THE-UNSPOKEN-TRUTH

The Broken Indian

2006-05-14T18:58:00.000-06:00

The Broken Indian

Please do not weep for me if its out of pity;

Look back and remember I was once proud.

When you see me looking sullen and at my worst;

Please remember I once walked with my head held high.

Where love and compassion once filled my heart; All I have left today is anger and hatred from years of abuse!

Why is it that my people have never mattered to this country? I was only born the way the creator chose me to be: with red skin!

But for some reason you thought you could beat it out of me; You thought that by taking away my language I would no longer be.

You thought by taking away my culture I would cease to exist; You thought by taking away my children I would disappear!

You thought by taking away my land I would be gone forever; You thought by making me YOU, that I would no longer be me!

"Get rid of the Indian problem!" Isn't that what you said? Why? Because I am different from you? Because I am not you?

You may have taken everything from me! You may think you have stolen who I am!

But....the one thing you can never take from me is MY SPIRIT! I am and will always be ONKWEHENKWE......MOHAWK!

By Shelley Brant

Caledonia: Potentially Another Oka Or Ipperwash?

2006-04-24T20:19:00.000-06:00

The earth was created by the assistance of the sun, and it should be left as it was. . . . The Country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no mans business to divide it. . . . I see the white all over the country gaining wealth and see their desire to give us lands which are worthless. . . .The earth and my self are of one mind. The measure of land and the measure of our bodies are the same. Say it us if you can say it, that you were sent by Creative Power to talk to us. Perhaps you think the creator sent you here to destroy us as you see fit. If I thought you were sent by the creator I might be I might be induced to think you had a right to dispose of me. Do not misunderstand me, but understand me fully with reference to my affection to the land. I never said the land was mine do do with as I chose. The one who has a right to dispose of it is the one who has created it. I claim a right to live on my land, and accord you the privilage to live on yours.

-Heinmot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph), Nez Perce

Well there is another Native occupation involving another piece of land taken illegally by the government of Canada. Reminiscent of both the Ipperwash standoff where protester Dudley George was killed by Ontario Provincial Police Sniper Kenneth Dean and of the 1995 Oka crisis where a Quebec Provincial Police Officer was killed.

The latest occupation of lands illegally taken from the Six Nations of the Grand River, by the Federal Government of Canada, is adjacent to the town of Caledonia approximately 30 km south of Hamiliton Ontario. The Clan Mothers of Six Nations and their supporters have taken it upon themselves, as stewards of the land to stop the further development of a planned sub-division on a 40 hectare piece of property that was once leased to the government and then sold without consent of the Six Nations people.

Protesters say that land, known as the Plank Road Tract, is part of the much larger Haldimand Deed, granted by the Crown to Six Nations in 1784 in recognition of their support of the British Crown during the American War of Independence. The deed included land stretching 10 kilometres on either side of the Grand River, from Lake Erie to Dundalk (midway between Owen Sound and Fergus), about 210 kilometres.That initial 950,000 acres was later downgraded by Lieutenant-Governor John Simcoe in 1795 to 275,000 acres. The Haldimand Tract now ends near present-day Elora in Nicol Township.

Six Nations Reserve: Located west of Highway 6 between the Grand River to the north and Indian Line or Regional Road 20 that runs through Hagersville. Six Nations is the most populous reserve in Canada, with a population of about 22,000. Roughly half live on the 18,818-hectare reserve. That's less than 5 per cent of the land originally granted to the Six Nations

Apparently, neither the Federal Government, nor the Ontario Provincial Police have learned a thing from the latter two stand-off's. I say this because approximately 5 days ago as of this writing, the Ontario Provincial Police stormed the peaceful occupation of this 40 hectare piece of land and arrested 16 protesters at approximately 4:30 am on Thursday. All this heavy handed show of force did was to escalate a peaceful occupation over lands that were illegally sold by the government in the first place. Approximately 4 hrs later, what started out as a small occupation of a few people grew to hundreds of people that actually had the Police retreating. They have not learned that when you back Native people into a corner they do not run away , but they stay and fight, from years of frustration and anger that has been allowed to build up from either the action, or the in-action of the Federal government.

All acrossed the province of Ontario there were protests in Solidarity with our brothers and sisters from Six Nations that drew attention of the national and international media. There was a peaceful protest held here on my reserve of Tyendinaga. The main railroad line between the large cities of Toronto and Montreal were blocked for one day in support of the Caledonia occupation and ended peacefully when there was an appearance of talks that were beginning to make progress between all parties at the negotiating table. Near Montreal the Mercier bridge was blocked for 3o minutes by another group of Mohawks , and the Mohawks of Akwesasne near Cornwall protested near the U.S. border and garnered alot of support.

Unfortunately, with land occupations and protests, comes the hidden racism against Native people that Canada can be so famous for. It seems to rear its ugly head once the Natives start to stand up for what they believe in and non-natives get a bit inconvenienced. It seems we can be tolerated until we go against the norm and try to assert and remind the government of our rights and our independance as a people. Stereo-types and ignorance also rear their ugly heads and serve as a reminder of just how ignorant Canadians are still to the plight of the Natives that exist in their own country.

Some Common Myths:

1. Natives don't pay tax.

A very small amount of Native people that work on reserves do not pay income tax. However; the majority of natives that work off reserve pay income tax. The majority of Natives also reside off reserve and therefore are subject to paying all taxes: income tax, property tax, sales tax etc. The people who reside on reserve are only free of paying one sales tax and that is the provincial sales tax.

2. Natives have access to cheap cigarettes and gas.

This may be the case, but it is because of Treaty Rights that were negotiated years and years ago regarding native lands and the goods sold upon them as non-taxable and probably more non-native people take advantage of our tax-free status by coming to reserves and buying our commodities than we do.

3. Natives get everything for free.

This is my favourite one: I and everyone here happen to pay a mortgage on our homes just like everyone else. The Treaties that were negotiated for education and medications were in lieu of priveledges for being placed on postage stamped size reserves, while the government settled what remained of our vast amount of land.

4. The Natives Discovered the land they call theirs.

Natives have existed on these lands for centuries and utilized many of the lands they call home as hunting grounds for centuries before that.

5. Why Should the government live up to Treaties and obligations that were made years ago?

The treaties and agreements that were made with the Native people, no matter how long ago are legally binding no matter when they were made and the Federal government has a Fiduciary responsibility to the Native people. New land claims are being submitted everyday due to the government not following its own policies and laws put in place for the surrendering of Native lands.

Imagine if the situation were reversed and all the non-natives in Canada were placed on reserves today, even smaller then they were promised and left to negotiate for every inch that was taken away illegally. Talks and negotiation have not worked and unfortunately the only thing that gets attention are the actions that end up inconveniencing the non-native people. If talks and negotiation worked then the over 1000 outstanding land claims would be fairly resolved by now.

The only thing the non-natives see are the barricades and not what forced the Native people to that point. The mainstream processes are utilized first and only after years of frustration from not getting anywhere do they ever end in a occupation or protest. Perhaps if the governement was willing to negotiate in good faith as it supposedly seems so willing to do when things become public, and people are inconvenienced, then they would never have to resort those means.

Also at this point in time I would like to declare the AFN (Assembly of First Nations) does not represent me as a Mohawk person. I think this organization is useless to the grass-roots Native people and only serves the politicians.

Rather than lend their support to what is going on in Caledonia, all the Grand Chief had to say was that barricades don't work and negotiation does. I don't know where he has been, nor where he is right now, but it certainly has not, and is not where he is needed. This is the same man that stated that corruption on reserve is an isolated incident. Mr Fontaine its time to get your head out of the sand and deal with reality and the actual people that you claim to represent and see the truth. The politicians that represent our territories and are corrupt (not all of them I do admit) are obviously the same ones telling you that corruption does not exist on reserve, am I right? You are no better: rather then deal with the current problems and help the people you claim to represent, you turn your back on them. Rather then help to seek solutions you are just full of words and in my mind a part of the problem.

So please do not count me in your claim that you represent all Native people within Canada, because as far as I am concerened you and your political organization are no better and in the same category as the Federal Government when it comes to caring about politics and not people.

Violence and Discrimination Still Exists Against Aboriginal Women in 2006

2006-03-13T19:41:00.000-06:00

" I don't get the sense the general public cares much about missing or murdered Aboriginal women. It's all part of the indifference to the lives of Aboriginal People. They don't seem to matter as much as white people"

Journalist Covering the Trial of John Martin Crawford

Convicted of Murdering 3 Aboriginal Women in 1996

One of Canada's largest blemishes on its Human Rights record is its treatment of Aboriginal people and specifically Aboriginal women. In 2004 this was recognized by Amnesty International and a report entitled: Discrimnination and Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada was compiled, which highlighted the plight of Canada's Aboriginal women.

This report recognizes and highlights clear systemic and personal discrimination by law enforcement officials and also political officials that has taken place over the course of 30 years against Aboriginal women in Canada. It shows that this violence and discrimination of Aboriginal women has changed very little over this 30 year period in Canada and very little little has been done by government or law enforcement officials to change it.

On November 12, 1971 a young Aboriginal woman by the name of Helen Betty Osbourne was abducted and murdered by 4 non-native men from the town of The Pas Manitoba. She was sexually assaulted and then brutally killed. She was a 19 year old Cree student from Northern Manitoba that wanted to become a teacher. It took 15 years to bring only one of her 4 killers to justice.

A Provincial Inquiry into the matter concluded that Canadian auathorities had failed Betty Osbourne. The sloppy and racially biased police investigation was criticized and it was found that police were aware of non-native men preying on Aboriginal women and girls in the town of The Pas, but did nothing about it.

