Wei Wai Kai Woman

This Is My Voice

2011-11-26T10:41:00.000-08:00

By Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long

This is my voice, there are many like it, but this one is mine.
and it’s a fine line when you’re trying to define the finer points of politics
politics being a latin word
“poli” meaning many
“tics” meaning blood sucking butt lumps
you see too many live in countries where it’s bullets instead of ballots
where gavels fall like mallets when held in the hands of those whose judgments
can be bought as easily as children can be taught to covet
and the only ones willing to speak up are forced to live so far beneath the radar
that the underground is considered above it

this is for the Ho Ci Min’s and the Michael Collins.
for the Marquis de Sades and the muted gods.
This is my voice, there are many like it, but this one is mine.

Chorus:

we’re not always right, but we’ve got the right to be wrong.
we’re not always free, so this is just a short story long.

this is my voice, there are many like it, but this one is mine.
and this time it’s for the sons and daughters
who watch their mothers and fathers drown in shallow waters while
panning for the “American dream” in the polluted creek called the mainstream.
This is for the homeless people sleeping on steam vents,
making makeshift tents out of cardboard and old trash,
trying to catch 40 winks in between the crash of car wrecks
risking their necks by surviving another day so that they can starve
so that famine can carve their body into a corpse before their heart stops beating
so that men in a boardroom meeting
can make it harder for them to get welfare, health care,
it’s no wonder some of them pawn off their own wheelchair
and every time I walk ‘em by, I can’t help but feel at fault,
that maybe I didn’t search myself hard enough
for the control alt “s” so that I could save the world.

Or at least this little girl curled up into a ball
I’ve spent most of my life throwing compassion back like a fish that’s too small.
Gotta cash in my reality checks. drop her some spare fantasies
cause I’ve got three separate degrees from different universities,
but the most valuable thing I ever learned
was to believe people when they say “Please.”

This is my voice, there are many like it, but this one is mine.

Chorus:

We’re not always right, but we’ve got the right to be wrong.
We’re not always free, so this is just a short story long

You ever been real, been reamed out, picked on, put down, ever been ever been rowdy at the sound when your own heart breaks, not to take the time, to take the time. listen.
ever been seen and not heard, you ever blurred the lines for those who tried to find some way to define what you are, as if you were far from them, at least at the heart of them its more than a part of them.
you ever been told you’re too young or too old, and there’s always that line when you’re willing to walk by, and you gotta receive and then beat the deadlines. so don’t try to define us cause this time we’ re fine. so don’t try to define us cause this time we’re fine. so don’t try to define us cause this time we’ re fine. We’re pissed and we’re loud and now you know why.

Chorus:

We’re not always right, but we’ve got the right to be wrong.
We’re not always free, so this is just a short story long

Don’t tell me there are no heroes. This is for them, the women and the men.
For Helen Keller who against all odds found a voice.
For the choice Veronica Guerin made.
For Martin Luther King who stayed just long enough to share a dream with us.
This is for that day on the bus for sister Rosa Parks.
This for the Joan of Arcs who believe even in the face of sparks becoming flame.
The political game that Louis Riel refused to play.
This is for the day the Dalai Lama finally goes home.
For Dr. Jeffrey Wigand who alone stared down big tobacco.
For Nelson Mandela who continues to go the extra mile.
This is for the trial that finally found a man guilty of shooting Medger Evers dead.
This is for everything Malcolm X said,
remembered by athletes who left the Olympics double-fisted.
For Arthur Miller, blacklisted for calling a witch hunt what it was.
For Galileo locked up because he said the earth was round.

For the Two Live crew who found the sound that got them banned in the USA.
And imagine if we could still hear John Lennon play.
This is for the someone who stood up today and said, “No!”.
For Edward R. Murrow who shut down McCarthy.
For Salmon Rushdie, Mahatma Ghandi,
You, me, this city, this country.
We will always have a choice.
When you stand up to be counted.

Tell the world, “This is my voice, There are many like it, but this one is mine

Half Breeds = Twice the work?

2010-08-19T10:12:00.000-07:00

As a thirty something woman I am finding I now have the confidence to feel comfortable embracing both the native, and non-native side of my heritage. I find both backgrounds showcase the best of me. The Scottish and Native sides are amazing, vibrant, strong cultures and by extension people.

I am comfortable entering a boardroom and negotiating with a bunch of suits, and I am comfortable pulling out my button blanket and dancing in the big house.

This did not happen over night, and I have had to face much discrimination from both sides. Growing up I was to white looking to fit in on the Rez, and in school I was informed that being 'slow' was what happens when your native. Of course the fact I wasn't slow and a good student did nothing to dispel this 'slow native' image teachers and administrators saw.

As a parent, I want to protect my daughter from what I went through, but I also want her to have the strength of character to fight the stupid people out there. If I could somehow give her the confidence I have now, without the troubles I would be happy.

I feel some days that I am still raising myself, so I worry about how skilled I am at raising her.

When I was at university, I was taken out of my classes I signed up for an put into "library skills", "English for non-English speaker" etc. I have an IQ of 136, and was on the honour roll in public school. When I went to get this 'oversight' fixed, the registrar clerk very sweetly, and with great sympathy, patted my arm and said "It's not your fault hon, your whole race is slow".
As a teenager this was shocking, and horrific to face. I think about how I would react to someone saying this to my daughter, and I wonder if I should start a savings account to be able to post my own bail.

I wonder how we raise our children to be stronger then ourselves, and still protect or train them to deal with the horrors?

Parental Ponderings

2010-08-15T00:38:00.000-07:00

So a lot of my time lately has been spent on trying to raise my daughter, thinking about raising my daughter, worrying about raising my daughter.
I am lucky enough to have a beautiful, intelligent, amazing young woman whom I love so much, and am daily thankful for the opportunity to help raise her.
But, have you ever stopped to wonder how its going. There is so much we need to teach our kids, so they can make smart choices, make their beds, make their lives, and we have to give them tools.
Tonight though, I was wondering, when do we teach them to jump? That sometimes its okay to make the stupid choice, to follow that boy to Europe, or spend all your money on a painting or trip instead of on your bills. Yes, we have to teach them the responsibility. But there is so much more then that.
I want my daughter to not be afraid of the world, I want her to embrace it, and see it all, taste life.
Its amazing how much becoming a parent changes you. I have a good life, I want her to have a great life.

State of emergency declared in 10 First Nations in Manitoba

2010-03-22T17:43:00.000-07:00

With winter wanning across the country, Manitoba's northren Indigenous population is calling for help.

Winter roads that include driving across frozen lakes have be shut down much earlier this year. These winter roads provide drivable access to otherwise cut off reservations. Large semi-trucks bring in the years worth of supply during the short months the roads are open. Fuel, water, food are all now in short and rapidly diminishing supply.

