Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Full Status Cree thoughts on INM. I agree with him!

I've been #IdleTooLong about this whole topic, and I feel like I need to express my point of view without disrupting innocent travelers on highways, and cargo carrying freight trains.
First, allow me to clarify that I am a Cree man with full status. I have family in positions of political power in this very province, and should declare that my opinions are my own. While everyone needles over the finite details of the current situation, I'd like to paint my thoughts for you with much broader strokes.

I'm so very proud of my culture. The way the plains Indians lived on this land was a fantastic example of community, art, respect for our environment, ingenuity, and spirituality. I'm proud of the native inspired tattoos that I sport permanently on my body. As a father, I'm teaching my son that same respect and understanding of where his blood derives from, in the hopes that his pride will outshine the prejudice he will inevitably experience growing up, or at some point in his life.

I'm also very proud to be Canadian. Our vast mosaic of cultures, languages, and beliefs make up this welcoming land of opportunity for all. Whether you like it or not, we all have the same citizenship, but some have a different view on the value of it.

I don't pretend to know all the ins and outs of the government bills, documentation, or policy that is driving the current protests, but I've intently watched news stories, read columns, and have regularly monitored the comments being made on facebook. Based on all of this, I feel the need to break my silence on this issue.

1 - It's embarrassing how the #IdleNoMore protest is being handled.
Blocking major traffic thoroughfares does nothing good to bring support and awareness to your cause, it creates immediate animosity towards you. Protesting freely in parks or in front of government buildings seems like a much more productive way to attract the attention of those you seek. The politicians. Not the regular welder-Joe who's just trying to get to work. Hold him up and cost him money? See how much support you'll get out of that guy...

Clarify what you are protesting for, or against. I've never seen such a passionate group of people go forward in protest in such disarray, and without clearly stating what it's all about. If it's generally about your need to be consulted, respected, justified for being mistreated, or the preservation of your culture, then let's be out with it and start a constructive discussion.

Understand that you do not need to be consulted for anything any more than the Canadian citizen next to you does. Your opinion on things doesn't count "more" than anyone else's.
Respect is earned, not given.

There's no question that the native people of yesterday were brutalized, hunted, tortured, and humiliated for decades. It's awful, and no one should ever have to suffer like that. The elders of the time signed those treaties to bring peace, and offer what they hoped would be a leg-up in a new world that they realized couldn't be held at bay. But those days are long over. It defies logic to have the current population pay for the tragedies committed by people that came so long before them.

The preservation of your culture is YOUR job, not anyone else's. For example, Polish, Irish, and Ukrainian societies thrive all over the country with very little or no support from government coffers. They celebrate traditional dance, language, and food all by simply passing it down from generation to generation. Native communities can do the very same thing (and generally do), but without financial support.

2 - "This movement is about the whole environment, its not just about the treaties....The bill that passed now un protects the rivers, lakes, forests, land, etc, etc, so we need this bill to further protect ur childrens futures.....thanks to Harper Govt....rigs n developemtn will pollute the air, waters, etc, etc.."

It's no secret that our Canadian economy is driven by the oil and gas industry. Yes, there have been some awful environmental blunders due to a plethora of different reasons. I heartily agree that we need to protect our natural areas that support wildlife, but I also know that there is aggressive legislation, and powerful government offices in place that already have that very same sentiment at heart. Millions of Canadians support green technology and research, as well as lobby for stronger federal policy. So if that's what this is all about, there's no need to blockade anything, as a majority of people would already agree with you.

3 - "It is about the 480 page Bill that the government has passed without you knowing about it. It went through the house of commons and the senate in 2 wks. 480 pgs long...do you think that many people had time to read it? It says that under age criminals can be punished as adults. It makes more budget cuts. The librarians at schools are being budget cut. It is about ALOT more than Aboriginals, it's about everyone in Canada. The Aboriginals are the ones who started to realize the Bill was gonna to do irreversable damage!"

Back in the days of copying notes off a blackboard or projector in school, I'm certain I've WRITTEN 480 pages in two weeks, let alone read that many. In a political world where literacy at a high level is demanded, I'm willing to bet that most could plow through that many pages in a very short period of time. I suppose the content would be laden with bureaucratic jargon and would need time to fully interpret...but that's why you have a legal team.
Quite frankly, I agree with underage criminals being tried as adults, and I'm willing to bet that a landslide majority of Canadians will agree with me.