Some 30 years later fate struck the same family when a cousin of Betty Osbourne, named Felicia , failed to return home from school on March 25, 2003, she was 16 years old. Police in Winnepeg failed to treat the initial report of Felicia missing seriously. The family was told that police could not begin a search for her for 48 hrs, depsite the existence of no such policy. The official policy in the case of a missing person is to assess according to the risk to the missing person. Family members trying to find Felicia distributed posters, but none were distributed by the police. The families comments reflect their anger over the obvious mal-treatment they received during such an important investigation into their daughter's disapperance. Basicly they reflect the feelings of a society that continues to systemically and personally discriminate: if it was any other child other than a native child, police would have done everything in their power to find her. In June of 2003 body parts were found that were later identified to be that of Felicia, and to my knowledge, her killer has never been found and brought to justice.

A joint taskforce was formed by the RCMP and the Vancouver city police to investigate the disappearance of 60 women and one trans-gender person, 16 of whom were Aboriginal, from Vancouver British Columbia, over the last 10 years. A British Columbia man named Robert Pickton is currently awaiting trial on 22 murder charges related to the investigation. Police and city officials over the last 10 years have denied that any pattern existed in the disappearance of the women or that women were ever in danger. Only in 2002 after the disappearnce of a 26 year old Aboriginal woman while hitchhiking along a road that connects Prince George and Smithers British Columbia, did media attention focus on the insolved murders and other disappearances along what has been dubbed "the highway of Tears". In 1994 in 2 seperate incidents, 2 15 year old Aboriginal girls were found murdered in Prince George B.C. and the body of another Aboriginal girl that disapperared in 1994 also, was found in April of 1995 in Smithers B.C.

The families and other non-governmental organizations working on their behalf have had to be the ones to launch their own campaigns to bring these isssues to the attention of the police, media and government officials. It is the view of Amnesty International that the role of discrimination is fuelling the violence and also the denial of Aboriginal women from protection and allowing their perpetrators to escape justice.

There is an urgent need for Canadian officials to better understand and address violence against Aboriginal women living within non-native communities in Canada. Sadly, 30 years later women continue to be placed at risk simply because they are Aboriginal.

In the words of the Manitoba Justice Inquiry regarding the murder of Helen Betty Osbourne:

"There is one fundamental fact: her murder was a racist and sexist act. Betty Osbourne would be alive today had she not been an Aboriginal woman."

Happpy Valentine's Day!

2006-02-13T21:50:00.000-06:00

Love

Love is a friendship that has caught fire.

It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving.

It is loyalty through good and bad.

It settles for less than perfection, and makes allowances for human weakness.

Love is content with the present. It hopes for the future and it doesn’t brood over the past.

It’s the day-in and day-out chronicle of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories, and working toward common goals.

If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things you lack.

If you don’t have it, no matter what else there is, it is not enough, so search for it, ask God for it, and share it!

Author Unknown

Workplace Bullying and Harassment......The Norm In Native Communities?

2006-02-05T22:42:00.000-06:00

Beauty and ugliness are everywhere - even in some of the same things. To some a wide open prairie is empty and colorless - but to others it is uncluttered simplicity - the way life itself ought to look.

Physical appeal is high on some lists, but nu tso se dv na, which is cherokee comfort, lasts longer. Whatever is in our hearts is in our sight. To love something or someone makes us see the beauty of it - not the wrong.

It is to our advantage to be gentle in our observations - to see and cultivate the best in who we are and in those around us.

We love quiet; we suffer the mouse to play; when the woods are rustled by the wind, we fear not.......

Indian Chief 1796

We have all heard the stories if we live in a Native Community: stories of corruption, low wages, employees being treated as if they are less than people. The standard unwritten rule: talk about any of it and you will be fired. If you publicize it in any way the leaders of these communities will stop at nothing to ensure that the reasons they fired you were nothing short of being your fault. They will make things up saying things like "they were fired for stealing" or "they didn't know how to do their job" and "this is their way of getting back at us for firing them" but they are lying. They do not stop until both you and your good name have been destroyed.

Often times workplace bullying and harassment is the key event that triggers the reporting of such crimes, only because losing ones job, when one has a family to support is not often an option when jobs are so hard to come by.

Often the person in this situation feels all alone and isolated, and helpless to do anything about such a conspiracy, against leaders that are most often believed over the person that is reporting a crime or some other wrong doing that has taken place while in the employ of the on-reserve government.

We need to stand up and take notice that people in Native communities are being driven to almost desperation because they choose to stand up for what is right and just within their workplaces, often with tragic results for the person that chose to do the right thing, and with no justice or recourse.

My Story:

I know very well from personal experience what happens in these situations because I was the target of bullying and harassment in the workplace at our Band Administration Office for 4 years. I went everwhere trying to get help and reported it to our Band Council who in turn repaid me by doing the same thing....why because I talked about it and they did nothing. What they did do is believe the manager that said I was the one harassing her and never bothered to interview any of the other employees or investigate, because if they would have they would have found out that almost every employee in that building knew what was going on.

I was the subject of the Office Managers abuse, whom it seems could not tolerate another woman in the office that had brains or anything to contribute in a positive manner. I was one of five ladies that was targetted for her rumors, lies, and the discrediting of my work and that was just the beginning. The things that were done to me are unspeakable and yet I refused to let them win by quitting. Why would I when I had done nothing wrong, I was great at my job in the Economic Development Department, I was well liked by the staff and the community and I enjoyed what I did. What I did not enjoy was coming into a poisened work enviroment everday with no support, solution or mechanisms to solve the problem.

Ultimately they ended up hiring a new director whose main role was to harass me into quitting, but I was too stubborn and when they could not make me quit I started to receive daily reprimands.

What did I do to deserve all this you may be asking yourself?

Nothing accept do my job in the beginning and then near the end:

1. I went to a Council meeting on behalf of my cousin whom they were going to fire for telling her boyfriend that she was assaulted physically at work...the kicker was it was at a shelter for abused woman and she was assaulted by another employee that happened to be the Chief's niece. They wanted to fire her for breach of confidentiality and I spoke on her behalf.

2. I was put in a position where I ended up exposing a situation involving sexual harassment that involved at least three councillors and a junior staff member. Later I was told I was set up but who knows. I only tried to do the right thing and not be closed mouth like the rest of the office about the things that were wrong.

3. I ended up, knowing I was gonna be fired by this time, exposing 2 frauds that had occurred in my department and that I subsequently witnessed involving my fomer boss, the whole upper administration and all of the Council at the time....totalling almost 100,000.00

What Happened?

1. I ended up being suspended for 3 days for refusing to put in false paperwork claiming that work had been performed that wasn't.

2. I held a press conference to inform people of what was happening citing the incidents that has taken place without mentioning names. This was part of the reason they used to fire me. Then they threatened to sue the press if any of it was published or shown on t.v.

3. I was given whats called a Proceduaral Fairnes hearing with 3 out of 4 councillors being in a conflict of interest position: there was eight of them including their lawyer, I could not afford the $1000.00 for the day that it would have cost me to have representation. I was allowed no one in the hearing as a support person unless that person was going to speak on my behalf.

4. I was fired, which I already knew would be the outcome, and escorted from the building like a common criminal and not allowed to take my personal belongings from my office.

5. I left with $800.00 in vacation pay and that was it.

6. I searched high and low for a lawyer but could not afford one and therefore to this day have never received any justice.

7. I put in a formal complaint to the Department of Indian Affairs, but was told they do not get involved in work place matters. After they faxed the Chief my complaint that was meant for them and not for Council and of course the Council denied it all.

8. I went to the Ontario Provincial Police with all the proof they needed to lay fraud charges and spent alot of my time laying out the case for them about what had taken place, one of which involved phony contracts for work never performed and money being hid in a contractors personal account amounting to 50,000.00. There was not a word I was saying that could not be backed up by a document to verify it and it was their own documents that held the proof. The second fraud involved a contract which required a new building be built with government funds and the Council chose to renovate an old Quonset Hut rather than build a new building, after being told several times that this was not conduscive to the already signed contract, they went ahead anyway. This was the paperwork that I refused to do showing that a new building was built, when I was suspended. The supervisor that was hired to harass me had another employee do the paperwork and he signed it off, this gentleman was a former lawyer and now works for the Department of Justice of all places. The total of this fraud amounted to approximately $50,000.00 as well.

9. They told me that it was obvious that the whole council and upper administration was involved and seemed more worried about politics than laying any charges and ultimately thats what happened....nothing.

10. About those files the Band Council tried to have me, with the help of the police charged with stolen files. They were more interested in charging me with missing files then they were in a $100,000.00 fraud.

11. They also went after my family firing my father a month later, who had been a Police Officer for 20 years, and Chief of Police for 7 years ( he happened to be investigating the fraud at the time) and attempted to have my mother set up and fired from the community owned corporation she works for.

This is a fraction of the things that happened over the 5 years I was employed with the Band Administration Office, but probably some of the most important.

Oh and did I mention that at the time I was a single mother and I still am to this day.

When I reviewed my workplace file I found dozens of letters and memos from the Office Manager accusing me of things that I had never done, I also had never received a copy of these memos to be able to dispute them. I was still having things placed on my file one year afterI had ceased to work for the Band Administration Office.

With the rise of workplace violence, Native communites are almost sure to be next in line as they are prime breeding grounds for this type of violence. Bullying and harassment can occurr on a daily basis and there are very few if any mechanisms in place to address these issues. If you are not be sexually harassed or being discriminated against in some way then there is little you can do about this psychological violence.

BULLYING IS VIOLENCE:

Violence is the use of force or power by the perpetrator (the person doing the violence) against another, i.e. the victim. This use of force or power is made up of a range of behaviours or actions that may be physical (affecting the body) and/or psychological (affecting the mind). The result of this force or power may impact on the well being or health of the victim; for example, injury, death psychological harm, mal-development, or deprivation for the victim.