The government is trying to coordinate air drops of supplies to these ten reserves, but will it be enough?

With global warming becoming more evident each year, how do we work to prevent this from happening next year?

visit cbc.ca/aboriginal for more information about this situtation

BC Government Indigenous Internships for Youth

2010-03-22T17:37:00.000-07:00

Below is a notice I received for the 2010/2011 Indigenous Internships with the BC Government. I firmly believe the best way to fight government is to learn how it works from within. Find the pieces that need to be fixed, and fix them. A nine month job within the BC government would enable people to see how government works. Most people in the government are there to do good, but sometimes they need to be shaken up a little.
I think an influx of Indigenous youth would be a great thing to see in the BC provincial Government.
---------------------------------------------

BC’s Public Service’s

Aboriginal Youth Internship Program

CALL FOR INTERN APPLICATIONS IS OPEN!

Our Intern Job Posting is now up for the Aboriginal Youth Internship Program, 2010/11 program year. Deadline to apply is Friday, May 14, 2010.

The Aboriginal Youth Internship program offers an innovative, 12 month paid internship program ($1,564.13 Bi-weekly) that is culturally responsive and supported. Successful candidates will work for 9 months in a government Ministry followed by 3 months in a selected Aboriginal organization. Program starts September 07, 2010 and runs to August 26, 2011.

As an Aboriginal Youth Intern, you will learn many aspects of public service and provincial government processes, participate in workshops/events across the province, develop your leadership and professional skills, develop strong research & cohort bonds, and create a path for your future career development. You will also have an opportunity to help build the New Relationship and make positive differences for Aboriginal people and communities across the province.

Some of the exciting areas you may be working in include: Ministry specific Aboriginal projects and work assignments; program development; policy analysis and development; youth engagement; Aboriginal community liaison; event and conference coordination; project management; communications; community needs assessment; framework and strategy development, etc. You will also learn about provincial government political, legislative, and budget processes. We have a variety of placements available in several Ministries across the province.

We're looking for youth who communicate well, have strong writing and research skills, embrace learning opportunities, enjoy new challenges and are engaged in their Aboriginal, youth or academic communities.

To apply for the program, you must be:

--Aboriginal (First Nations, Métis, Inuit)

--29 years of age or under as of September 7, 2010

--Residing in BC

You must also have:

--A minimum of grade 12 with some post-secondary education or equivalent work, life and education experience;

--Leadership aptitude or experience, either through work or volunteering; and

--Good knowledge of Aboriginal governments/organizations and the Aboriginal population that you represent (i.e. First Nations Summit, Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Métis Nation BC, BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres, others).

PROCESS FOR APPLYING

1. Go to our program website for an overview of the program: http://employment.gov.bc.ca/index.php?p=Aboriginal_Youth_Internship_Program&rLoad=1

2. Once you review, go to the job posting: http://www.employment.gov.bc.ca/index.php?view_posting=OU000682

3. Click on the link that says: Apply for this job.

4. Fill in the online form.

5. Submit your resume and cover letter electronically. In your cover letter, state your three top Ministries of interest (list available on the site).

6. Submit your two Letter of Reference Forms (Fax to Amanda Horncastle at 250-387-0749)

DEADLINE TO APPLY: Friday, May 14, 2010.

If you have questions about the program, please contact me or Allison Beardsworth, Program Coordinator at 250-356-7949.

If you have questions about the applications process, please contact Amanda Horncastle, Program Administrator, at 250-387-0460. Please note Amanda is away until Friday, March 26.

I also want to encourage all eligible Aboriginal youth to apply. Each year is a new year, and we have more placements available across the province that will meet more youth's specific qualifications, interests, skill sets, and career choices!

Join our great crew for year 4!

Sasha

Sasha Hobbs, MA, Program Lead, Aboriginal Youth Internship Program

The Learning Centre | Talent Management Division | BC Public Service Agency

Third Floor, 810 Blanshard St. | Victoria, BC | V8W 2H2 | Blackberry 604-765-3193

http://employment.gov.bc.ca/?p=Aboriginal_Youth_Internship_Program

Fostering Native Children - Boardrooms & Big houses

2009-12-29T16:53:00.000-08:00

I hope soon to be fostering children of native ancestory. Whether they are mixed blood like me, or full blooded, I look forward to the opportunity to help raise the next generation. Some friends asked of me what my goal was, what type of child I hope to raise. This is my reply:

------

If I have daughters I want them to be comfortable at the Potlatch and at the Ballet, I want them to be girly and strong, honouring and outspoken. If i have sons I want them to be strong, and know that it has nothing to do with muscles. I want them to be comfortable drumming their drums, and drumming their own paths. I want my kids no matter their sex to be happy being florists, firefighters, physicists, and everything in between.

I believe we as new parents have a different path then the parents that came before. We are the mixed blood kids, having mixed world kids and the generations before us were able to pick a world and live in it, but we need to be able to live, and each our kids to live, in all the worlds out there right now. Boardrooms & Big houses.

Boardrooms & Big houses these are the worlds we need to be strong in now. My kids, whomever they may be, I will teach you what I know, and I will be honoured to learn from you and with you, all we do not yet know.

We will dance when our laws command us to dance

2009-12-29T16:51:00.000-08:00

“We want to know whether you have come to stop our dances and feasts, as the missionaries and agents who live among our neighbors try to do. We do not want to have anyone here who will interfere with our customs. We were told that a man-of-war would come if we should continue to do as our grandfathers and great-grandfathers have done. But we do not mind such words. Is this the white man’s land? We are told it is the Queen’s land, but no! It is mine.

Where was the Queen when our God gave this land to my grandfather and told him, “This will be thine?” My father owned the land and was a mighty Chief; now it is mine. And when your man-of-war comes, let him destroy our houses. Do you see yon trees? Do you see yon woods? We shall cut them down and build new houses and live as our fathers did.

We will dance when our laws command us to dance, and we will feast when our hearts desire to feast. Do we ask the white man, “Do as the Indian does?” It is a strict law that bids us dance. It is a strict law that bids us distribute our property among our friends and neighbors. It is a good law. Let the white man observe his law; we shall observe ours. And now, if you come to forbid us dance, be gone. If not, you will be welcome to us.