Budget cuts are a reality of our democratic world. I'm not sure if this means that librarians from schools are being removed, or the library itself, but the fact of the matter is, our schools rely on a healthy economy for funding. When money gets tight, things get sacrificed. I truly hope that the readily available knowledge in a library would be the last to go.

4 - "It's not about the Aboriginals! That is what they are doing to distract you from what it really is about! It only affects the aboriginals- just like it will effect ALL of us!"
This is very confusing, but seems to sum up the general knowledge about what is going on. Who is "they"? Are we going into conspiracy theory depths here? Do people not realize that we have an official opposition in place as a natural government watchdog to debate everything that in-power government is trying to enact? If there were truly earth shattering implications in the bill in question, the opposition would be whistle blowing and bleating into any available microphone available so fast it would make your head spin.

First and foremost, I'm a human being just like you. I believe in equality. Across the board equality. Our country is so multicultural, that to give any specific group levity over everyone else is completely ridiculous. I'm not familiar with the particulars of old treaties signed, but I get the gist because I have used some of the special privileges provided to me. I do not pay for health care. I did for awhile in my young working life, but then the government discovered my native status and sent me a HUGE apology letter, and a cheque for every dime I had put into the system. Odd. I lived just up the street from my fellow truck driving friends, did the same job, paid the same taxes...yet there I was with this benefit because of my racial background and some papers that were signed all those years ago. I've used it for eye wear. This was particularly handy when I was �up against it� financially, but had broken my glasses welding. Here's the thing though, why should I have an advantage on a co-worker who might be in the same situation? It's not fair, and it needs to stop.

I move that Canadians start their own march towards coast to coast equality, or at least the serious discussion of it. Our country should offer no free rides to anyone. No help for those who refuse to help themselves. No quarter for those who would inhibit the lives and success of others. No limit to what anyone can accomplish with a steely resolve, and a great idea. It doesn't matter who built the first camp fires and communities on this land, it's those that work hard to continue to stoke the flames of collective well being that matter.

As a man that stands by his word, I pledge to never again use my native status to further myself in a way that isn't available to every other Canadian. I will leave my son unregistered, and will teach him the importance of keeping it that way. I am a proud native man, and a hard working, forward thinking Canadian that believes the opportunities and advantages this country has to offer should be available to everyone equally.

- Anthony Sowan
@sowanonair

please share

UPDATE: After watching a day of comments...

For those of you that feel that I need to meticulously read treaty documentation, and Native history, I offer you this: There is no argument you can offer that justifies inequality of any kind in this country.

I said I didn't know every detail, but I also didn't say I'm completely uneducated on the subject. I also encourage people to think for themselves based on their own research.

No matter how you cut it, the monetary compensation and general advantages need to stop. Horrific things happened to people/races throughout history, and although I'm not condoning or supporting it, I do not feel that they should be given anything more than anyone else. The atrocities committed, in this instance, happened a long time ago to/by people that no longer exist. I agree that it should never be forgotten, but it makes no sense to have the innocent Canadian citizens of the present pay for crimes committed by someone else in a different time.

Really, the people that are abusing you the worst, are the people you have placed in leadership positions. Not ALL of them are corrupt, but there are some very serious issues with monetary responsibility. I honestly don't know how some band leaders haven't been arrested for fraud, embezzlement, and more.

The first step of "healing" is to put the past in it's place. Only then can you work on your own personal lives, which will then naturally stem into becoming whole as a community. The healing you want and need can come from no government program, and no external source. #CanadianEquality

1. Yup, the aboriginals killed other aboriginals, from the savage, murderous Aleuts, ancestors of today's Inuits, who invaded the peaceful communities of the Dorset People AND THE NORSE, who settled in Canada, BEFORE them, traded and inter-married with the Dorsets to "Huronia".

Then, there was the hideous genocide of the Iroquois, who murdered,raped and tortured other aboriginals as well as EATING them, UNTIL WHITE people put a stop to this, Champlain, de Tracy, etc.

2. I USED to have sympathy and cared about aboriginals, now, I just loathe the whole bloody bunch of them and am ready to FIGHT BACK! Fuggem, they are asking for what that cowardly murderer Riel, got for his racist killing of Scott.

3. WHERE and WHEN did "white" people EVER engage in genocide against aboriginals here in Canada????? NEVER and we have NOTHING to be ashamed of in our past!

