I think, medical services in exchange for giving up whatever land was agreed to. But, nowhere was it said the Crown was responsible for helping them with enterprise or maintaining a certain standard of living for them. Nor was there anything about setting up FNs self-government or funding any internal governmental operations like police and social services. So why, then, does the common thinking seem to be that the treaties did call for this and that it is the Canadian government that is responsible for all these things, as though FNs were actually Canadians like the rest of us?

What about this recent treaty with the Tsawwassen First Nations, described in the April 2008 Canadian Geographic (link, excerpts below):

Now 37 and the mother of two young children, she has just won approvals from the Tsawwassen and the provincial government for a treaty that is revolutionary in its potential impact and influence on Canada’s future relationship with aboriginal people.

Among other things, the treaty, one of British Columbia’s first such agreements in 150 years, will create a new form of geographic tenure in Canada. The reserve will disappear, and for the first time, provincial land-use laws will apply to territory governed by a First Nation. Also for the first time, a First Nation government — not an Indian Act band, but a new form of democratic self-governing body — will have the kind of control over its own land use that municipalities currently enjoy.

I highly recommend this article to anyone with a serious interest and would like thoughts, especially from charter.rights and Danger Mouse.

[bk59]

Well see...I will point the finger at the average Canadian because the same kind of thinking that created genocide and the residential school system is present in their thinking today. One need only read through this thread to see how under educated and terribly myopic certain average Canadians can be when they want to solve a problem. In 200 years of trying to do something to fix the "Indian problem" (as Duncan Campbell Scott liked to say) perhaps it is time to realize that acting on this backward thinking IS the problem.

I do believe Redjacket, Seneca Sachem had it right when he said this in 1802:

"If you wish us well, then leave us alone."

AH, but most of you closet racists really don't wish them well now do you......

I'm not sure, but I think you may have misunderstood what I was saying. I am saying that we must all take our fair share of responsibility for the situation that exists today in Aboriginal communities. This would most certainly mean that Canadians must work with these communities as partners, not as Canadians have dealt with these communities in the past (e.g. residential schools).

I was arguing against a certain tactic used by some people. Often, when person A says "Europeans have a responsibility for the problems they caused", person B will respond with "Oh, but people like the Aztecs or the Muslims were way worse". Person B's response is nothing but a straw man argument that should not be accepted. It is person B's way of deflecting the argument so that they do not have to take responsibility.

And it really isn't helpful to simply say that we are willing to point the finger at the average Canadian. Casting blame for the sake of casting blame is pointless. To help fix the situation we do need to make people aware of their misconceptions, but then offer a way forward, a way to educate people and realize that we are better off working together to solve these issues.

[bk59]

What about this recent treaty with the Tsawwassen First Nations, described in the April 2008 Canadian Geographic

This treaty and the Nisga'a Treaty are good examples of how we need to address Aboriginal issues. Work with the communities to try to find what works best for everyone. None of these treaties can be used as templates for other communities though. As hard as it may be, we must deal with each community separately.

The examples of self-government found in the Nisga'a Treaty are good ideas though. It sets out where the Aboriginal leadership has jurisdiction and where provincial or federal laws apply. I think that these self-government deals are the way of the future.

[charter.rights]

I'm not sure, but I think you may have misunderstood what I was saying. I am saying that we must all take our fair share of responsibility for the situation that exists today in Aboriginal communities. This would most certainly mean that Canadians must work with these communities as partners, not as Canadians have dealt with these communities in the past (e.g. residential schools).

I was arguing against a certain tactic used by some people. Often, when person A says "Europeans have a responsibility for the problems they caused", person B will respond with "Oh, but people like the Aztecs or the Muslims were way worse". Person B's response is nothing but a straw man argument that should not be accepted. It is person B's way of deflecting the argument so that they do not have to take responsibility.

And it really isn't helpful to simply say that we are willing to point the finger at the average Canadian. Casting blame for the sake of casting blame is pointless. To help fix the situation we do need to make people aware of their misconceptions, but then offer a way forward, a way to educate people and realize that we are better off working together to solve these issues.

The reply wasn't directed at you generally. It was merely the starting point.

[CANADIEN]

These two treaties are prime examples of how to approach the issue. The two parties sat and negociated equal to equal. These two First Nations decided the reserve model would not work for them... Other may decide otherwise, but the important part is that no model be imposed on them. If we believe they must take responsibility, let's treat them like people who can take it.

[charter.rights]

In examining a problem, we must first understand what caused the problem in the first place before we can even begin to postulate theories on how to correct it. That said we all know that the residential school system legacy is the major cause of most native community social diseases and family disunity. Aboriginal people can trace their problems through generations to the direct attack and abuse that they, their parents and or their grandparents suffered by being stripped away from their families and by having their language, culture and identity stolen from them against their will.

Colonialism and our need to push our ideology on native people is what perpetuates the problem today. And so our solutions are based on continuing to push those ideas and force native people to come to our way of thinking rather than to realize that our system isn't working for us and that our ideology being basically rooted in violence, isn't something that others with a different world view are interested in aspiring to.

So in order to calm the lion, we must first remove the thorn from his paw before we can understand what he went through. To heal requires an acknowledgment of the causes, recognition that the children subjected to rape, abuse and even murder at the hands of priests and government workers were not to blame for their condition and that moving on means forgiving the perpetrators so that they cannot be victimized any longer by what was done to them. Trying to make suggestions on how that evolves is tantamount to continued genocide. Trying place agendas or time lines on when that evolves is more of the same colonialist thinking. Hell, we can't even solve our own societal and governance problems let alone try to solve something we don't understand and refuse to acknowledge.

