Stand up and live or sit down and die!

Can we change our world by rising against the empires of greed?

The power is in you and me.

RAGE!FIGHT!STAND!

Before it’s too late for all of us. Keep reading, learning, connecting, and informing each other.

Soon enough we will be edited for content in Nations of blind obedience.

Complacency sucks!!!

How many times have you felt like something was so wrong you cried?

You get angry and try to change it.

Then a month passes, and another. Soon its forgotten in the course of day-to-day life.

Survival takes precedence.

That’s just it, we are now in the age that we must fight for our lives.

My elders said that we should learn the old ways and the ways of the land because a day would come when this brave new world of man would fall.

Our imaginary powers would be gone, failed and forgotten in a generation.

To think it could not happen one has to look to the past.

It has happened, the great plagues, the dark age.

Chaos

And who survived?

Those who lived on the land and had knowledge of the medicines and the natural ways of Earth.

No I am not a holier than thou twat here to convince the masses of the superiority of the Native American traditional culture. That is a steaming pile of shit. We are all hairless apes.

Plain and simple we all are humans and there was on Earth many tribes of humans, each learned what they needed to survive on their own lands. Now after British and other colonialist empires had assimilated and homogenized the cultures, well much of that history and knowledge is gone.

True for most parts of the world, save but a few pockets of cultures here and there but thankfully still alive here in Native America.

Even now our culture is in danger of extinction.

Not to disease or drought but ignorance and laziness.

Look around Native America, do you see the white starches and the high glycemic crap we feed our self and our children? Mothers on welfare trying to keep bellies full by getting staples like ichiban noodles and canned highly processed foods to stretch till family allowance day.

Oh and yes I know there are a few of us out there who are changing our futures by changing ourselves.  But in reality we are a minority, the majority has a very different lifestyle.

And those who take offence at being labeled a welfare nation, uhm, look around.

I come from Regina , Saskatchewan. A cold city even in the summer. It is marred by the fact it has ignored it’s Aboriginal population back in the day as they stood at the train station waiting for moldy beef.

And they remain ignored as it expands further and further away from the core area, an area infected by poverty, desperation, alcoholism and apathy.

Thanks be to whatever name you call the Creator, there are pockets of hope, love and compassion.

I digress.

I use Regina as an example to show where change is needed.

How can we as Nations prosper if failure is the norm?

If our young are in jails and taken away by the social system? If the only thing they learn from us is how to submit to the cycles that keep us down?

How can we stand if we remain on our knees?

We have forgotten the interconnectedness of all things.

“Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.”

Chief Seattle, 1854

Look around the web is polluted by us and our greed, ignorance and complacency.

It’s hard to fight when survival is number one on the list. But it comes back to that.

So we ignore our environments, soon the waters will become tainted and unusable. And soon to follow the lands, torn out of the Earth.

To her the giver of all life we bend to corporate greed and allow them to scrape and tear her womb until they have taken all they can.

Or to allow oil and gas development on our lands. While profits may ease our survival mechanisms it is a sad truth it will not mean a damn thing if you are left holding the toxic waste filled bag.

This is supposed to be the generation that stands up and fights for our children’s rights. No longer forced into silence and obedience.

Hard to do when your pride is wounded and you are staggering.

We need to heal and strengthen our nations.

Not through some government-funded fuck fest that  chooses to assuage white guilt by throwing currency at the still bleeding wounds, INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON CHANGES THAT WOULD STOP THE INDUSTRY OF MISERY.

No we need grassroot people who will teach and feed kids not cause they got funding but because it is the right thing to do.

We need to find employment that allows us to remain steadfast in the conservation of our resources not partners in its exploitation.

We need to buy seeds, grow, harvest and store.

We need our people to learn to hunt again. And to share that knowledge with our families.

To share and develop sustainable food sources using traditional wisdom.

So much to do and such a short time till the change comes.

And if you think I am over reacting read the news, I do, I used to write it.

Think about this, no money, no electricity, no web.

You go to turn the car on and it’s dry. You wake up in the night and you house is frozen. You go to turn on your taps and they run with a rusty green colour before it goes dry.

This is the future if we continue on our path of silence.

If we don’t learn to stand up united as individuals, much less as Nations then we will all fall, as the web unravels.

Get angry!

The power is in you and me.

RAGE!FIGHT!STAND!

We need to for our children and those yet to come!

We need to do this.

Try in small ways.

Community gardens, hunting, canning, smoking and fishing.

Get your families and friends together.

Share.

Just don’t forget about this next week or the week after.

CHANGE!

IT IS COMING FOR YOU AND ME!

No Honkey’s Allowed

A few years ago during my drunken and wild days I went south of Regina to a very bad land called the Dakota’s.

One of the small towns had a bar. On top of the entrance was a sign. it said, “NO INDIANS ALLOWED”

Pissed me off, I walked in and the rest is between me and my lawyers.

Now a new bunch of jackasses pissing me off.

On the reserve of Kahnawake I have seen the same sign, except now it’s the other way around.

NO HONKEYS ALLOWED!