Profile of a Bully

Adult bullies, like their schoolyard counterparts, tend to be insecure people with poor or non-existent social skills and little empathy. They turn this insecurity outwards, finding satisfaction in their ability to attack and diminish the capable people around them.

A workplace bully subjects the target to unjustified criticism and trivial fault-finding. In addition, he or she humiliates the target, especially in front of others, and ignores, overrules, isolates and excludes the target.

If the bully is the target's superior, he or she may: set the target up for failure by setting unrealistic goals or deadlines, or denying necessary information and resources; either overload the target with work or take all work away (sometimes replacing proper work with demeaning jobs); or increase responsibility while removing authority.

Regardless of specific tactics, the intimidation is driven by the bully's need to control others.

WHAT IS WORKPLACE VIOLENCE?

Overt violence and aggression includes verbal and emotional abuse or threats and physical attacks to an individual or to property by another individual or group. Covert, or hidden violence is also a form of bullying in the workplace. Covert bullying is not in the form of physical attack but also causes emotional damage to the worker. The impact of violence on a victim depends on the severity of the violence, his or her personal experiences, skills and personality.

Violent (overt) Acts Include:

1. Verbal abuse in person or over the telephone, Physical or sexual assault.

2. Written abuse

3. Threats, Ganging up, bullying and intimidation.

4. Malicious damage to the property of staff, customers or the business.

Covert Acts Include:

1. Repeated refusal of ongoing education/Training.

2. Withholding important information needed to complete a job.

3. Continual allocation of low grade or inappropriate work (inequity).

4. Repeated sporadic rostering.

THE EFFECTS OF BULLYING:

No one works at their best if they feel hurt, angry, vulnerable and powerless. Bullying can have a variety of physical and psychological effects on people. Commonly reported effects are:

1. Stress, anxiety and tension.

2. Feelings of social isolation at work.

3. Loss of confidence and self esteem.

4. Loss or deterioration of personal relationships.

5. Headaches, backaches, stomach cramps, depression.

6. Deterioration of work performance.

EFFECTS ON THE INDIVIDUAL :

The effects of bullying can be psychological and financial and include:

1. Anti social behaviour, impact on family/relationships.

2. Stress-related illnesses and headaches

3. Anxiety, depression; self blame.

4. Stomach disorders and skin rashes.

5. Disempowerment

6. Lethargy and sleep disturbance.

7. Anger; irritability.

8. Loss of concentration.

9. Loss of self esteem, lowered self confidence.

10. Loss of income; loss of potential income.

11. Panic attacks

12. Reluctance to go to work.

13. Uncertainty of self.

14. Actively seeking other positions.

15. Post traumatic stress disorder.

16. Pressure to take jobs below his/her capacity.

This is just one example of what goes on in the work-place in Native communities, the stories are endless although you will rarely see them published because of the fear and intimidation. A huge one is the threat to sue, but I say you can't be sued for telling the truth.

Unfortunately Canada has no laws to deal with this kind of violence in the work-place, laws such as whistle blowing and bullying and mental harassment need to be addressed and included to protect all workers that are vulnerable to this kind of abuse.

The U.S. has state a Federal Laws which protect whistle blowers in a ceratain capacity, but thats not good enough. Also there is an awareness campaign regarding workplace bullying and harassment takign place in the U.S. and workplaces are starting to recognize the detrimental effects of this kind of violence.

Fight Workplace Violence Now! Break The Silence!

The Iroquois Great Law of Peace

2006-01-30T20:12:00.000-06:00

I am Dekanawidah and with the Five Nations’ Confederate Lords I plant the Tree of Great Peace. I plant it in your territory, Adodarhoh, and the Onondaga Nation, in the territory of you who are Firekeepers.

I name the tree the Tree of the Great Long Leaves. Under the shade of this Tree of the Great Peace we spread the soft white feathery down of the globe thistle as seats for you, Adodarhoh, and your cousin Lords.

We place you upon those seats, spread soft with the feathery down of the globe thistle, there beneath the shade of the spreading branches of the Tree of Peace.

There shall you sit and watch the Council Fire of the Confederacy of the Five Nations, and all the affairs of the Five Nations shall be transacted at this place before you, Adodarhoh, and your cousin Lords, by the Confederate Lords of the Five Nations.

Roots have spread out from the Tree of the Great Peace, one to the north, one to the east, one to the south and one to the west.

The name of these roots is The Great White Roots and their nature is Peace and Strength.

Dekanawida - Peace Maker

What is the Great Law of Peace?

The Great Law is the founding constitution of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. It is an oral tradition, codified in a series of wampum belts now held by the Onondaga Nation. It defines the functions of the Grand Council and how the native nations can resolve disputes between themselves and maintain peace.

The Peace Maker travelled among the Iroquois for many years, spreading his message of peace, unity and the power of the good mind. Oral history says that it may have taken him forty some years to reach everyone. Born of a Huron woman who was still a virgin, the Peace Maker, grew rapidly and one day announced that he had to journey forth to deliver a message from the Creator.

He selected a white stone canoe to carry him to the Iroquois as proof of the power of his message. But he was met with much skepticism and the men that he came across refused to listen to him. After Jikohnsaseh rejuvenated his spirit, he continued and was able to persuade fifty leaders to receive his message. He gathered them together and recited the passages of the Great Law of Peace. He assigned duties to each of the leaders. To honor the role of Jikohnsaseh, he selected women as the Clan Mothers, to lead the family clans and select the male chiefs.

Women were given the right to the chief's titles and the power to remove dissident chiefs. Jikohnsaseh, by hearing of her actions, taught me to respect women and honor their role. Women are the connection to the earth and have the responsibility for the future of the nation. Men will want to fight. Women know the true price of war and must encourage the chiefs to seek a peaceful resolution.

The Peace Maker then established clans among the Haudenosaunee as a way to unite the Five Nations and as a form of social order. It is said that after he had assembled the leaders together around the Tree of Peace, he bestowed Chieftainship and clan affiliation on the fifty men who stood in a circle. He would assign clans based upon the order of animals that he saw that day.

Some say that he sent each chief out into the woods and would report back on the first animal that they encountered, and that animal became their clan. A clan is a group of families that share a common female ancestry. Members of one clan are considered relatives and intermarriage in the same clan is forbidden. Clans are named after animals that have special assistance to the people - water (turtle, eel, beaver); land (bear, deer, wolf), sky (snipe, heron, hawk) Clanship identity is very important to the Haudenosaunee.

The Great Law is like a Great White Mat of Law upon which the Chiefs sit as they deliberate on the affairs of the nations. Burning before the assembled chiefs is the council fire, called "the great light," that never dies as long as the people believe in the Great Law. The kindling the council fire, considered sacred in that it purifies the words of those assembled, obligates the Chiefs to speak the truth. Also holding a council only in the daylight is another cultural mechanism to assure clear thinking. Meeting held at night are considered inappropriate and meant for foster dissent.

The Chiefs were to use the power of their mind to reason, to figure out what was best for the welfare of the people. The three main principles of the Great Law of Peace are: Righteousness (Good News), Civil Authority (Power), and also Mind (Reason) and the welfare work." We are to view the chiefs like a circle of standing trees, supporting the Tree of Peace that grows in the middle. They help to keep it from falling over. With each Chief was to be a helper, to keep the Chief standing tall.

Take the word Gaihwiyo, which has been translated in this document to mean righteousness. It's meaning is more like a wholesome doctrine that is good to be heard, because it teaches ethical behavior and communal values. But it also denotes the idea of justice, of being right because of the customs, manners, beliefs and ritualistic summations of the past experiences of the people. It is putting words into action.

The hardest part of the Great Law is to understand the meaning of the concept of peace. Peace is not simply the absence of war. In the Iroquoian mind, peace is a state of mind. Power, which can easily be thought of as military strength, but more appropriately, it means that one heart, one mind, one head, and one body allowed the Confederacy to remain united in the face of many enemies. Certainly, historians have painted a picture of the Iroquois as cruel expansionists. Iroquois fighting power was legendary.

So the question arises: how can the Great Law promote peace if one of the conditions is to have power over weaker nations? Power can be the united strength of the Confederacy, standing together, negotiating together. Unity of action allowed the Iroquois to enjoy great success in dealing with the warring colonial powers.But there is also a different kind of power in the Iroquoian universe. Each individual has a base spiritual power.

As you go through life as Haudenosaunee, experience different things, learn more, comprehend more and tap into other forms of spiritual power, your own spirit grows as well. The old timers called it orenda. Everyone is thought to have it to some degree. It effects how we do things. Good minds have strong orenda. So the ultimate power of the Great Law rests in how well the individual person develops their sense of self, but develops that sense in regard to the well-being of the others, in the clan, in the village, in the nation and in the Confederacy of the Six Nations.

Taken from the Haudenosaunee Website

Looking Ahead At Tomorrow.......Part 3

2006-01-21T02:28:00.000-06:00

In My Life...........

I have learned that two wrongs don't make a right.

And

That sometimes being right doesn't matter........but being happy does.

I have learned that being happy has nothing to do with what's on the outside.

And

Everything to do with what is on the inside.

I have learned that life is too short to live everyday with worry and fear.

And

That to live means to live everyday with hope, courage and determination.

I have learned that being content with who you are has little to do with what other people think.

And

Everything to do with what you think and how you see yourself.

I have learned that sometimes in life we don't always get what we want.

And

That eventually we always end up with what we need.

I have learned that not all people in life are as honest and good as we would like them to be.

And

That it doesn't matter as long as we try to be the best people we can be.

I have learned that life is a never ending learning process.