- O’wax̱a̱laga̱lis Chief of the Kwagu'ł “Fort Rupert Tribes”, to Franz Boas, October 7, 1886

Kwakwaka'wakw Nation Videos

2009-11-25T16:41:00.000-08:00

Here is some Video about home

Kwakwaka'wakw Nation - 1 - Kwakutil

Kwakwaka'wakw Nation - 2 - Kwakutil

Kwakwaka'wakw Nation - 3 - Kwakiutl

Kwakwaka'wakw Nation - 4 - Kwakiutl

Kwakwaka'wakw Nation - 5 - Kwakiutl

1 in 4 Native kids growing up in Poverty

2009-11-24T20:21:00.000-08:00

"Today for the first time in history, the largest group of Americans living in poverty are children. One in five children live in the most abject, dangerous, hopeless, back-breaking, gut-wrenching poverty any of us could imagine. One in five, and they're children. If fidelity to freedom of democracy is the code of our civic religion, then surely the code of our humanity is faithful service to that unwritten commandment that says we shall give our children better than we ourselves received." - West Wing

I am using this quote as an intro to a story that came out yesterday that says 1 in 10 children in Canada are living in poverty. What is also says that 1 in 4 native children are living in poverty. 1 in 4!
www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2009/11/24/child-poverty.html

We need to be crying out against this. Writing our government, our band councils, amnesty international, whomever we can that might help fix this. Most importantly, we have to work to fix it ourselves. Our voices count, our vote counts. We are suppose to give our children more then we have. We need to finish school, we need to get jobs that afford us a standard of living that isn't poverty. We need to help our families. We need to expect more of ourselves, we need to be responsible for ourselves, our choices, our people. It isn't all external forces that cause this statistic. External forces are most assuradly a part of it, but not entirely.

How do we change this statistic? How do we ensure our children have better then we ourselves had???

CBC Radio - Native Kids in care - Broken promises

2009-11-23T11:53:00.000-08:00

Child Welfare - Native Kids

Two decades ago, Canada signed on to the United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child. It acknowledged that all children have the right to be safe and protected from harm, cared for, nurtured, and heard.

It's a commitment to children that critics say Canada has ignored.
Their case in point. One in ten Canadian children live in poverty and a lot of those children live on reserves. And it's being alleged that those kids do not have the same access to health care, education and other services as children living off reserves.

The Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society have filed a human rights complaint, saying this is blatant discrimination.
A tribunal had been scheduled to begin hearings into the complaint last week. But those hearings have now been postponed until January 18th, a delay that further frustrates those making the complaint.

Cindy Blackstock is one of them. She is the Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society. She is to be awarded the Economic Justice Fellowship today from The Atkinson Charitable Foundation. She was in Montreal. And Carolyn Buffalo is Chief of the Montana Cree Nation in Hobbema, Alberta and mother of Noah.

We invited Chuck Strahl, the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Janis Tarchuk, Alberta's Minister of Children and Youth Services to appear on the program. They both declined our invitation.

We also invited federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq but received no response. Ottawa has responded to the Human Rights complaint by arguing the Tribunal does not have jurisdiction to hear the matter because the federal government is the funder of the services and not the provider. The government will be in Federal Court in January to try and stop the Tribunal.

- Taken from CBC radio website - all rights belong to CBC

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/

A prayer

2008-08-08T00:10:00.000-07:00

Oh Great Spirit,
Whose voice I hear in the wind,
Whose breath gives life to the world,
Hear me! I come to you as one of your many children.
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.
May I walk in beauty.
Make my eyes behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things that you have made,
And my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may know the things
That you have taught your children--
The lessons that you have hidden in every leaf and rock.
Make me strong, not to be superior to my brothers,
but to be able to fight my greatest enemy: myself.
Make me ever ready to come to you with straight eyes,
so that When life fades as the faded sunset
My spirit will come to you without shame.

-John Yellow Lark

Canadian Prime Minister Apologizes to Indians

2008-06-12T17:25:00.000-07:00

Prime Minister Harper offers full apology on behalf of Canadians for the Indian Residential Schools system.

11 June 2008
Ottawa, Ontario

The treatment of children in Indian Residential Schools is a sad chapter in our history. For more than a century, Indian Residential Schools separated over 150,000 Aboriginal children from their families and communities.

In the 1870’s, the federal government, partly in order to meet its obligation to educate Aboriginal children, began to play a role in the development and administration of these schools.

Two primary objectives of the Residential Schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture.
These objectives were based on the assumption Aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, "to kill the Indian in the child". Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country.
One hundred and thirty-two federally-supported schools were located in every province and territory, except Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Most schools were operated as "joint ventures" with Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian or United Churches. The Government of Canada built an educational system in which very young children were often forcibly removed from their homes, often taken far from their communities.
Many were inadequately fed, clothed and housed. All were deprived of the care and nurturing of their parents, grandparents and communities. First Nations, Inuit and Métis languages and cultural practices were prohibited in these schools. Tragically, some of these children died while attending residential schools and others never returned home.

The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian Residential Schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on Aboriginal culture, heritage and language. While some former students have spoken positively about their experiences at residential schools, these stories are far overshadowed by tragic accounts of the emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect of helpless children, and their separation from powerless families and communities.
The legacy of Indian Residential Schools has contributed to social problems that continue to exist in many communities today. It has taken extraordinary courage for the thousands of survivors that have come forward to speak publicly about the abuse they suffered.

It is a testament to their resilience as individuals and to the strength of their cultures. Regrettably, many former students are not with us today and died never having received a full apology from the Government of Canada.

The government recognizes that the absence of an apology has been an impediment to healing and reconciliation. Therefore, on behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians, I stand before you, in this Chamber so central to our life as a country, to apologize to Aboriginal peoples for Canada’s role in the Indian Residential Schools system.

To the approximately 80,000 living former students, and all family members and communities, the Government of Canada now recognizes that it was wrong to forcibly remove children from their homes and we apologize for having done this.

We now recognize that it was wrong to separate children from rich and vibrant cultures and traditions that it created a void in many lives and communities, and we apologize for having done this.

We now recognize that, in separating children from their families, we undermined the ability of many to adequately parent their own children and sowed the seeds for generations to follow, and we apologize for having done this.

We now recognize that, far too often, these institutions gave rise to abuse or neglect and were inadequately controlled, and we apologize for failing to protect you. Not only did you suffer these abuses as children, but as you became parents, you were powerless to protect your own children from suffering the same experience, and for this we are sorry.

The burden of this experience has been on your shoulders for far too long. The burden is properly ours as a Government, and as a country. There is no place in Canada for the attitudes that inspired the Indian Residential Schools system to ever prevail again. You have been working on recovering from this experience for a long time and in a very real sense, we are now joining you on this journey.

The Government of Canada sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the Aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly.

We are sorry.

In moving towards healing, reconciliation and resolution of the sad legacy of Indian Residential Schools, implementation of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement began on September 19, 2007. Years of work by survivors, communities, and Aboriginal organizations culminated in an agreement that gives us a new beginning and an opportunity to move forward together in partnership. A cornerstone of the Settlement Agreement is the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
This Commission presents a unique opportunity to educate all Canadians on the Indian Residential Schools system. It will be a positive step in forging a new relationship between Aboriginal peoples and other Canadians, a relationship based on the knowledge of our shared history, a respect for each other and a desire to move forward together with a renewed understanding that strong families, strong communities and vibrant cultures and traditions will contribute to a stronger Canada for all of us.