This chap sounds OK, but, he is one of a TINY minority of aboriginals and I think that we need "Batoche", again to teach them that WE own Canada, ALL of US!!!!

This is one Indian that I have nothing but admiration and respect for, based on his comments. It's not easy to turn away a free meal in the interest of self-sufficiency and self-esteem, and I applaud him for it.

As for the Indian terrorists that are carrying on with illegal disruption of society and the economy- the law is the law, and they are breaking it. If the police are unwilling to enforce the law, then citizens will take it into their own hands sooner or later, and I'll be in full support of such action. The right to peaceable protest is one thing, but now they're infringing on all OUR rights, which is not okay. Time to put an end to it.

Udder non-sense, propaganda if you will, at least you speak up for yourself I applaud that,, your comment of the polish, irish and ukrainian can thrive over the country is where you hit the nail on the head, why is that?,, because this great country made if possible for them, free land, boat loads of people that were tossed out of their own country, only to come here and start their same crap here, you foolish brainwashed man

Gullible or what? That's a good example of creative writing if I've ever seen one! Gullible. ;-)

I'm starting to feel flattered that you like to follow me around like a puppy.

Of course the validity of the document cannot be verified, which is why I said what I said, "based on his comments".

Kutenay

Scott was executed for his murder of a young boy who was handicapped, Scott got what he deserved, a common sentence at the time for murder in cold blood.
This genocide of which you speak takes on different forms, are you saying that cultural genocide never took place?
An example of this would be where you are born and raised, what happened to all the native people and communitys in the WK? Then to declare some of the indian nations extinct is in my view a another example of genocide, for thousands of years that land was inhabited by native people and now there are none, I'll wait for your reply, your pal BA

673...

i could find no mention of Scott murdering anyone, in any history writings.
it could be the old axiom ..."he who wins gets to rewrite history" ??

just about every writing more or less stated that Scott was an azzhole.

I have read it a number of times, in eye-witness accounts of the day, googling it might not work, scott was an azzhole alright, the young boys name was norbert parisien

Let me be totally clear, here, as I dislike the false "history", phoney posing as some sort of "special" person/group that certain self-deluded posters continually indulge in and the claims of "founding" status as Canadians, that a number of individuals have, in the past, posted, when their first family members came to Canada, in the 20thC.

1. Riel, OFFERED to stay in the USA and NEVER further engage in ANY political activity in "the Northwest Territories" of CANADA, after he had RUN AWAY from "his people".

He informed Sir John. A. MacDonald, one of Canada's greatest citizens, that, IF, the Dominion Government, would PAY him MONEY, he would give up his ludicrous pretensions to "nationhood" for "his" people, the French-aboriginals who called themselves, "metis".

MacDonald, in view of subsequent events, probably should have paid the vile, mentally-deranged coward off and PERHAPS thus averted the tragedy that followed. However, "Sir John" was a Scot and no more "fightin" tribal warriors exist, even now, so, he told Riel, to pretty much pound sand.

Scott, was an offensive bigot and a mouthy pri*k that should have been deported back to the UK, BUT, while an "Orangeman" who hated the metis mostly due to their staunch Roman Catholicism and essential "Frenchness", he WAS NOT merely an object for an illegal "court" to decide to MURDER.

The psychotic delusions of Riel, about somehow being a "leader" of a "nation" led to his deliberately refusing to take the advice of the very Roman Catholic clerical men who had made it possible for him to enroll in the school operated by "The Gentlemen of St. Sulpice" and thus receive an education that was the finest available in Canada, at that time.

They, BEGGED him to release Scott and contact the Canadian government officials to have the LEGAL courts of Canada, decide his guilt and subsequent fate....Riel, refused, stated that Scott, was to be executed for "insubordination" and the unfortunate bigot was MURDERED.

Riel, had NO legal status to even try another Canadian, and certainly ANY killing under the circumstances, of the time and place. WAS MURDER, just as the cowardly killings by the Islamist terrorists of Jewish and American journalists is today.

2.The specious term, "cultural genocide" is as the also false "first nations" label is, a recent creation of the "indian industry", first widely promulgated in the 1980s.

It is a part of the attempt to initiate a sympathy among the general public for the phoney claims to "ownership" of Canada, by usually competing gangs of aboriginal and mixed-breed social parasites and a few supporters among the academic rabble who "teach" "women's studies" and other such useless and dishonest tripe.