And

That when we fail to learn a lesson we will continue to repeat the lesson until we do learn it.

I have learned that to depend on oneself is the only sure thing there is in life.

And

That depending on others can be one of life's biggest disappointments.

I have learned how to love.

And

That is one of the best things I have learned in my lifetime!

By Shelley Brant

January 21, 2006

Tomorrow.......

1. All native land-claims in Canada and the U.S. are settled fairly and equitably.

2. Native people in Canada and the U.S. have an equivalent standard of living as the the rest of the country.......currently a higher percentage of Native people live below the poverty line compared to the national average in both countries.

3. All Native people living in First Nation and Tribal communities have safe drinking water.......currently a large percentage of First Nation communities in Canada have contaminated water.

4. No more suicides and sustance abuse in First Nation and Tribal communities....currently they are both higher than the national average per capita.

5. Healthy, prosperous, self-sustaining communities....with Self-Government agreements in place that do not detract from the inherent rights of Native people and implementation by a healthy leadership.

6. Recognition of all Native inherent rights by all levels of government in both Canada and the U.S.......currently the rights recognized are only due to Supreme Court challenges that see victory.

7. Education that is now sub-standard in Native communities brought up to an acceptable level equivalent with the rest of the country......currently in Canada it will take 28 years for the gap in education on First Nation Terrtories in Canada to obtain the equivelent education as the rest of the country.

8. Native seats in the Federal Governments of both Canada and the U.S......currently Native people have no representation or say over the programs, policies and laws governing Native people.

9. Unity and networking between First Nations in Canada and Tribal Nations of the U.S......creation of inter-Tribal and First Nation trade network to foster economic prosperity.

10. Transfer of all natural resources located on Tribal Nation and First Nation lands to each Native community.......currently the governments located in both Canada and the U.S. claim the rights to all natural resources located on Native lands.

11. Total independance from all levels of government located in both Canada and the U.S.........currently most Tribal Nations and First Nations communities rely on the Federal Government for transfer payments for all program implementation, membership registration, land use and tranfer, project funds and approval etc.

Looking At Today...............Part 2

2006-01-16T02:02:00.000-06:00

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and Demand that they respect yours.

Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and Its purpose in the service of your people.

Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place.

Show respect to all people and bow to none. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.

If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and nothing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.

"Sing your death song and die like a hero going home."

Tecumseh - Shawnee-(1768-1813)

Today............

1. In 1985 women regained their lost native status along with the first generation of children, which was taken from them when they married a non-native man. In 1985 Bill C-31 was passed with little regard to the impact it would have on First Nation Territories within Canada. Things like housing, schooling and small land bases for returning familes were not taken into account and as a result many First Nations have struggled to provide for a population which has doubled with very little increased government funding.

2. First Nations in Canada and Tribes within the U.S. are still among the poorest people in the country. In the year 2000, 700,000 native people in the U.S. lived below the poverty line.

3. First Nations and Tribes in the U.S. start to regain some of their lost languages, traditional customs and ceremonies.

4. In 1990 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimouly that Native Rights were not to be infringed upon by any government (Federal or Provincial) unless there was no reasonable alternative in the "Sparrow" decision.

5. In the U.S. 605 land claims have been forwarded for review, 287 of those claims have been settled and of 139 of those claims $290,000,000 was recovered. In canada 6 major land claim and Self Government agreements have been signed totalling 541,216 sq km and 1 billion 522.67 in monetary settlements.

6. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Native people living off Reserve can now vote in on Reserve elections via the Corbiere decision.

7. Residential School abuse of natives from all over Canada becomes public and a multi-billion dollar lawsuit is filed by the Assembly of First Nations in Canada on behalf of all Residential School survivors. The Federal Government negotiates a deal which is accepted, to pay every survivor still alive $25,000.00, after several years of claiming only those that suffered severe physical or sexual abuse were entitled to compensation.

8. Several Native standoffs take place including, Oka (Quebec) the Quebec Proivincial Police and Army are called in to storm the barricade - one police officer is killed, Gustafan Lake, 3 native men wounded and one killed and Ipperwash Provincial Park - unarmed man named Dudley George was killed by a police sniper who testified in court, while being prosecuted for manslaughter, that George was armed at the time. Police Officer Kenneth Dean was found guilty of manslaughter in the death of George and received only time to be served in the community. Deane lost his job with the Ontario Provincial Police and currently there is a Public Inquiry being held into what role the Provincial Government may have played in ordering police to disband the stand-off.

Looking Back On Yesterday.......Part 1

2006-01-09T02:05:00.000-06:00

My friends, for many years we have been in this country; we never go to the Great Father's country and bother him about anything. It is his people who come to our country and bother us, do many bad things and teach our people to be bad….Before you people ever crossed the ocean to come to this country, and from that time to this, you have never proposed to buy a country that was equal to this in riches. My friends, this country that you have come to is the best country that we have….this country is mine, and I was raised in it; my forefathers lived and died in it; and I wish to remain in it.

(Tashunka Witco, Tashunca-Uitco, "his horse is crazy" or "Crazy Horse")

This will be a three part series which will examine past and present legislation and key events in Native history and future direction.

Yesterday........

1. In 1858 the Civilization of Indian Tribes Act was passed in Canada which gave native people who were educationally advanced and capable of looking after their own affairs the right to become Canadian Citizens. By giving up all native rights and being paid to no longer be an Indian they had the pleasure of actually becoming a citizen. This process was called "Enfranchisement".

2. Slavery of Native people existed in the U.S. until it was outlawed in 1864.

3. In 1876 the First Indian Act was established consolodating all native legislation into one act designed as the Supreme Law over Indians in Canada.

4. All Indian ceremonies were banned in Canada and the U.S.

5. It was illegal for Indians to enter a bar or consume alcohol.

6. Indians in Canada had to use seperate entrances at all public buildings.

7. Indians in Canada did not get the right to vote until 1960 and became Canadian citizens without renouncing their rights under the Indian Citizenship Act. Indians in the U.S. were given the right to vote in 1924.

8. It was illegal for Indians to raise money for a legal defense, obtain a lawyer or attend universtiy.

9. In 1966 the first Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada was formed.

10. Indian women were declared legally no longer Indians if they married a non-indian.

11. In 1969 the "White Paper" was introduced by former Prime Minister Jean Chretian, which would end all Federal Government responsibility over Indians and terminated special native status....a policy of total assimilation into Canadian society. This bill was defeated by a severe backlash of Indian people from accross Canada.

12. Native rights were finally recognized in the Canadian Constitution for the first time in 1982.

13. In June 1990 an ammendment to the Constitution known as the "Meech Lake Accord", which was to give French people in Quebec status as a distict society and ignored native distinct society status as well as Native rights to self-government, was defeated by a Native member of the Manitoba Legislature named Elijah Harper.

What Is The Truth?

2006-01-05T23:49:00.000-06:00

BROTHER

Brother: Why do we hate each other?

When we both bleed red?

Brother: Why does my spirit differ from yours?

When they were both given to us by the Creator of Heaven and Earth?

Brother: Why do you think your pain is any different than mine?

When we both feel that pain deep within our hearts?

Brother: Why do we fight?

When our skin is the same color?

Brother: Why do you think you are any different than me?

When we were both born red?

Brother: Does a name mean that we are not brothers anymore?

When the creator gave us the same roles and responsibilities on earth as red people?

Brother: Who decided for you that it was ok to hate your own people?

When the Creator is the greatest decision maker of them all?

Brother: We act in defiance of the Creator when there is any hate within out hearts!

Especially when that hatred is for our own brothers born to be united as one nation!

Brother: Hear my cry and heed my word......we are destroying one another!

It is time to recognize there is much work to be done among the many nations!

Brother: That work can only be accomplished together!

So let's cleanse our hearts of hatred for one another and move in unity in

the same direction!

By Shelley Brant

January 6, 2006

What is the Truth?

How can we determine what the truth is in our communities when most of the governments only want to deceive the people they represent?

When asked a straight forward question: you are either given no answer at all or an answer that is unsatisfactory. The leadership has a fiduciary responsibility to be accountable to the people it represents financially and in all areas of decision making. There has been so much corruption in our native communites that the lack of answers when asked to be accountable fosters further mistrust and breeds contempt of the overall political system . They lead from the top down as a dictatorship, believing that they are accountable to no one: when the healthy way to lead is from the bottom up and to do the will of the people within the community.

The political systems in our communities are broken and need to be fixed: they are based on nepotism; bias; divide and conquer attitides; political payoffs money or favortism; corruption; and greed. As you can see this is no way for any community to be led and you can also see why it takes native communties so long to succeed if indeed they ever do.

Until now very few communities have wanted to take these issues to task and resolve them. This stems from the fact that nobody wants to actually admit what really goes on and that there is anything to address. Some people have tried and have been labelled dissidents for trying to bring attention to issues within certain communities. The leadership has seldom if ever taken on the task of changing the way the political systems in our communities have developed and continue still to this day. When you step into a native community its like stepping into a whole other world: laws that apply outside do not apply in that community neccesarily; it is governed largely by a law or statute called the Indian Act; for some things there are no laws or policies in place, which leads to no contunuity or prevention of certain things.

When you have a mix of no laws and no leadership you have a community that is barely struggling to stay afloat and is merely existing vs growing and prospering. There is a bleek existance for people that live in these types of communities cause the rules are kind of made up as they go along and they are applied or not according to who you are and who you are related to nine times out of ten.

Lets hope that someday more people are willing to become involved in the process of change that will set our communities on the path of health and prosperity and out of dysfunction.

Hope For 2006

2005-12-26T15:33:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone has had a Merry Christmas and has a Happy and prosperous New Year!