2007-01-13T21:16:00.000-08:00

300 reasons not to forget lessons of Wounded Knee

2007-01-07T22:02:00.000-08:00

By TIM GIAGO (NANWICA KCIJI)

While Americans agonize over the contents of the Iraq Study Group report and weigh the options of extricating U.S. soldiers from the middle of a civil war, the people of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota will gather on a lonely hill overlooking the demolished village of Wounded Knee -- destroyed during the occupation of the American Indian Movement in 1973 and never rebuilt -- to commemorate and grieve the massacre of their ancestors.

It was after a night so cold that the Lakota called it "The Moon of the Popping Trees," because as the winter winds whistled through the hills and gullies at Wounded Knee Creek on the morning of Dec. 29, 1890, one could hear the twigs snapping in the frigid air.

When a soldier of George Armstrong Custer's former troop, the 7th Cavalry, tried to wrest a hidden rifle from a deaf Lakota warrior after all of the other weapons had already been confiscated from Sitanka's (Big Foot) band of Lakota people, the deafening report of that single shot caused pandemonium among the soldiers and they opened up with their Hotchkiss machine guns upon the unarmed men, women and children.

Thus began an action the government called a "battle" and the Lakota people called a "massacre." The Lakota people say that only 50 people of the original 350 followers of Sitanka survived that morning of slaughter.
One of the survivors, a Lakota woman, was treated by the Indian physician Dr. Charles Eastman at a makeshift hospital in a church in the village of Pine Ridge. Before she died of her wounds, she told about how she had concealed herself in a clump of bushes. As she hid there she saw two terrified little girls running past. She grabbed them and pulled them into the bushes.

She put her hands over their mouths to keep them quiet, but a mounted soldier spotted them. He fired a bullet into the head of one girl, then calmly reloaded his rifle and fired into the head of the other girl. He then fired into the body of the Lakota woman. She feigned death and, although badly wounded, lived long enough to relate her terrible ordeal to Dr. Eastman. She said that as she lay there pretending to be dead, the soldier leaned down from his horse, used his rifle to lift up her dress in order to see her private parts, then snickered and rode off.

As the shooting subsided, units of the 7th Cavalry rode off toward White Clay Creek near Pine Ridge Village on a search-and-destroy mission. When they rode onto the grounds of Holy Rosary Indian Mission, my grandmother Sophie, a student at the mission school, and the other Lakota children, were forced by the Jesuit priests to feed and water their horses.

My grandmother never forgot that terrible day, and she often talked about how the soldiers were laughing and bragging about their great victory. She recalled one soldier saying, "Remember the Little Big Horn."

The Massacre at Wounded Knee was called the last great battle between the United States and the Indians. The true version of the events of that day were polished and sanitized for the consumption of most Americans. Twenty-three soldiers of the 7th Cavalry were awarded this nation's highest honor, the Medal of Honor, for the murder of nearly 300 innocent and unarmed men, women and children.

Although 25 soldiers died that day, historians believe that most of them died of friendly fire when they were caught in the crossfire of the machine guns. Many Lakota have tried in vain to have those medals revoked.

Before they died, the Lakota warriors fought the soldiers with their bare hands as they shouted to the women and children, "Inyanka po, inyanka po! (Run, run)." The elderly men, unable to fight back, fell on their knees and sang their death songs. The screams and the cries of the women and children hung in the air like a heavy fog.

When I was a young boy I lived at Wounded Knee. By then the name of the village had been changed to Brennan to honor a Bureau of Indian Affairs superintendent, but all of the Lakota knew why the name was changed. Because although the government tried various ways to conceal the truth, the Lakota people never forgot; they always referred to the hallowed grounds as Wounded Knee, and they continued to come to the mass grave to pray, even though it was roundly discouraged by the government.

As a child I walked along the banks of Wounded Knee Creek and I often had an uneasy feeling, it was as if I could hear the cries of little children. Whenever I visited the trading post where my father worked I would listen to the elders as they sat on the benches in front of the store and spoke in whispered voices as they pointed at the hills and gullies. Never did I read about that horrible day in the history books used at the mission school I attended.

Two ironies still haunt me. Six days after the bloody massacre the editor of the Aberdeen (S.D.) Saturday Pioneer wrote in his editorial, "The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilizations, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth."

The author of that editorial was L. Frank Baum, who later went on to write that famous children's book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In calling for genocide against my grandmother and the rest of the Lakota people, he placed the final punctuation upon a day that will forever live in infamy amongst the Lakota.

And finally, as the dead and dying lay in the makeshift hospital in the Episcopal Church in Pine Ridge Village, Dr. Eastman paused to read the sign above the entrance that read, "Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men."
----------------------------------------------------------
Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is the founder and first president of the Native American Journalists Association

Human Rights...... are they actually a privilage?

2006-11-27T14:19:00.000-08:00

I have just returned from a four day National Human Rights Convention. It was good, I learned a lot. One of the things I think I learned, is that in truth, Human Rights, aren't Rights, at least not how I understood them. Human Rights, are Rights reserved for a privileged people that believe they own this world. For the rest of us, Human Rights are something we have to fight for, which, then makes it not a Right. Isn't a Right something that just is, something we don't have to fight for and defend with our blood, with our generations?

Is Gitmo, the US's definition of Human Rights in Action? Are fights, and bloodshed on unceded lands of the Six Nations, Oka, Bear Mountain, Pine Ridge, a fight to defend family and land, that doesn't sound like a Right.

The fact that Canada voted AGAINST the UN Declaration of Indigenous Peoples' Rights, I think it says a lot about who Harper believes deserves this "Human Rights"

A picture is worth a thousand words

2006-11-21T08:46:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't been much with the posts of late. I have put of photo's instead, and I find they still reflect what I am up to, what I'm thinking of lately. I will write more, once I return from the Human Rights Convention.

Memories of the past

2006-11-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

Photo Credit: Ruth-anne D

2006-11-20T22:19:00.000-08:00

2006-11-17T23:45:00.000-08:00

Maori Warrior

Grey's Anatomy - every colour but red

2006-10-26T21:34:00.000-07:00

So Grey's Anatomy, one of my favorite shows on TV.

What bothers me with this show, is all the native artwork on the walls of the rooms. Actually that isn't what bothers me, what bothers me is the nice white, black, and asian doctors, the nice variety of colours/ethnicity. How every colour, culture is represented by people, except for First Nations. We get regulated to being the wall art.

What is with that? Why aren't we worth equal?

Ward Churchill speaking at UVic

2006-10-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

More information to come, but it looks like Ward Churchill may be speaking at an event at the University of Victoria aimed at honouring Vine Deloria.