Some of you have suggested that taking personal responsibility is the answer to their problems. Yet few of you see that protests, demands for reconciliation and financial compensation, standing up for their land rights against mega mining and exploration companies, going to jail in defense of the land and the expansion of our urban areas onto territorial land, and even the exercise or their aboriginal rights IS taking responsibility. Certainly they are being more responsible than we are in similar situations where the majority continue to sit quiet while our governments flagrantly break the rules, steal money to give to their friends and use the government for their personal agendas. Although we don't see blocking a railway, or closing access to a mine as being responsible, it is in fact the ultimate sacrifice - standing up for what is just and risking being injured or jailed to make their point. And while most of you are too removed from native communities to see it, there is a new resurgence in speaking the language, practicing the culture and exercising their traditional practices taking place on many reserves today. You also can't see mothers bringing their sons and daughters up to become future warriors against injustice and teaching that unless they stand up against the colonialism in school and in the workplace they are bound to repeat history.

However, when we see native people standing at a blockade with a mask we misconstrue it as criminal vigilantism or criminal militancy against authority. As a society, we can't see how their taking personal responsibility for change is effecting government treatment of their rights. We refuse to see that suggestions of sending in the police or the army to beat them into submission is not only prolonging the cause of our problems but also leading us into a police state on a very slippery slope. We suggest that they take responsibility and when they take back land we have literally stolen from them, we cry foul and demand that the government protect our proceeds from crime. Native people are taking the responsibility for their own futures by refusing to be subjected further and by restoring the land bases and rights they are entitled to. That is only the start to personal and community empowerment.

We demand that they conform to our ways and yet ignore our own responsibility for justice. And until we remove the thorn from our own paws and take responsibility for protecting the rights of all people including our own, we will continue to see native people as adversaries and they will see us as proponents of injustice and colonial submission. We're too entrenched in colonial thinking to see that often the protection of land, the stopping of urban sprawl, the fight against timber giants ravaging our forests, and the prevention of uranium exploration on their lands have a benefit to us and our children, jointly. While we sit back like ostriches waiting for the next superstore to show up in our backyards, they are out fighting to keep it away from them.

The native problem is really our problem with our way of thinking and until we correct our own problems we can't even suggest how they need to correct theirs.

[CANADIEN]

In examining a problem, we must first understand what caused the problem in the first place before we can even begin to postulate theories on how to correct it. That said we all know that the residential school system legacy is the major cause of most native community social diseases and family disunity. Aboriginal people can trace their problems through generations to the direct attack and abuse that they, their parents and or their grandparents suffered by being stripped away from their families and by having their language, culture and identity stolen from them against their will.

Colonialism and our need to push our ideology on native people is what perpetuates the problem today. And so our solutions are based on continuing to push those ideas and force native people to come to our way of thinking rather than to realize that our system isn't working for us and that our ideology being basically rooted in violence, isn't something that others with a different world view are interested in aspiring to.

So in order to calm the lion, we must first remove the thorn from his paw before we can understand what he went through. To heal requires an acknowledgment of the causes, recognition that the children subjected to rape, abuse and even murder at the hands of priests and government workers were not to blame for their condition and that moving on means forgiving the perpetrators so that they cannot be victimized any longer by what was done to them. Trying to make suggestions on how that evolves is tantamount to continued genocide. Trying place agendas or time lines on when that evolves is more of the same colonialist thinking. Hell, we can't even solve our own societal and governance problems let alone try to solve something we don't understand and refuse to acknowledge.

Some of you have suggested that taking personal responsibility is the answer to their problems. Yet few of you see that protests, demands for reconciliation and financial compensation, standing up for their land rights against mega mining and exploration companies, going to jail in defense of the land and the expansion of our urban areas onto territorial land, and even the exercise or their aboriginal rights IS taking responsibility. Certainly they are being more responsible than we are in similar situations where the majority continue to sit quiet while our governments flagrantly break the rules, steal money to give to their friends and use the government for their personal agendas. Although we don't see blocking a railway, or closing access to a mine as being responsible, it is in fact the ultimate sacrifice - standing up for what is just and risking being injured or jailed to make their point. And while most of you are too removed from native communities to see it, there is a new resurgence in speaking the language, practicing the culture and exercising their traditional practices taking place on many reserves today. You also can't see mothers bringing their sons and daughters up to become future warriors against injustice and teaching that unless they stand up against the colonialism in school and in the workplace they are bound to repeat history.

However, when we see native people standing at a blockade with a mask we misconstrue it as criminal vigilantism or criminal militancy against authority. As a society, we can't see how their taking personal responsibility for change is effecting government treatment of their rights. We refuse to see that suggestions of sending in the police or the army to beat them into submission is not only prolonging the cause of our problems but also leading us into a police state on a very slippery slope. We suggest that they take responsibility and when they take back land we have literally stolen from them, we cry foul and demand that the government protect our proceeds from crime. Native people are taking the responsibility for their own futures by refusing to be subjected further and by restoring the land bases and rights they are entitled to. That is only the start to personal and community empowerment.

We demand that they conform to our ways and yet ignore our own responsibility for justice. And until we remove the thorn from our own paws and take responsibility for protecting the rights of all people including our own, we will continue to see native people as adversaries and they will see us as proponents of injustice and colonial submission. We're too entrenched in colonial thinking to see that often the protection of land, the stopping of urban sprawl, the fight against timber giants ravaging our forests, and the prevention of uranium exploration on their lands have a benefit to us and our children, jointly. While we sit back like ostriches waiting for the next superstore to show up in our backyards, they are out fighting to keep it away from them.

The native problem is really our problem with our way of thinking and until we correct our own problems we can't even suggest how they need to correct theirs.

Apart from the fact criminal acts are criminal acts, no matter the justification, I am with you on that one.