My Hopes for 2006:

1. That we can stand up in our communites and voice our opinions...opinions that matter and effect change.....with pride, courage and determination!

2. That people in our communites can unite and come together in mind and spirit to begin the healing and end the suffering for the next generations.

3. That kindness prevails and overshadows hate, greed and jealousy.

4. That we reconnect with the inside of what it means to be native, reflect and live those values and get back to recognizing that to be Native is whats on the inside, not on the outside.

5. That we recognize the problems and the suffering at the hands of oppressive governments within Native communities and refuse to tolerate it any longer out of respect for ourselves and our people.

6. That we recognize and remember that all people have value and contibutions to make in society and it is they who are important and not the material things that we may acquire in this lifetime.

7. That we reach out to the people who are suffering the most and lend a helping hand, a shoulder to cry on or just an ear to listen...it could make the difference.

8. That we send the message to other communites that we are here to help and support them regardless if they are from another Tribe or First Nation...we are all brothers and sisters and placed ont the same earth for the same purpose by the Creator of all Red Nations.

9. That we no longer suffer in silence or live in fear, but have the courage to stand up and break that silence and in doing so draw attention to the real problems within our communities and put our heads together to create real solutions.

10. That 2006 sees prosperity, renewed hope and freedom, for all people within each of the red communities around the globe.

NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN TRADITIONAL CODE OF ETHICS

Each morning upon rising, and each evening before sleeping, give thanks for the life within you and for all life, for the good things the Creator has given you and for the opportunity to grow a little more each day. Consider your thoughts and actions of the past day and seek for the courage and strength to be a better person. Seek for the things that will benefit others (everyone).

Respect. Respect means "To feel or show honor or esteem for someone or something; to consider the well being of, or to treat someone or something with deference or courtesy". Showing respect is a basic law of life.

Treat every person from the tiniest child to the oldest elder with respect at all times.

Special respect should be given to Elders, Parents, Teachers, and Community Leaders.

No person should be made to feel "put down" by you; avoid hurting other hearts as you would avoid a deadly poison.

Touch nothing that belongs to someone else (especially Sacred Objects) without permission, or an understanding between you.

Respect the privacy of every person, never intrude on a person's quiet moment or personal space.

Never walk between people that are conversing.

Never interrupt people who are conversing.

Speak in a soft voice, especially when you are in the presence of Elders, strangers or others to whom special respect is due.

Do not speak unless invited to do so at gatherings where Elders are present (except to ask what is expected of you, should you be in doubt).

Never speak about others in a negative way, whether they are present or not.

Treat the earth and all of her aspects as your mother. Show deep respect for the mineral world, the plant world, and the animal world. Do nothing to pollute our Mother, rise up with wisdom to defend her.

Show deep respect for the beliefs and religion of others.

Listen with courtesy to what others say, even if you feel that what they are saying is worthless. Listen with your heart.

Respect the wisdom of the people in council. Once you give an idea to a council meeting it no longer belongs to you. It belongs to the people. Respect demands that you listen intently to the ideas of others in council and that you do not insist that your idea prevail. Indeed you should freely support the ideas of others if they are true and good, even if those ideas ideas are quite different from the ones you have contributed. The clash of ideas brings forth the Spark of Truth.

Once a council has decided something in unity, respect demands that no one speak secretly against what has been decided. If the council has made an error, that error will become apparent to everyone in its own time.

Be truthful at all times, and under all conditions.

Always treat your guests with honor and consideration. Give of your best food, your best blankets, the best part of your house, and your best service to your guests.

The hurt of one is the hurt of all, the honor of one is the honor of all.

Receive strangers and outsiders with a loving heart and as members of the human family.

All the races and tribes in the world are like the different colored flowers of one meadow. All are beautiful. As children of the Creator they must all be respected.

To serve others, to be of some use to family, community, nation, and the world is one of the main purposes for which human beings have been created. Do not fill yourself with your own affairs and forget your most important talks. True happiness comes only to those who dedicate their lives to the service of others.

Observe moderation and balance in all things.

Know those things that lead to your well-being, and those things that lead to your destruction.

Listen to and follow the guidance given to your heart. Expect guidance to come in many forms; in prayer, in dreams, in times of quiet solitude, and in the words and deeds of wise Elders and friends.

Happy New Year and May the Great Spirit Guide You in all that You do!

A Beautiful Poem

2005-12-22T00:37:00.000-06:00

I found this poem on the net and its so beautiful that I just had to share it with you:

TEARS OF A NATION

I met a man of many colors And a tear was upon his cheek.

"Old man" I ask, "why do you cry

With such an agonizing weep?" "Oh child" this man he says to me,"

My heart is broken in so many ways

That I believe this day to end

Will find me out stretched and far within

The encompassing earth of sin." I sat down beside this man

And asked him "do not cry.

For what you think is so bad

That life will pass you by?" He looks at me with such sad eyes.

And weeps ever more.

He holds his hands out to me

And alas, I do see

The anguish of his heart. For his hands were different colors

One is red and the other white,

A leg he unclothed for me

Was as yellow as could be

And his other leg as black as night. "I am the father of the world.

In case you do not know.

And my children have grown apart

And fight among themselves. For when they do not get along

My arms and legs and hands and feet

Destroys the very life of me. My hands of red and white

Will not feed this face of night.

And my legs of black and yellow,

Will not stand beneath this body

And support my heart and soul. For they argue far too much,

And now I have grown old. So here I sit in this haven

Of unwelcomeness.

And when this day ends,

A father I will not be.

For my children of many nations

Have forgotten how to accompany me.

LneStarLdy

Canadian Human Rights Act - Application to First Nations in Canada Part 2

2005-12-21T22:26:00.000-06:00

Did You Know?

Employment

A person cannot be denied a job because of a disability that does not affect job performance or that can be accommodated.

Employment Applications and Advertisements

Federally regulated employers cannot include requirements that are not clearly related to the job, such as previous Canadian experience.

Equal Pay

A job performed mostly by women cannot be paid less than a job of equal value done mostly by men. Examples of jobs that might be of equal value are nursing assistants and electricians, or secretaries and maintenance staff.

Employee Organizations

Due to provisions in certain collective agreements, some unions enjoy a monopoly on referring job applicants to employers. It is a discriminatory act for such unions to exclude designated group candidates as referrals.

Provision of Goods and Services

A bank cannot ask a married woman for her spouse’s signature when applying for a loan.

Accommodation

An individual unable to work certain days for religious reasons may not be denied employment unless the employer can demonstrate that it would cause undue hardship.

Discriminatory Notices

A poster that encourages discrimination is illegal.

Hate Messages

Internet and pre-recorded telephone hate messages are forbidden.

Harassment

Making demeaning comments because of the person’s colour, ethnic origin, age, disability, sex or any of the grounds in an employment or service situation is prohibited under the Act.

Retaliation

An employer cannot fire an employee because he or she has filed a human rights complaint.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission

The Canadian Human Rights Commission administers the Canadian Human Rights Act, and ensures that the principles of equal opportunity and non-discrimination are followed in all areas of federal jurisdiction.

The Commission, composed of up to two full-time and up to six part-time commissioners, meets regularly to decide on individual complaints and approve Commission policies.

The Mandate of the Commission Includes:

1. Helping parties to resolve complaints of discrimination in employment and in provision of services based on the grounds enumerated in the Act;

2. Investigating complaints of discrimination, including complaints alleging inequities in pay between men and women who are performing work of equal value;

3. Auditing and, when necessary, taking action to ensure employers’ compliance with the Employment Equity Act, which applies to the federal public service, as well as federal Crown corporations and federally regulated companies employing 100 or more people;

4. Monitoring programs, policies and legislation affecting designated groups (women, Aboriginal peoples, visible minorities and persons with disabilities) to ensure that their human rights are protected; and

5. Developing and conducting information programs to promote public understanding of the Act and of the role and activities of the Commission.

If you are living on a First Nation Territory within Canada and feel that you are being discriminated against you can file a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Canadian Human Rights Act - Application to First Nations in Canada Part 1

2005-12-19T16:34:00.000-06:00

The Human Rights Act is a Federal Law, which has application to all First Nations in Canada, that are not exempt from s. 67 of the Indian Act, for employment and service issues.

Everyone is protected by the Canadian Human Rights Act in dealings with the following employers and service providers:

1. Federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations

2. Canada Post

3. Chartered Banks

4. National Airlines

5. Interprovincial communications and telephone companies

6. Interprovincial transportation companies

7. Other federally regulated industries, such as certain mining operations

8. First Nations employers (for employment and service issues that are not exempt undersection 67 of the Act).

All provinces and territories have similar laws forbidding discrimination in their areas of jurisdiction.

Grounds for Action

Under the Canadian Human Rights Act, it is against the law for any employer or service provider that falls within federal jurisdiction to make unlawful distinctions based on the following prohibited grounds:

1. Race

2. National or ethnic origin

3. Colour

4. Religion

5. Age

6. Sex (including pregnancy and childbirth)

7. Sexual orientation

8. Marital status

9. Family status

10. Mental or physical disability (including previous or present drug or alcohol dependence)

11. Pardoned conviction

Discriminatory Acts

The Canadian Human Rights Act deals with discriminatory behaviour in its various forms:

1. Differential treatment of an individual or a group of individuals based on a prohibited ground

2. All forms of harassment

3. Systemic discrimination — a seemingly neutral policy or practice which in fact is discriminatory retaliation.

Remembering Who We Are

2005-12-16T05:56:00.000-06:00

"The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the centre of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this centre is really everywhere, it is within each of us."

Black Elk

One of the hardest things today to keep in perspective is in the midst of all the worries and business of our lives is to remember who we are in the midst of it all. Many European concepts have invaded and superceded the values and principles that we as Native people used to hold so deep.