2 children die in Cowichan Reserve house fire

2006-10-06T00:41:00.000-07:00

A nine-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy have died and seven other people are in hospital after fire ripped through a two-storey home just south of Duncan, B.C.
The blaze broke out in the house just after 11 p.m. Wednesday on the Cowichan reserve.
Neighbours said that it took fire crews from Duncan and North Cowichan more than 20 minutes to arrive after 911 was called.
When firefighters arrived, flames at the front door prevented crews from getting inside, neighbours said.
North Cowichan-Duncan RCMP Const. Susan Boyes told CBC News that the inside of the home was completely engulfed in flames.
"Four children and three adults have escaped and are being treated for injuries. Two other children unfortunately did not escape and perished in the fire," Boyes said.
Neighbours said there were nine people living in the house, three adults and six children, and all were related.
The two children who died were cousins.
The other people in the home were taken to hospitals in Duncan, Victoria and Vancouver, depending on the severity of their injuries. The extent of their injuries isn't known.
The cause of the fire has not been determined, but police said early indications are that the fire was not started deliberately.

Top article from CBC, photo and bottom article from Timess Colonist

Two young cousins are dead and their community is in shock after a fire engulfed a house on the Cowichan Reserve near Duncan.
Dead are four-year-old Troy Joe and nine-year-old Marissa Thomas, two of six children in the home when fire broke out at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.
There were also three adults in the house at the time, including the mother of one of the dead children. They were taken to hospitals in Duncan and Victoria.
Theresa Bartleman, the victims’ aunt, drove to Duncan from Sidney, after receiving a phone call about the fire.She was at the charred house Thursday morning waiting for the bodies to be removed.“Nobody is here for them, everyone is in the hospital,” she said.
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Please everyone check your smoke alarms, make sure you have fire extinguishes and know how to use them, make sure you have insurance. I don't know if it would have helped in this instance, but please always try and keep each other safe.

My heart goes out to the family and the Cowichan community. My prayer is that the two children are at peace now, and that the family heals quickly so they can be together and start the spiritual healing.

MPs scrap as feds snuff aboriginal smoking program

2006-09-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

Politicians sparred in the House of Commons on Tuesday over the government's decision to cut off funding for an anti-smoking campaign aimed at First Nations and Inuit people, an effort that Conservative ministers suggested was wasteful and ineffective.

"They can't, certainly, believe that refusing to help aboriginal people stop smoking is in the interest of Conservative voters, " said Tina Keeper, Liberal MP for Churchill, arguing in question period that prevention of cancer and other ailments is cheaper than treatment.

"My question, again, is: Why is this government condemning First Nations and Inuit people in Canada to Third World health conditions?"

Dennis Bevington, the NDP member for Western Arctic, said the $10.8-million cut means "more aboriginal Canadians will get sick and die due to smoking." The were "no consultations, no debate," he said, calling the decision "another sign of just how arrogant and controlling this prime minister is at a time when this country has record surpluses."
from CBC News
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I know by this time, I shouldn't be surprised with the treatment of the Indigenous people, but COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New northern mine worries natives - Great-grandmother arrested for joining blockade to stop 'threat'

2006-09-19T16:28:00.000-07:00

Ethan Baron, The Province Published: Monday, September 11, 2006

A native great-grandmother has been arrested in a bid to stop B.C.'s first new metal mine in 10 years.

BCMetals Corp. believes the Red Chris mine in northern B.C. contains almost a million tonnes of copper and 1.2 million ounces of gold.

But Tahltan elder Lillian Moyer, 67, who was arrested Saturday, says the proposed open-pit operation south of Dease Lake would violate sacred ground, threaten traditional hunting land and ruin fisheries.

"The land means so much to our people," Moyer said yesterday. "We don't want to see any development up there because it is sacred land. I am doing what I can, with great feelings in my heart, to stick up for our rights and for the land, for the future generations of young children."
Members of the Tahltan set up a road blockade June 16 to keep BCMetals from driving heavy equipment through a fish-spawning creek. On Sept. 1, the company's application in B.C. Supreme Court for an injunction to remove the protesters was granted.
Moyer said she visited the blockade Friday night and learned that anyone arrested for violating the injunction would be prohibited from entering traditional hunting grounds on the Todagin Plateau, the site of the planned mine.

"I was listening to all this and I said, 'This doesn't sound right. Why are we being threatened about our own traditional land that we want to protect?'"

Natives spend a month a year camped on the plateau, hunting, Moyer said.
BCMetals president and CEO Ian Smith has said that "the Red Chris mine has received all necessary environmental approvals from federal and provincial authorities."
On July 4, the company said it had temporarily suspended movement of equipment to explore the Red Chris site because trout were spawning at a creek crossing on the access road.
On Saturday, when equipment crossed the creek after RCMP arrested Moyer, oil spilled into the creek.

"[This] oil spill is our worst nightmare coming true," said Rhoda Quock, chief of the Iskut band, part of the Tahltan Nation. "It shows what happens to our lands when development is rammed through."

BCMetals said the spill amounted to less than a half-litre of grease and other hydrocarbons, which washed off the drilling rig and escaped catchment booms.
The Iskut also worry that toxic copper dust will blow from the mine to their community 18 kilometres away, and that leachate from waste ore will contaminate drinking water and fish-bearing streams.

BCMetals expects the mine will produce 50,000 tonnes of copper and 75,000 ounces of gold annually for the first five years. At current prices, that's $440 million in copper and $51 million in gold.

2006-09-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

Today is September 11, 100 years since Gandhi officially started the non-violent peace movement, 80 years since the British empire set the boundaries between Israel and Palestine to bring about the current conditions today, 35 years since a CIA backed coup put Pinochet in power in Chile starting the slaugter of some 50,000 people, and a mere 5 years since the only known terror attack in the United States, the downing of the WTC's.

I only want to comment on the blinders, because here in the United States, the only act of terror known is what happened in New York on September 11, 2001.
How about February 26, 1856, the Wiyot Massacre in Humboldt Bay?
How about December 29, 1890, Wounded Knee?
How about the dates I can't remember like the slaughter of the Moro's by the U.S. in the Phillipines during the Spanish American War?
How about the bombing of the bomb shelter in the city whose name I forgot during the '91 Gulf War?
But no! These and SO many other dates are ignored or completely forgotten because in the eyes of America, nothing was an act of terror until the WTC came down. Not even what the World Trade Organization does to societies around the world compares in American eyes to the acts of planes being flown into American buildings on American soil. Now...in American eyes...it is terror.

Ward Churchill stated in his lectures about how the Dutch colonized Manhattan Island, allegedly buying it from the Indians there with some trinkets, although the Indians just considered it rent and figured them to be OK. The Dutch decided to put an end to their "Persistent Indian Problem," and slaughtered the Indians on the other side of the island. The Indians weren't exactly sure what was happening and thus didn't put up much of a fight, not being used to warfare where MASS SLAUGHTER is the norm. The Dutch, being so surprised by their victory, cut the heads off of all of their victims to take them back to their leaders as proof of their victory and loyalty. To celebrate, they played soccer with the heads of their victims...all in great fun, of course. Not like the Indians were really human beings. Anyway, Ward says that that little soccer game happened right where the WTC buildings once stood.

