Re: [Futurework] Re: A child with no legs (was Tigris Zone)

[Ed Weick]

Ray, in Canada it's not a tiger, it's more like a hoard of politicians, lawyers and bureaucrats.  Though there were many small standoffs, to my knowledge the only Native people that were ever "conquered" in Canada were the Red River and Batoche Metis, and they were half French.  Indian people were initially woven into the Canadian fabric by a variety of treaties and the Indian Act, which had the effect of making them wards of the state.  The past three or four decades have witnessed a series of negotiated claims agreements which define rights to land and self-governance.  1982 saw the "affirmation" of Aboriginal and Treaty rights in the Canadian Constitution.   While Canadians are, probably rightly, proud of all of this, it does raise the question of its impact on Aboriginal culture.  What seems to have happened is a merging of many key aspects of Aboriginal culture with that of the dominant culture of Canada.  Indian and Inuit politicians now behave much like Canadian politicians and operate out of the same general kinds of institutions.  Most of the funds they operate with come from the government of Canada since they have very little by way of a revenue base of their own.  The laws under which they operate are laws which have been passed by the Canadian Parliament, and the lawyers which interpret these laws for them are Canadian lawyers, whether Aboriginal or white.   Nevertheless, they still see themselves as distinct peoples and, as such, they now have the protection of the Constitution and the courts.  They maintain their important traditions and in many cases still speak and strengthen their languages.  What they will be like in seven generations is most uncertain, but when I worked for the Yukon Indians some years ago, they saw the land claims agreement they were negotiating as a seven-generation agreement.  Perhaps it won't work, perhaps the blood and cultural lines will eventually thin to the point of indistinguishability from the Canadian population as a whole, but I think they have a pretty good chance of being who they are and who they may want to become. Ed Weick   ----- Original Message ----- From: Ray Evans Harrell To: Ed Weick ; Karen Watters Cole ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Keith Hudson Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2003 3:06 PM Subject: Re: [Futurework] Re: A child with no legs (was Tigris Zone) Ed, you have seen that the sleeping Tiger is now awake.    But what you do not see is that no matter how much that Tiger prowls, its only option is as L. Frank Baum said after Wounded Knee  "annihilation".    Genocide is the only answer to cultural conquest.    Cultures don't just go away in less that seven generations.       The Tiger has a very short attention span so he must kill indiscriminately or the seven generations will outlast his power.    In four generations the US Congress removed the ban on Indian religion and culture.   In 1996, the George I law that made us a Trademark was finally ratified and the official "tribes" (no longer dependant Nations), will slowly die out as they either run out of genetics through inbreeding or lose their official "blood quantum" and become extinct and lose their land.   The fine for anyone who is not registered with an official "tribe" and markets anything as American Indian, Native America etc. is $250,000.   Any museum that lists a non trademarked artist as American Indian even if they are native speakers forever and have never spoken any other language but Cherokee for example, is $1,000,000.    Now why such big fines?    You figure it.   Extinction means that the land reverts to the government and groups like the Navajo own land larger than many American States.      We tried imitating the Tiger and got sent on our own Bataan Death march that we call the Trail of Tears, for our arrogance at being faux Europeans as taught by the missionaries to the Cherokee nation.   But we have survived.   Today the organized remnants of those groups face ultimate extinctions while the rest of us who belong to the families that refused the numbers on the arms, will continue to carry our religion culture and communitees and buy our own land.   It is not productive to fool with a wounded beast that continually tears its scars open just to give it the anger to do its worst impulses.    REH