Respect for our fellow man, giving to someone in need, respect for mother earth, women being the important deicision makers in our communities, honor and pride as Native people and also most of our traditional and cultural values. We don't have to let another cultures concepts and beliefs over-ride our own. We as Native people must look deep within ourselves and remember who we once were and decide who we want to be today.

If we take a look inside our Native communities today we see many of the negative values that we have made more important than our own. Money, power, jealousies, gossip, the Me concept vs the we concept, and material wealth. I am not saying that having nice things and being in a position of power is wrong: what I am saying is that putting people first, before any of these things should always be more important. Who we are within ourselves is much more important than what we gain on the outside, those things can be lost, but who we are as people stays with us forever.

1. Show Respect to Others - Each Person Has a Special Gift

2. Share what you have - Giving Makes You Richer

3. Know Who You Are - You Are a Reflection on Your Family

4. Accept What Life Brings - You Cannot Control Many Things

5. Have Patience - Some Things Cannot Be Rushed

6. Live Carefully - What You Do Will Come Back to You

7. Take Care of Others - You Cannot Live without Them

8. Honor Your Elders - They Show You the Way in Life

9. Pray for Guidance - Many Things Are Not Known

10.See Connections - All Things Are Related

Look inside yourself and see how many of these cultural values you have maintained and then look to your community and see if your community represents any of these cultural values that we as Native people used to hold so dear.

The True Meaning Of Christmas

2005-12-15T17:19:00.000-06:00

"May Mother Earth and Father Sky bring warmth and peace to your lodge during this sacred season"

European Christmas for Native Americans actually started when the Europeans came over to America. They taught the Indian about Christianity, gift-giving , and St. Nicholas. There are actually two religious types of Indian people in existence. One of these is the Traditionalist, usually full-blooded Indians that grew up on the reservations. The second type is the Contemporary Indian that grew up in an urban area, usually of mixed blood, and brought up with Christian philosophy.

Traditionalists are raised to respect the Christian Star and the birth of the first Indian Spiritual Leader. He was a Star Person and Avatar. His name was Jesus. He was a Hebrew, a Red Man. He received his education from the wilderness. John the Baptist, Moses, and other excellent teachers that came before Jesus provided an educational foundation with the Holistic Method.

Everyday is our Christmas. Every meal is our Christmas. At every meal we take a little portion of the food we are eating, and we offer it to the spirit world on behalf of the four legged, and the winged, and the two legged. We pray--not the way most Christians pray-- but we thank the Grandfathers, the Spirit, and the Guardian Angel.

The Indian Culture is actually grounded in the traditions of a Roving Angel. The life-ways of Roving Angels are actually the way Indian People live. They hold out their hands and help the sick and the needy. They feed and clothe the poor. We have high respect for the avatar because we believe that it is in giving that we receive.

We are taught as Traditional children that we have abundance. The Creator has given us everything: the water, the air we breathe, the earth as our flesh, and our energy force: our heart. We are thankful every day. We pray early in the morning, before sunrise, the morning star, and the evening star. We pray for our relatives who are in the universe that someday they will come. We also pray that the Great Spirit's son will live again.

To the Indian People Christmas is everyday and they don't believe in taking without asking. Herbs are prayed over before being gathered by asking the plant for permission to take some cuttings. An offer of tobacco is made to the plant in gratitude. We do not pull the herb out by its roots, but cut the plant even with the surface of the earth, so that another generation will be born its place.

It is really important that these ways never be lost. And to this day we feed the elders, we feed the family on Christmas day, we honor Saint Nicholas. We explain to the little children that to receive a gift is to enjoy it, and when the enjoyment is gone, they are pass it on to the another child, so that they, too, can enjoy it. If a child gets a doll, that doll will change hands about eight times in a year, from one child to another.

Everyday is Christmas in Indian Country. Daily living is centered around the spirit of giving and walking the Red Road. Walking the Red Road means making everything you do a spiritual act. If your neighbor, John Running Deer, needs a potato masher; and you have one that you are not using, you offer him yours in the spirit of giving. It doesn't matter if it is Christmas or not.

If neighbors or strangers stop over to visit at your house, we offer them dinner We bring out the T-Bone steak, not the cabbage. If we don't have enough, we send someone in the family out to get some more and mention nothing of the inconvenience to our guests. The more one gives, the more spiritual we become. The Christ Consciousness, the same spirit of giving that is present at Christmas, is present everyday in Indian Country.

Looks for Buffalo, is an Oglala Sioux Spiritual Leader. He is the full-blood Oglala grandson of Chief Red Cloud and White Cow Killer, and a Cheyenne Oglala Leader.

This is not my writing today; however i wanted to do my post on what Christmas means to native people and I could not explain it any better then this by Looks for Buffalo!

Looks For Buffalo Oglala Sioux Spiritual Leader

Great Contributions Of Indigenous People Of The World

2005-12-11T08:57:00.000-06:00

"The Circle has healing power. In the Circle, we are all equal. When in the Circle, no one is in front of you. No one is behind you. No one is above you. No one is below you. The Sacred Circle is designed to create unity. The Hoop of Life is also a circle. On this hoop there is a place for every species, every race, every tree and every plant. It is this completeness of Life that must be respected in order to bring about health on this planet."

~Dave Chief, Oglala Lakota~

1. Lacrosse a game invented by Native people is Canada's official sport. There are three basic forms—the southeastern, Great Lakes, and Haudenosaunee. Lacrosse was given its name by early French settlers, using the generic term for any game played with a curved stick (crosse) and a ball.

2. Toboggan comes from the Algonquian word odabaggan. The toboggan is an invention of the Eastern First Peoples. Indian hunters first built toboggans made of bark to carry game over the snow. The Inuit (sometimes called Eskimos) used to make toboggans of whalebone, otherwise a toboggan is made of strips of hickory, ash, or maple, with the front ends curved back.

3. Canoes were developed over the course of thousands of years by the native peoples of North America. The word 'canoe' originiated from the word 'kenu' - meaning dugout.

4. American Indians have participated with distinction in United States military actions for more than 200 years. As the 20th century comes to a close, there are nearly 190,00 Native American military veterans.

5. In the First World War, over 4000 members of Canadian First Nations groups volunteered to fight for the Allied Forces. In the Second World War, 3000 Canadian First Nations people offered their services as soldiers, and the Korean War saw several hundred First Nation warriors contributing their efforts, and often their lives, to the United Nations in the fight against North Korea.

6. One of the major reasons our armed forces were victorious in WW I, WW II and the Korean War was our ability to "crack" enemy codes. Our codes were never broken, in part because we empowered Native American People to devise their own codes based on their Native languages. Thousands of American soldiers owe their lives to these "Code Talkers." It is the highest irony that these codes were based on native languages, banned by law, and suppressed by the actions of the U.S. government and religious organizations that operated in concert to eradicate and destroy Native languages, cultures and traditions.

7. Most Native American tribes relied on three basic crops corn, beans and squash; however, there were over 300 other food crops harvested in the New World, including six. kinds of corn, as well as, sweet potatoes, sunflowers, wild rice, vanilla beans, cocoa or chocolate, a wide variety of nuts, and many varieties of peppers.

8. The federal system does not trace its roots to Europe, but rather to Native American tribal organizations. Both Benjamin Franklin and George Washington were extremely knowledgeable about Native American social and political structures. Franklin urged our Founding Fathers to model our government on the League of Iroquois, while the United States Constitution was derived from the Iroquois Kaianerekowa or Great Law of Peace. Like the constitution of the United States the founding charter of the United Nations is based in large part on the principles of the Iroquois Confederacy.

9. Native American Indians provided quinine as the first effective treatment of malaria and utilized many plants that have resulted in remarkable contributions to 20th century medicine including aspirinrelated tree bark extracts, laxatives, painkillers, antibacterial medicines, petroleum jelly and others.

10. Northern Woodlands Native people ‘invented’ the first diapers because they knew that sphagnum moss absorbed much liquid. Sphagnum was also used instead of cotton wadding in front-line hospitals during WW1.

11. It was the Native people that showed the settlers how to remove the poisonous shell from the cashews, revealing a delicious and nutritious nut inside.

12. Over 2000 years ago the Hohokam people played a game in which a ball was kicked, hit or thrown into goals at either end of a field. The players wore protective gear made of leather. This game was not unlike the game of football that is today still played.

13. There are a number of Olympic medalists (including the 2002 Winter games - men's curling).

14. Legendary Musician, Mohawk, Robbie Robertson has sold millions of recordings going way back as a founding member of "The Band".

Without thses great contributions from a number of Indigenous people from around the world our lives may not quite be the same as we know it today. There are many other great contributions from the indigenous people from around the world and these are but a few.

The Road To Change

2005-12-10T09:07:00.000-06:00

"Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations."Luther Standing BearOglala Sioux

You may be wondering what my last two posts on Residential schools and Native boarding schools have to do with oppression in our Native communities. When the children were taken away it left so much sadness in these communites that rampant alcohol abuse began and from that spousal abuse etc, because the parents no longer had anyone left to guide and to teach according to their cultural values and norms.

When the children returned with no parenting skills and years of sexual, physical, verbal and mental abuse, lack of nurturing and no guidance in their traditional ways, culture or values: the ill effects of their suffering extended for generations through each community and continues to resonate still today. Abuse is a a cycle that continues throughout generations of families until someone takes the step to break that cycle. Many native communites have high rates still of physical and sexual abuse and domestic violence. Also drug abuse and alchohol abuse are rampant and often used to mask the pain of suffering. Suicide is also an unfortuante side effect of many years of pain and suffering in our native communites as well.