Interesting, huh? I don't know the date of that slaughter, either.
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Posted from Pudgy Indian
http://www.pudgyindian.blogspot.com/

Fighting Terrorism... ... ..

2006-09-12T14:49:00.000-07:00

Need Métis Veterans Memorial Pictures please

2006-09-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

"I have been working with Dale Haggerty with the Michif Metis Museum for quite a few years and the museum is working on improving the website and what I have installed is a Métis memorial veterans page...I need pictures of the veterans that have passed, their names date of birth and passing, so we can honor are veterans so they won't be forgotten in memorial....if you can email them and I also have a Métis memorial page for those Métis people who have also passed that has done a lot for our community. We are just installing this page as a temporary site until it gets transferred to its own permanent page. I'll send you the page so far...let me know what you think...still under construction.

I also need veterans that have been doing events also that are still alive...it’s not all about memorials...and events...update too. Or if you know someone who can send to me...I really appreciate it.
http://www.whiteskycloud.com/michifmetismuseum.html soon the Michif Metis Museum will have its own .org

Thanks from Derrick Whiteskycloud"
-------------------------

If anyone can help Derrick with this....

Caledonia Standoff threatens to heat up again

2006-09-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

Residents frustrated with slow pace of negotiations over land rights
ALEX DOBROTA, from the Globe and Mail

As the warm summer days dwindle, so does the patience of many residents in Caledonia, where a six-month-long native standoff threatens to erupt into violence once again.
Many townsfolk who lived through a summer of flare-ups will send their children to an elementary school that borders a development site sitting on land the occupiers claim was taken from them unlawfully by the Crown.

The local school board has postponed plans to build a wooden wall between a schoolyard and the occupied land.

The site is at the centre of a battle over land rights that started when some members of the Six Nations reserve set up barricades blocking the road into the development on Feb. 28. A court order evicting them has not been enforced. In June, the province bought out the developer for $12.3-million.
--------------------------------

This article continues for quite a bit more, hot air just flying everywhere in the article. What it doesn't mention is that the government paid mediator is getting $1300.00 a DAY, plus expenses & travel. So instead of talking about how much money us natives are costing, maybe start looking at their own in house costs. I could make suggests about what $1300 a day should supply, but most my thoughts are less then tactful.
----------------------
Here is part of the article about Jane Stewarts fees.
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Caledonia tab may hit $300,000
By Marissa NelsonThe Hamilton Spectator(Aug 30, 2006)

Jane Stewart is being paid $1,300 a day to be the province's negotiator in talks aimed at solving the land dispute in Caledonia.

And the 11-month pact between the former Liberal minister and Ontario says her total pay can reach $300,000.

She can also charge up to $30,000 in expenses.
The agreement, which runs from May 5, 2006, to March 31, 2007, says she also will be paid for half her travel time.
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Why aren't people more upset about this? what aren't we posting this on every site, in every editorial!

One Flaw In Native Women

2006-08-25T09:13:00.001-07:00

Native Women have strengths that amaze men.
They bear hardships and they carry burdens,
but they hold happiness, love and joy.
They smile when they want to scream.
They sing when they want to cry.
They cry when they are happy
and laugh when they are nervous.
They fight for what they believe in.
They stand up to injustice.
They don't take "no" for an answer
when they believe there is a better solution.
They go without so their family can have.
They love unconditionally.
They cry when their children excel
and cheer when their friends get awards.

They are happy when they hear about
a birth or a wedding.
Their hearts break when a friend dies.
They grieve at the loss of a family member,
yet they are strong when they
think there is no strength left.
They know that a hug and a kiss
can heal a broken heart.

Native Women come in all shapes, and sizes
They'll walk, run or ride on horse back far just to be with you,
that is how much they care about you.
The heart of a Native woman is what
makes the world keep turning.
They bring joy, hope and love.
They have compassion and ideas.
They give moral support to their
family and friends.
Native Women have vital things to say
and everything to give.
However, if there is one flaw in Native Women,
It is that they forget their Worth.

Excerpts from Will Fergusons "Why I hate Canadians"

2006-08-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

“At first, the Native groups were allowed to choose their own reserve lands, but that promise was quickly broken. Good farmland was excluded for the most part, and – devastating to tribal custom – large tracks were disallowed. Instead, Indian bands were splintered among small, unconnected plots of land. When they resisted, the government simply withheld food that was promised under the Famine Clause of treaties. Thus it w as that we coerced, shoved and blackmailed nomadic people into subdivisions and sub—subdivisions.
……..
The result of this self-cancelling, dehumanizing process? In Canada, one of the wealthiest most prosperous countries in the world, we have created an entire, racially segregated subclass, our very own Third World.” Pg 118

“We keep wishing the problem away. This pattern was well established as far back as 1876, when the Indian Act was first drafted. Reserves were designed to be temporary holding cells, where, it was confidently assumed, Indians would be fully assimilated within three generations. They would be kept segregated and accounted for until they were deemed morally worthy of Canadian citizenship.

This is not editorializing on my part, these were the explicit objectives of the Indian Act. If you were good, if you were very good, you could graduate from being and Indian. All you had to do was give up your identity, move into the mainstream, lose your language, forswear you culture, and you too would be allowed to vote and own your own land. This was called “enfranchisement.”

To be enfranchised, you had to (A) abandon all tribal customs, (B) be judged of good character, (C) be fluent in either French or English, and (D) have passed a three-year probation (just to make sure you didn’t lapse back into savage custom or language). Only then would you be allowed the privilege of not being an Indian. In Canada, the only Good Indian was an Assimilated Indian, and as very few of them accepted assimilations, we had very few Good Indians.

Enfranchisement remained policy until – when? 1900? 1910? 1920? No. The government did not concede defeat and remove enfranchisement from the Indian Act until 11985. Ancient history, that.

…..

You see, a funny thing happened on the way to assimilation. The two goals of Indian policy, separation and assimilation, were contradictory: they cancelled each other out. The reserves that were meant to segregate Native Canadians gave them a land base that now acts both as a focal point of political activism and a refuge – however shaken, however poverty-stricken. The resurgent Native culture and explosive Native pride comes directly from the reserves, and it is from the reserves that Native Canadians are leading a full-scale counterattack. Apartheid has backfired.”

Excerpts from Will Ferguson’s “Why I Hate Canadians” chapter “Our home on Native Land”

Maori Queen, dies in Ngaruawahia, New Zealand after a forty-year reign.