There HAS NEVER been ANY actual genocide upon the primitive and parasitic hominids known in Canada, as "indians". REAL "genocide" as in the fascist murder of millions circa 1933-45 or in that darling of the left's Chinese regime, Mao Zedong, entailed the deliberate killing of MILLIONS by verious methods.

To equate the changes in aboriginal tribes to that is an insult to the memory of some 6.000,000 Jews, probably as many Roma, Gay, mentally-ill and other innocent humans, the very idea is offensive.

I AM a ...native... of the WK and WE BUILT every aspect of the vibrant, progressive and TAXPAYING society there, while also generously funding ANY aboriginal to attend the schools and colleges that WE, not they, built and maintain.

I went to college with an indian from Colville,WA..who was born in the USA and STILL was completely supported financially by WE Canadian taxpayers. He came to school here as the subsidies were more generous at the time in Canada, and he wanted to avoid serving HIS country in Vietnam.

He, told me this in person, his name was "Leon" and he laughed at the Canadian government for paying him and those like him....but, he TOOK the money.....gee, ain't that a surprise!

In the WK, there are now, as there have been for some centuries, aboriginal communities and these are most generously subsidized by we "white" taxpayers. The FACT is that while most of the East Kootenay "indians" chose to remain in Canada, the West Kootenay tribe decided to move to the winter homes they had around Colville, WA, USA and this was VOLUNTARY.

The Dominion Of Canada, for simple administrative reasons due to the fact that NO members of this tribe had remained in the WK for a long time, decided to declare them "extinct" as, in Canadian, terms, they were and still are. Yet, ANY ONE of these foreign-born indians CAN and often DOES enter Canada, as they chose and also can obtain federal funding for education, etc.

One can hold any opinion one chooses to in the free culture created by WHITE Canadians, some believe in "The Easter Bunny" while others "drink the kool-aid"of the "indian industry"; however, factual, historical reality does not support the delusions of "borderline personality" types and NO "genocide" by Euro. peoples IN CANADA, against the very primitive hominids who cause so much discord here has ever happened.

I think that these "siberians" should return to THEIR REAL "traditional territories" and see how the governments
THERE deal with their outrageous antics......

Note: When one is making a historical comment, it is customary to give the actual source of said information and this can be done, "inter alia" or by "footnotes".

To use supposed ...eye witness... accounts of ANY event is to really just post an opinion and we all know about them.........

We can agree that Scott, was a type of extreme bigot that has caused major misery for centuries in every jurisdiction involved with the U.K. However, this fact did NOT "give" the psychotic, cowardly murderer, Riel, the "right" to kill him or even to hold his "kangaroo court".

lol, I dont know where to begin, its hard to remember primary or secondary sources when a lifetime of study from neutral points of view are considered, for now, this is all I have time for,,
Riel is "the father of Manitoba"
Your recounting of events in the WK is inaccurate, surprising a man of your intellect. Its no wonder the indians took care of your viking ancestors, they probably wrote in CAPITAL LETTERS inciting them to off the offensive loudmouths.
I wouldn't mind seeing your sources for your version of the WK timeline of events.

Hate to be the one to rain on your parade but old Louis was crazier than a bag full of hammers.

http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/transactions/3/rielinsanity.shtml

Never said he wasn't crazy, or perhaps a mental disease a better term, which btw, is not uncommon in todays society, (after reading some peoples posts), the term bi-polar wasn't common until recently and some of the worlds greatest minds were bi-polar.

John A. McDonald wasn't bipolar...he was a drunk, everybody knows that. His big push in history was to steal as much as possible from natives...any false claims that he wasn't persuing genocide on FNs is really specious. ;-)

So you admit to posting trash? At least your could have put in a few spelling mistakes to make it look realistic. :-). You white guys are funny...always making shyt up!!

??

Put down the bottle and get some sleep, man...

I cannot see posts by CS or the other one, "673",who formerly posted here as, IIRC, "Bad Arrow".

I do recall that they used to brag here about guzzling Heineken Beer and this leads me to think that you are probably correct and these two illiterate characters have been into the "firewater".......typical, eh.

I really do find it best to use the "ignore" function here for the few imbeciles who haunt so many forums to whine and snivel about the "White Man" as arguing with such characters is useless and I have no interest in anything that they might say.

You're a smart man, kut

Oh man...you'll be slipping him some tongue next. ;-).