How does this relate to our leaders? Well the likely hood of our leadership being caught up in one of these unhealthy cycles due to a family member attending either a Residential School or a Boarding school is fairly high. Therefore we have people in postiions of power in our communities who themselves are not healthy individuals. If our leadership would take the initiative to start the path to healing for themselves, then perhaps this intiative would also extend to individual community members as an example and start the path to an overall healthy community.

Some ways to begin this healing path with or without the leadership on behalf of the community can include such things as: healing circles held within the community, sweat lodges, ceremonies, and use of the medicine wheel as a path to healing also by any other traditional or cultural means that are applicable to a particular Tribal Nation or First Nation.

In my opinion we cannnot move forward until we have healthiness in our communites and this starts with individuals before it can extend itself to entire communites. These efforts like self-determination etc will not succeed and be beneficial the way they should be to us as a nation of people until they are done from a place of healthiness. That is why it is my feeling that we are doing things backwards and that we need to work on ourselves as individuals, communities and then as nations, before we work on the big picture.

Native Boarding Schools: The U.S.Tribal Nation Experience

2005-12-08T14:30:00.000-06:00

“Kill the Indian and Save the Man,” was the motto coined by Captain Richard Henry Pratt, who in 1879 founded the first Native American Boarding School, Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. The purpose of the Native American Boarding schools was to assimilate Native American children into the American culture by placing them in institutions where they were forced to reject their Native American culture.

The boarding school experience for most of the Tribal Nations in the U.S. was very similar to that of the residential school system in Canada. Canada based its residential school system and policies largely on the U.S. model of Native boarding schools, which began in the 1870's. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, missionaries and local authorities were responsible for barging into native homes, and taking their children in order to place them into these schools against the will of their parents: if the parents were caught hiding their children they lost food rations.

At these schools native children were forced to cut their long black hair; kept away from their families; often told that their families either were dead or no longer wanted them; abused physically, mentally and sexually; forbidden to speak their native languages or practice their culture and traditions; and were denied the right to call each other by their native names. They were often isolated from their parents for most of the year, often without visits, and from their communities and cultural identities as well.

These boarding schools began in the 1870's and the last of the off-reserve boarding schools was closed in the 1930's. The Bureau of Indian Affairs controlled 25 of these schools, and the church operated approximatly 460 of these schools, which were funded by the government. During this time frame over 100,000 native children attended these schools and many returned home, but many did not. Native children had no immunity to many of the fatal diseases which frequented such closed quarters and many of them died from those diseases. Perpetuating the deaths of many native children was also the severe physical abuse and neglect they suffered at the hands of their care givers and sometimes even home sickness.

The policy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the time was complete assimilation of all Tribal Nations into American citizens so they would relinquish control of their lands to the government.

Upon returning to the community, often leaving around 5 years of age and returning many years later, these children no longer fit into their home communites, nor into non-native society. They lacked cultural and traditional awareness, parenting skills and were often returning in a traumatized state either from personally experiencing some form of abuse or from witnessing a form of abuse against another child or sibling.

I could not find any statistics that gave me an estimate of the number of children that died while attending these boarding schools, but I am sure the number is significant and likely in the neighborhood of the Canadian residential schools, which saw from 25,000 - 50,000 children die and never return home while attending them.

I can not do this experience justice in a few short paragraphs; however, I do think its important to recognize the Tribal Nation people that attended these boarding schools througout the U.S., and also to acknowledge the children who never returned home.

"May the Creator Bless You"

Residential Schools: The Forgotten Children Part 2

2005-12-07T23:47:00.000-06:00

Duncan Campbell Scott, Head of Indian Affairs takes a romantic interest in Native traditions, but disdains ‘living’ Natives. In 1920 he said, "I want to get rid of the Indian problem. Our object is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed. They are a weird and waning race...ready to break out at any moment in savage dances."

This post is dedicated to the forgotten children: the chlidren that died while attending a native residential school and never returned home. If we go by the numbers in my previous post which is 100,000 or so children attended these schools from 1930 until the last one closed in 1996, and its estimated that 25 - 50% of them died while attending these schools: then a total of 25,000 - 50,000 native children did not return home.

The reason I refer them as the forgotten children is because the federal government in its negotiation with survivors of residential schools often mention physical and sexual abuse in relation to compensation, but i have yet to ever hear them mention the children that did not return or compensation for their families.

The reason these children did not return was because they often died as a reseult of disease or from severe physical abuse. I realize that no amount of money can compensate for the loss of a child; however, these children endured the ultimate form of abuse, they died. They deserve to be more than mentioned and their families deserve more too, these children may have lived long and happy lives if they were not forced to attend these institutions.

It saddens me to think that the goverment could be that callous to forget 25,000 - 50,000 native children died as a result of their need to rid Canada of its Indian problem.

Remember the Children that Never Came Home!

Residential Schools: Beginning of the End Part 1

2005-12-06T23:43:00.000-06:00

"Most of our children do not speak their language now, our native language. Because we were not allowed to speak our language in the residential school, we lost our language. In our community we have a lot of alcoholism and drug abuse as a result of our lack of parenting skills. As well, there were many suicides in our community, along with the separation." "Ms. Grace Daniels Residential School Survivor"

In 1830 the first residential schools for Native people began in Upper Canada set up in conjunction with both the Federal Government of Canada, Methodist and Anglican churches later it would also include the Catholic Prebetyrian church (United church). This school system was designed specifically to implement a policy of assimilation of the native people into European society. It was designed to control the native population by remaking native people into agricutural based settlers who believed in a Christian god.

The schools were to provide both a religious education, to help natives obtain European values and the fundamentals of farming. Children as young as 5 attended these schools, originally signed up by their parents who were brainwashed into believing that obtaining new skills would be good for their children. There are also several accounts of children just being taken from communities without the consent of their parents by federal government officials and the police under the guise that it was illegal not to send their children to these schools.

It is estimated by the Department of Indian Affairs that some 100,000 native childeren attended these schools from the time of their inception in the 1830's -1880's when these schools began to appear in every Canadian province, until the last school was closed in 1996. These children were not allowed to speak their native languages or practice their culture or customs, which were the only things they knew. Any child that was caught speaking their language or practicing their culture was punished severly, often through severe physical abuse. This is just the beginning of the horrors and trauma experienced by the children who attended these schools.

These children were subjected to severe physical, sexual, verbal and psychological abuse that would serve to be the catalyst for generations of dysfuntional families within native communities. They were often taken from their families and communites around the age of five and not returned until somtime in their teens. What this did was create a whole generation that lacked parenting skills and knowledge of their native languages and customs.

These schools were breeding grounds for fatal diseases such as small pox and tuberculosis; posed serious health and safety hazards due to poor maintenance; work was physically demanding and harsh for the students; and students were taught by teachers that were ill equipped to teach much beyond religious ideologies.

In 1907 it was estimated by Dr. Peter Bryce the medical inspector for the Department of Indian Affairs that between 25-50% of native students died from disease, racially motivated abuse or other reasons.

I can't do the residential school experience justice im sure in my writing, but i feel its important to educate people to the realities of what our people have suffered and continue to suffer the effects of today.

I know because my grandfather was also a survivor of the residential school system.

What Makes a Good Chief?

2005-12-06T06:03:00.000-06:00

"A good chief gives, he does not take." Mohawk

1. Honesty

2. Integrity

3. Respects other people and their opinions.

4. Listens to the voice of the community.

5. Educates the community on important issues that may affect them and possible outcomes and consequenses.

6. Puts the best interest of the community ahead of his own interests.

7. Makes good sound decisions.

8. Has good judgement.

9. Is proud of his people and his community.

10. Listens to the other members of Council with an open mind.

How many times have we had elections and we groan about the people that get in? When people vote are the taking into account who will be the best leaders of the community? Are they voting for who they can get the most things from at the expense of the community? Are they voting for people for personal reasons whether they are the best leaders for the community or not?

The only way to effect change and to overcome oppression within our native communities is remember that you are the people and the strength of your community. We have to stop being afraid and remind those that are in a position of power who they work for: Its you and its me not on behalf of themselves. There are ways this can be done but its only if the community can band together and say enough is enough. One voice means very little; 100 even more and 200 even more then that.

Things like petitions and going in to Council meetings with the full stength of as many people as will attend to get your points accrossed can do wonders. Making the issues that are wrong in your communities public through the media can work as well. Remember when u publicize something as long as you are telling the truth; let them sue you they can't win and it can only help your cause to get it into court regardless of who brings it. You can also form your own committes to deal with as many problems as you can as a group and on behalf of that may be afraid to speak up. Don't let your Councils tell you that you can't because you can do anything on your own and don't need permission as long as its legal. Deal with any harassment or intimidation issues head on and the let them know ur not afraid there are avenues that can be taken to deal with those too.

Be consistent and let them know you are not giving up and most of all never do!

Is This Who We Want to Be?

2005-12-01T23:01:00.000-06:00

Give us hearts to understand; Never to take from creation's beauty more than we give; never to destroy wantonly for the furtherance of greed; Never to deny to give our hands for the building of earth's beauty; never to take from her what we cannot use.

Give us hearts to understand That to destroy earth's music is to create confusion; that to wreck her appearance is to blind us to beauty; That to callously pollute her fragrance is to make a house of stench; that as we care for her she will care for us.

We have forgotten who we are. We have sought only our own security. We have exploited simply for our own ends. We have distorted our knowledge. We have abused our power.

Great Spirit, whose dry lands thirst, Help us to find the way to refresh your lands. Great Spirit, whose waters are choked with debris and pollution,

help us to find the way to cleanse your waters. Great Spirit, whose beautiful earth grows ugly with misuse, help us to find the way to restore beauty to your handiwork.