2006-08-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

Dame Te Atairangikaahu ONZ, DBE, (23 July 1931 – 15 August 2006) was the Māori Queen for 40 years, the longest reign of any Māori monarch. Her full name and title was Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu. Her title Te Arikinui (meaning Great Chief) and name Te Atairangikaahu (also her mother's name) were bestowed when she became monarch; previously she was known as Princess Piki Mahuta.

She was the only birth child of Koroki Mahuta and Te Atairangikaahu Herangi; her father had an older daughter, Tuura, by an earlier relationship. Dame Te Atairangikaahu had adopted siblings including Sir Robert Mahuta, whose daughter Nanaia Mahuta is a member of Parliament. Dame Te Atairangikaahu was a descendant of the first Māori King, Pōtatau te Wherowhero, and succeeded her father, King Koroki, becoming Queen the day Koroki was buried.[1] She married Whatumoana Paki and they had seven children.

The office of Māori Queen holds no constitutional function, but Te Atairangikaahu was an avid supporter of cultural and sporting events and commonly appeared in a figurehead role at locally held, international political events involving indigenous issues. Her official residence was Turongo House in Turangawaewae.

In 1970, she became the first Māori to be made a Dame, specifically a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.[2] She was one of the first inductees of the Order of New Zealand when it was established in 1987. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Waikato University in 1973, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Victoria University in 1999.
-Wikipedia

Sacred Tree Code of Ethics

2006-08-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

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 others 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 everyone.

Respect. Respect means “to feel or show honour 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 moments or personal space.
· Never walk between people that are conversing.
· Never interrupt people who are conversing.
· Speaking in a soft voice, especially when you are in the presence of elders, strangers or others whom special respect is due.
· Do no 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 the air or the soil. If others would destroy our mother, rise up with wisdom to defend her.
· Show deep respect for the beliefs and religions 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 or a 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 are quite different from the ones you have contributed. The clash of ideas brings forth the spark of truth.

Be truthful at all times, and under all conditions.

Always great your guests with honour and consideration. Give 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 honour of one is the honour 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 coloured 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 or 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 task. 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.

From “The Sacred Tree”
Four Worlds International Institute

Last night

2006-08-12T13:44:00.000-07:00

I have these groups of friends, each group so different then the other.
Last night was a hard night for me, harder then I orginally thought it would be, and I had been pretty sure it would be horrid.

I drifted off to sleep sometime before the haze of dawn started appearing through my window.

I have this friend that I called last night, he is the only one I thought might understand what I needed. See some of my other friends, while they are good friends, and we can hang out lots, they are not the type of friends that offer to help hold you up when you feel like falling down. Some of my friends just really suck in the care and comfort area, and I guess that is why most people have different groups of friends, so that we have people to be there for each area of our life.

Today I wake up thinking that I might have finally turned a corner, or at least I am able to look ahead and see a corner that I know I will be turning. A year of grief, guilt, anger, and last night I took it all on. I miss the people that have gone off ahead of me, last night I sat and spoke with some. Nothing like a conversation with ghosts and shadows to straighten you out. Maybe it is jsut that I finally started to grieve at all. This month has always been a hard month for me, but now, it doesn't feel quite as bleak as it did before.

Low aboriginal graduation rates a concern for all Canadians: report

2006-08-11T16:04:00.000-07:00

An alarming number of First Nations students living on reserves are not graduating from high school, a recently released report says.

According to the report of the Ottawa-based Caledon Institute of Public Policy — titled Aboriginal Peoples and Post-secondary Education in Canada — high school graduation rates of aboriginal people are far below those of people in the rest of Canada, and the situation is particularly bad on reserves.

The report, which is based on census data, found that 58 per cent of on-reserve aboriginal people between the ages of 20 and 24 had not graduated from high school. Among all people across Canada, the comparable 2001 rate was 16 per cent.
CBC News
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I know, crazy idea, but what happens if teachers stop telling us that we are 'dumb and to not worry about graduating anyways as we won't make it that far' Or how about teachers trying to .. .hmm.. teach?! I know, crazy thought there, and maybe even teach truth! I grew up listening to the teepee people on the coast (what the #$*(@#) and when I suggested that maybe that information was wrong, I was kicked out of class. The system is set up for us to fail, so maybe instead of figuring out where we went wrong, figure out how to fix the system first.

And then for those of us that do make it and graduate, God forbid if we actually try to go to post secondary school! What the heck, don't we know our place? According to most academic institutions it sure isn't at University. When I first went to university, they took me out of the classes I signed up for, and put me in 'learning skills', 'introduction to university life', 'introduction to the university library', and a low level into to english class. When I went to complain, the nice registrar clerk, patted my arm and said "It's not your fault hon, your whole race is slow"..... ..... ...... (calm breathe), lets say simply there aren't enough bad words to express how that made me feel.

Some institutions are changing, the University of Victoria in BC, Canada has started a great project to support undergrad aboriginal students at University, so we have 1 out of how many universities trying to make a change?

Its slow, but as a people, we have to keep fighting, go to school, piss off every teacher you have if that is what it takes for you to graduate, prove them wrong, get school, get trained, get jobs as thier supervisors, and fire them :-)

... on death and dying...

2006-08-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the one year anniversary of my Grandmothers death.
You would think that one sentance couldn't cause so much pain and guilt, but there you have it.

My question today is, if you do nothing but stand by while someone dies, is that the same as activily participating in/contributing to their death?
Where is that line?

"Oh how we cried, the day you left us
Gathered round, your grave to grieve
Wish I could see those angels faces
When they heard, your sweet voice sing"

UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

2006-08-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:
PART I

Article 1 Indigenous peoples have the right to the full and effective enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms recognized in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law.

Article 2 Indigenous individuals and peoples are free and equal to all other individuals and peoples in dignity and rights, and have the right to be free from any kind of adverse discrimination, in particular that based on their indigenous origin or identity.

Article 3 Indigenous peoples have the right of self- determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

Article 4 Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, economic, social and cultural characteristics, as well as their legal systems, while retaining their rights to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State.

Article 5 Every indigenous individual has the right to a nationality.

Australia - Stop the Land Grab-Land Rights Act in jeopardy

2006-08-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Kia Ora, Hello to all,

This was forwarded to me from a friend in Australia, please read what is happening down there. Indigneous RIghts are a global issues, and we have to start having a global voice.
-Julie

http://www.getup.org.au/index.asp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Subject: URGENT before Tuesday Land Rights Act in jeopardy

Dear friends,

Something dangerous is about to happen to the very heartland of Aboriginal Australia - and neither the traditional owners, nor you, have been warned.

Under the guise of promoting economic development for indigenous Australians, the Federal Government wants to ram through new legislation this Tuesday that actually jeopardises future generations of Aboriginal livelihoods. It's quite possibly the most important law you've never heard of.

