And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 11:33:23 -0500 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (justanoldman) Subj: Residential schools - THE book Newsgroup: alt.native d'laan'te'... In Canada, the most august & 'heavy' type of government inquiry is called a Royal Commission. To American readers, a comparison might be made with a Joint House Special Investigation Committee with St. Peter himself sitting in the Chair. The biggest & most recent Royal Commission in Canada's history has been the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP). Costing 100's of millions of dollars, it was co-chaired by De'ne' Nation member George Erasmus & took the better part of this decade to research the status of the First Peoples in what is currently called Canada. Every aspect of life was given in-depth examination & analysis. Every Indian, Inuit or Metis individual or group that had something to contribute was given the opportunity to state their case, & the RCAP travelled millions of miles across Canada, the biggest country in the world (for now). When the Final Report was submitted to Parliament a couple of years ago it's twenty (20) volumes stood over 4 feet in height. (website version is still available from Govt of Canada sites). But other than a few cosmetic dog & pony shows for the benefit of the UN Human Rights Committee's benefit, the Canadian government has ignored RCAP's recommendations. "So what else is new?" you might ask. Not much, except that this past week something came out of that tremendous research effort. You see, one of the things that the RCAP had to deal with, the most bitter of the poisons that continue to cripple the Nations, was/is the "soft-genocidal" technique of choice invented by the colonialist governments, now known as residential school policy & practice. The person who was mandated by the RCAP to carry out the secondary research on this issue (ie, the archival/documentary research, as opposed to primary research interviewing its victims/perpetrators) is a man named John Milloy. Professor Milloy teaches History & Native Studies courses at Trent University here in Ontario. He spent about 4 years sifting through the archives of the predator-governments & their accomplices in this horror of ethnic-cleansing, the christian churches/cults. The research encompasses a period from 1879, when the wholesale destruction of the Nations via the schools became official policy, until 1986, when the last of these genocidal operations was finally closed. Now John Milloy has published those findings in a 404-page book that was released here in Canada this week. It's title is, "A National crime: The Canadian Government & the Residential School System, 1879-1986". The publisher is University of Manitoba Press & it currently retails at $55/$25 Cdn. I have bought a copy, but I'm pretty sure that this one will sit on my shelf for some years yet until I crack it open. And if I do open it, I'm certain that I won't be able to read more than 2-4 pages at a sitting. Because.., it is a book full of demons, the very demons that have tormented & tortured me, & HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF OTHERS, every single minute of every day and every night, for all of our lives. I tremble like a sick dog as I write this, just thinking about the contents of this book. I would rather be doing anything else, I'd rather think about anything else than this topic, & I have faced 2 wars & skid-rows & solitary cells in prison with less emotion than is evoked in me by the demons in this book. Over the past 20-30 years I have read almost every archive & record that Professor Milloy examined & analyzed. Residential school has left the deepest & most horrible scars on me, & one every single person in my family from grandparents to grandchildren. It is one of the 2-3 Yesterplaces that I try to avoid at any cost, & which haunts me every minute of my life. But I still force myself to think about & write about this topic again, so that I could bring it here, to urge you to buy & read this book (or try to read it, if you are the sons or daughters of one of the true-Nations of this land). This book's scholarly & objective approach, & the incredibly thorough research with full citation of all sources, makes it the most authoritative work ever done on this topic. And it should be made mandatory reading for every single literate non-Native North American. It presents the UNDENIABLE fact: that apart from the instances of sexual, physical, emotional & spiritual torture inflicted, the biggest crime against humanity was the establishment & operation of the schools themselves. (see following article I post, "The Oblates Apology of 91", for the admission to this crime, clearly a Crime Against Humanity by legal definition). The primary purpose of the establishment & maintenance of the residential schools for Indians & Inuit, clearly & repeatedly stated/recorded in hundreds of government & church documents, was the total & complete obliteration of the First Peoples in Canada from the face of the earth. And reading this book may especially benefit a few certain young urban dwellers who are so disdainful of the sacrifices that were made by their families/Nations, just so that they could be who they are. Let them read this & then try to imagine their parents & grandparents writhing in agonies as painful as flames, let them think about the minds & hearts, the values & religions & philosophies of the pseudo-humans that inflicted such terror & horrors so ruthlessly, so piously, so inhumanely. Do they still aspire to be part of a culture, a society that initiated & carried out these crimes? Crimes of systematic genocide that makes Milosovic's actions in Kosovo pale to the likes of a Sunday school picnic by comparison... After reading this book, maybe some will stand on this land, on these bones of their ancestors with perhaps some inkling of the bonds that are forever. Then, perhaps, they will begin to feel what it is to be a part of a true-Nation of this land, as a finger is part of a hand. Then, perhaps.., they will give thanks for the invisible sea of tears & blood that nurtures their own roots, of their family in the family-of-family that is their Nation. Who knows? In reading this book such people may even learn the real meaning of respect.., and dignity. masi:cho... jaom/e'ne'thekwe' Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