Great Spirit, whose creatures are being destroyed, help us to find a way to replenish them. Great Spirit, whose gifts to us are being lost in selfishness and corruption, help us to find the way to restore our humanity.

Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind, whose breath gives life to the world, hear me; I need your strength and wisdom. May I walk in Beauty.

Author Unknown

The above prayer says alot about how we have lost our way, not neccesarily do I speak of our culture and traditions, but who we are and should be as Native people on the inside. Today we have let money, power and things come before the well being of our people. When our leaders no longer lead our people, but only lead themselves for power: then its time to stop and take a look at the healthiness of our communites. If our leadership is not leading us in a healthy direction, or not leading us at all then that leaves us to flounder and question who we are as a people. Healthy leadership strengthens both a community and its people by choosing only the direction that will most benefit the community as a whole and not just a chosen few. Unhealthy leadership tears at the spirits ot the people who reside within those communities until there is nothing left of them. There is no hope; no direction; no progress; and no vision for the future.

We have major problems within our communites and its time to address the real issues, not just land, or money or things: but the unhealthiness of our communites from years of oppression. People are far more important than things and they have some how in our fight for our native ritghts and all that is rightfully ours: been forgotten and left to fend for themselves. These things are all very important, but I think until we have healthy people, leadership and communites these things won't matter much. We look forward without seeing what is front of us that it is now our own governments that oppress our people and not just the non-native governments. Until these issues are dealt with and some kind of change takes place we will stand still and move no place, there can be no progress while opression exists. Oppression is like a poison that permeates the very heart and soul of a community and its people. Things can look nice on the outside but take a closer look on the inside and see how they work.

Some Signs of An Unhealthy Community Are:

1. Rampant alchohol and drug abuse.

2. Excessive domestic and child abuse.

3. Excessive childhood sexual abuse.

4. Overdependance on its government.

5. Overdependance on the non-native governments.

6. Little cutural or spiritual awareness.

7. Rampant suicide rates.

8. No plan or vision for the future for economic independance.

9. No plan for the future or direction of the community for the future.

10. Crisis management vs. prevention and planning as a government.

As native people we have endured years of oppression and abuse at the hands of non native governments and this is no longer accpetable. So lets ask ourselves the question of why its acceptable from our own governments?

Is This Who We Have Become?

2005-11-29T16:11:00.000-06:00

" Native American isn't blood. It is what is in the heart. The love for the land, the respect for it, those who inhabit it, and the respect and acknowledgement of the spirits and elders. That is what it is to be Indian."

White Feather, Navajo Medicine Man

Have we forgotten who we are? Has leadership and power become so important to us that we have to oppress others so that we can feel superior and powerful? Have we forgotten that we have a respsonsibilty to the next 7 generations and beyond? What is the legacy we are leaving those generations? One of hurt, pain and suffering at he hands of our own people: the people who call themselves the leaders of our communities: this is the legacy we will be leaving behind for our children and their children.

Our communities are suffering in silence, it's people being beat down like an abused woman until there is nothing left of them: no spirit, no life and no hope. Silently accepting this is the way things are and that things will never change. Its a defeatest atttitude: when you don't expect or hope for anything different, things will always stay the same.

In almost every community accrossed Canada and the US the stories are the same: the facts may be different, the faces different, but the dynamics of what goes on inside those communities are the same. Some of the stories are so tragic that it makes one wonder how these things can go on and people can suffer like this today. They suffer because there is nowhere for them to turn or this is what they have been made to believe anyway: that we have to handle things ourselves and accept no outside assistance from anyone else. Unfortuantely there is nothing within these communities to address the real problems that exist: that of the governing bodies and the oppression and persecution of its own people.

Some of the common ways that oppression works in these communities are:

1. If I speak about what is going on then I won't get a house (or mortgage for one) my kids won't get money to go to college, I will be given a hard time whenever i need to access services or denied them altogether.

2. I better have proof of what is going on because if I don't I will get sued.

3. I can't speak up because i don't have proof just my word.

4. If I speak up then they will slander my name and destroy my reputation.

5. If I speak up they will use the law or the police to make sure I get charged with something.

6. If I speak up about anything I am labelled a "dissendent" or "trouble-maker".

7. If I write about anything my goverment doesn't like then they will either threaten to sue me or make sure its not printed by threatening the people that are going to print it.

8. If I speak up in a council meeting about something they don't like then I am disrupting and they threaten to call the police.

9. If I happen to work for them then I am expected to never criticize or talk openly about things that are being done either illegally or just plain wrong, cause I will not have a job left if I do, and when I go to get my next job they will make sure my new employer knows what a trouble maker I am.

10. If I report them to any governement or outside agency then I am labelled a liar and a troublemaker so that they will not believe the things I have reported.

How is it that these things can occur? The councils or elected bodies in most of these Native communities make the final decisions in all matters including all the vital services that are available within them and they can withhold them at their pleasure. They are also most of the time: the employers of the police, and have the ability to spend community money as they see fit.

The common misnomer is to put in a new government, but unfortunately the faces change, but the dynamics don't. This unhealthy way of governing by fear and intimidation is so entrenched in these communities and people are so afraid to speak out that the chance for effective change rarely gets off the ground.

The strength for change has to come from within the Native people themselves and this will not happen until they are empowered enough to say "NO MORE" and until they know that they do not stand alone.

How Can This Happen In 2005?

2005-11-27T22:32:00.000-06:00

If anyone has ever experienced any fear at all that they will be persecuted, denied services, harassed, bullied, slandered, or demoralized in some way while living in a Native community then you have experienced oppression and its effects opertating at its very best. Oppression takes away from us basic rights and freedoms that are enjoyed by others in mainstream society, free of fear and encumbrances. Not in Canada you say? All you have to do is live within a Native community whether it be in Canada or the U.S. to know that these things are regular occurrences and the norm for how people live in each day in fear and silence.

The Webster's Dictionary defines oppression as the following:

Main Entry: op·pres·sionPronunciation: &-'pre-sh&nFunction: noun: an unjust or excessive exercise of power: as a : unlawful, wrongful, or corrupt exercise of authority by a public official acting under color of authority that causes a person harm b : dishonest, unfair, wrongful, or burdensome conduct by corporate directors or majority shareholders that entitles minority shareholders to compel involuntary dissolution of the corporation c : inequality of bargaining power resulting in one party's lack of ability to negotiate or exercise meaningful choice —see also UNCONSCIONABILITY —op·pres·sive /&-'pre-siv/ adjective

We all hear about how people in other countries have been oppressed for years and when we do we think of countries like Iraq under dictators like Sadamm Hussein. We also know as native people that the federal governments have oppressed us for centuries in both Canada and the U.S. because it gets talked about and discussed all the time.

What rarely gets discussed is what goes on within Native communities themselves: the fact that our own people are now being oppressed by our own people via the chosen governments or Band Councils of each community. We expend all our energies and resources to fight for whats rightfully ours and so it should be. But what is more important to address right now is the healthiness of the people within our individual communities and the oppression that exists within their boundaries.

We have regional native political organizations and we have national political organizations in Canada that want to deny that this is taking place within our communities, rather then address these issues and seek a resolution of them. We have the Department of Indian Affairs who prefer to turn a blind eye to what really goes unless you can provide them with some sort of proof and even then all the Band Council has to do is deny these things take place and they are believed. Then we have the community goverments or Band Councils themselves who prefer to punish and ostriscize their own people rather then admit or be accountable for any wrongdoing on their part.

How can this be happening in 2005? It is because there are no mechanisms or help in place for people living within these communites to stop it. Each community and its people are left to struggle on their own to seek resolution of these types of problems from the very people that are opressing them: the Band Councils. These people are fed up, angry, and at their wits end and thats why you may often see violence within these communites, because that is the only way people seem to listen to their plight and will stand up and take notice of what is happening to them. These people are driven to violence by a system that has turned their backs on them and left them to live without the very rights and freedoms enjoyed by all Canadians and Us citizens.

The main right that is denied to the people living within a native community is freedom of speech. Speak out about the wrong doing going within one of these communities and you wil be punished in some way by any of the above methods i talked about at the beginning of this post. the next right that is denied is often freedom of association. Associate with the people that have now been labelled "dissidents" within their communites and suffer the same punishments. Don't write about it either cause the councils will threaten to sue you and of course use your own community money to do this like it was their own: I believe this is called censorship. The last time i looked all people were entitled to these freedoms within Canadian and American society, but then they are not led my fear and intimidation tactics either. When was the last time any other Canadian citizen was labelled a "dissident" for speaking their opinion and criticizing the federal goverment and for trying to effect positive change?

We will never attain self-goverment in a healthy manner or any type of unity among our people until we solve the severe problems that are so prevelant among them. These problems are never talked about, are hidden and are never addressed. The Federal goverment can throw all the money it wants at these communities but money can't solve abuse and opression at the hands of Tyraniccal Band Councils.

We have to walk before we can run: we have to start from the bottom up and not the top down and this comes in the form of healing and adressing the abuse that occurs daily within these communities. Until this is done don't expect anything but a band-aid calling itself progress while people still suffer in silence.

How do i know all this you may ask? Well i live it daily and i have also personally experienced everyone of the fear and punishment tactics that i have explained above. I also see the loss of the freedoms that I have spoken about take its tole on the members of my community that want so badly to speak out but who are afraid. The best tactic these days is the threat of a lawsuit against you while they use our money like a bottomless money pit and know fully that you do not have the resources to fight back.

The only way any of this will change is by unification of the people in these communities, not political unification but individual people from community to community. We have to strive to help each other at the grass roots level because counting on anyone else does not work and you will be waiting for a longtime for help that is never gonna come. These are common problems among all native communites in both Canada and the Us, so lets put our heads together as individuals and figure out a way to solve them, rather then stuggle alone and in silence.