The law will amend the iconic Land Rights Act, stripping away power from one of the only true representative bodies, the Land Councils, while pressuring Aboriginal communities to hand over control of their lands for 99 years. With profound disrespect, many of those who this new law affects most have not even been told.

Only your senators can put the brakes on this legislation, to allow time for real debate and understanding. Tell them now these seismic policy changes are too important to rush through.

www.getup.org.au/campaign/StoptheLandGrab

While the government claims the 99-year leases are voluntary, traditional owners are being cajoled into signing away their rights to their land just to secure basic services that we all deserve, like houses and schools.

The original Land Rights Act was an iconic piece of bipartisan legislation. This is a rush job - scarcely understood and widely contested. A scant one-day Parliamentary inquiry should not be permitted to rubber stamp a policy that will leave four generations without land or leadership. Even Government senators expressed 'alarm and concern' at this totally inadequate debate.

The Northern Territory is flourishing with indigenous culture and living languages. Yet, all Australians know there are also many deeply confronting problems - and all parties agree we must urgently find new ways forward in partnership.

Land is the best asset that Aboriginal people have for economic development. Not one Australian economist has argued that taking land or leadership away will deliver positive economic results - even the conservative Minerals Council of Australia thinks the Government is on the wrong track with its attack on Land Councils.

The economic case has not been made. The social consequences are untested. And traditional owners have been excluded from this decision that will deeply affect them for generations. Please help stop this before it's too late.

Resolution at Caledonia is federal government's responsibility

2006-08-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

By George Sorger, HamiltonThe Hamilton Spectator(Aug 3, 2006)
Re: 'Onus on judge to rule' (The Spectator, July 25)

Many demanding "law and order" in Caledonia, along with this article about Justice Marshall's deliberations concerning the Six Nations occupation of their land at Caledonia, seem to ignore the fact that the disputed land is part of a formal treaty between the Crown, now the responsibility of the federal government, and the Six Nations.

The fact the land was sold to a developer, and then bought from the developer by the province of Ontario, does not change the fact that it is treaty land and cannot be sold or bought by anyone without Six Nations consent, which neither of the above sales had.

If the OPP are sent in once again to "clear" the Six Nations occupants from the site, we will be back where we started months ago, when the barricades went up and there were violent confrontations.

The courts and the OPP should not be expected to settle aboriginal land claims. This land claim must be settled by negotiations between the federal government and the Six Nations Confederacy. They are the authorities which inherited the responsibility for the treaties, describing who owns the above land and what the relationship between the two nations is to be.
Justice Marshall and the lawyers opposing the Six Nations describe the occupation of native land as an act of contempt of court, which carries a stiff penalty. I think there should be something called contempt of treaties, which should carry an equally stiff penalty, so that the formal treaties governing relations between Canada and the First Nations will be obeyed and the law prevails.

First Nation's treaty deal historic first for B.C

2006-08-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

Wow, 13 years for one treaty, yeah, lets party at the fast rate they treat treaties!
Maybe instead of celebrating we should be asking why it takes over a decade to conclude one set of talks!!!
_____________________
Peter O'Neil, CanWest News Service; Vancouver SunPublished: Wednesday, August 02, 2006

OTTAWA - Federal, provincial and aboriginal negotiators have concluded what would be the first final agreement under the costly 13-year B.C. treaty process.

"It's quite historic," said Mark Stevenson, chief negotiator for the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation, a 312-person community living in and around Prince George, B.C.

If the deal is formally endorsed by the governments of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, the community will get $27 million up front, $400,000 a year over 50 years, 4,330 hectares of land, fishing and logging rights, and a constitutionally protected system of self-government, according to the B.C. Treaty Commission.

Jody Wilson, acting chief of the treaty commission, said the $47-million deal marks a ''new chapter'' in the relationship between governments and B.C. First Nations.
''This agreement is an important milestone in our B.C. treaty process, one that we have been struggling towards for 13 years,'' she said in a prepared statement.

The Lheidli T'enneh First Nation struck an agreement-in-principle (AIP) with the federal and B.C. governments in 2003, and is one of six in the province with completed AIPs.
The 2003 deal called for $12.8 million in cash for the band, far less than the final tally.
The only modern comprehensive treaty involving B.C. bands was the 1999 Nisga'a accord, though that deal was negotiated outside the B.C. treaty process.

The old Reform party, which Harper helped create in the late 1980s with Preston Manning, vehemently opposed the Nisga'a deal in Parliament. MPs argued at the time that the deal gave First Nations special rights that violated the principle that all Canadians are equal.
The Harper government has been harshly criticized by Campbell, other premiers, and federal opposition MPs for killing the $5 billion 2005 Kelowna accord that was intended to dramatically improve the lives of aboriginal Canadians.

Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice has stressed the government is looking for practical measures to improve the social and economic standing of First Nation communities. However, Harper rattled native leaders recently by saying he would end so-called ''race-based'' commercial fishing rights, since fishing agreements are a key component of many treaty talks.
The Lheidli T'enneh fish deal allocates up to 10,000 sockeye annually to the band for ''food, social and ceremonial'' purposes and another 6,000 for commercial sale. Stevenson stressed that the fishing agreement is a side deal outside the treaty and isn't constitutionally protected.
He added that the band's commercial fishery won't take place unless there is a concurrent commercial opening for other fishermen.

The band, according to the treaty commission, will also get 107,000 cubic metres of ''long-term wood supply.''
Stevenson said Campbell played a critical leadership role.

''This would not have been achieved if it weren't for premier Campbell.''
Roughly one-third of band members live on the Fort George reserve near Shelley, about 20 kilometres northeast of Prince George. The rest live in Prince George, where the band will own 1,000 hectares of unoccupied Crown land.

The self-government accord will give the band control of a variety of social services and education up to Grade 12, Stevenson said.

Vancouver Sun

A little background

2006-08-09T12:43:00.001-07:00

I am currently living on Salish Territory, but am Wei Wai Kai from Cape Mudge.

I have that there is a lack of space for an Indigenous woman to say what she thinks, feels and sees in the world. This blog is meant to be a space where I can comment on what I see around me, and hopefully hear comments back on what I write.

More information about my home:
http://collections.ic.gc.ca/pacificfisheries/collect/km/km2.html

http://www.quadraisland.ca/about_quadra_island/capemudge.html

International Day of the World’s Indigenous People

2006-08-09T12:13:00.000-07:00

Today, August 9th, is World Indigenous People's Day. And while I would like to say that this day is being acknowledge, that we are making great strides toward reconciliation, that would be garbage, and garbage does nothing but cause clutter. This site is meant to be a place to clear my mind, and share some thoughts about Indigenous Rights (or lack there of), Political statements, news, pretty much anything that I feel the urge to comment on. Some of it will be funny, some upsetting, but everything I right will be as honest as I can manage. If at any time you find errors in the news that I bring up, let me know.

<-- Picture taken at Nk'Mip Cultural Centre