Former Olympian Waneek Horn Miller has had someone tell her that her child and spouse are not welcome on the reserve. a woman who as a young teen did what most Aboriginal men in Canada have never done, she stood up to the government and defended her people.

So her choice to marry for love and not based on color has left her and her child unwelcome on her homeland?

Uhmmm hold on, after 500 years of blending with whitey and all our brown asses are still around.

WE ARE ALL HUMANS AND CULTURE AND TRADITION IS PASSED THROUGH THE MOTHER !!!

Someone want to say anything about my little (half breeds) and they will lose teeth!!!

So what are you the Creator? No then shut the f*** up!!!

What gives them the right?

Are they traditional longhouse people?

Nah, cause they wouldn’t be sucking the government’s d***!

Still taking a while to get that traditional government in eh?

Onkwehonweh that would never EVER question a humans validity to exist on the land of their people. To my understanding there is room for many under the great tree of peace.

Oh but wait that’s old school shit, no one really believes in no more eh?

At least not the people who vote for a colonial power structure with the mandate to divide and conquer by creating a system of educated elites, lacking in traditional values and understanding.

I know this, Me and thousands of  other  Mothers are waiting for our band councils and others to say one word!

I FREAKING DARE YOU!!! .

To Forgive and Forget?

Quit whining the past is past.

Aren’t you over it?

We paid you people money.

The residential school system, one of the great disgraces of Canada continues to make it into the news. Not because the schools existed, and by now it is accepted that it was an attempt of cultural genocide.

No the complaint now is that funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation is being cut.

Let us flash back for a second to when the money was being handed out…

Former National Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations was there when the Liberal government on November 23^rd 2005 launched its compensation package. A sweet and short , here ya go now shut the hell up deal.

“It’s a wonderful day,” said Fontaine, speaking of the years of negotiations that led to the agreement in principle. “I know that every moment has been worthwhile. Justice has prevailed.”

The package included:

• A “common experience payment” of up to $10,000 per person, plus $3,000 for every year a victim spent in the schools, at a cost to the federal government of $1.9 billion.
• Compensation for claims based on sexual and physical abuse, as well as loss of language and culture.
• A speeded-up process to get an initial $8,000 payment to claimants aged 65 and over while the rest of the program’s details are sorted out.
• Five-year funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, totaling $125 million.
• $60 million for a truth and reconciliation process.
• $10 million to commemorate what happened in the schools, to assist in victims’ healing.
• An agreement that victims accepting compensation payments cannot sue the federal government and the churches running the schools except in cases of sexual and serious physical abuse.
• An alternate dispute-settling process to deal with separate claims for sexual abuse and serious physical abuse.

Figures and quote taken from: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/11/23/residential-package051123.html#ixzz0k0llWJs3

Now that it is 2010 the money for the healing is gone, like the settlements everyone and their granny was handed out.

Now here is where I am going to get in trouble.

We got sold cheap.

Go to the corner and ask any whore how much she gets paid per hour, no, wait ask how much per day.

Not even talking about the freaky shit either, now stay with me people, before I really offend you.

More than $ 12 per day? Am I right?

So let’s take the settlements apart this way…

Let’s say you spent  eight years in school

$10,000 base rate

Then add $3000 per year in school

You come out with $34,000 now divide that by 2920 (the amount of days in school)

That is around $ 11.65 per day, I know people in jail that make more than that per day.

So from the way I see it the Church and the Government workers got a great deal on kids. Making Fontaine, the Indian making the deal with the Federals THE WORST PIMP IN THE HISTORY OF CANADA!

Fontaine said the package covered “decades in time, innumerable events and countless injuries to First Nations individuals and communities.”

WTF?

 For only $12 a day you too can rape, molest and torture children as you see fit. No wonder the government sees us as cheap. By selling out for what?

A quick fix, a blanket band-aid on a still bleeding inter generational gash that has and will continue to screw the lives of at least another generation before we heal as a people?

We all know what happened to generations of disconnected and wounded souls. Most become toxic to themselves and their loved ones.

Now we fast forward to the here and now. For the past 3 years the government has given money to people who have in most cases never had a lot to begin with and BOOM faster than you can say Bingo they are surrounded by family and friends. Until the money runs out then it’s back to whatever life you were living and God help you if you had drug or alcohol problems. You now have enough rope to hang yourself.

Now here is where healing comes into play.

In most cases you have to fuck up large before you want to change your habits that keep you in negative cycles. You look for help.

And yes to its credit the Churches involved have developed and are working on healing the damages incurred by its practioners and I applaud them for the effort.

But where is the federal government in all this?

Right now holding emergency meetings to see if they have enough money to continue its funding that was laid out to only last 5 years. Shit you’re not over it yet? What is wrong with you sucks?

In the space of five years it was expected that monumental healing initiatives would be completed. Everyone who asked for help would be a shiny happy person ready to rejoin and integrate into society.

Hmmmm. Now here is where I am weird.

Any healing I have done has been in the wilderness, no councilors or certificates at the end of it. After looking hard at myself I know what triggers shit and I avoid it. I know what started the cycles and for the sake of my children I know how to stop them. And no I am no perfect being come here to teach ya how to walk on water. No siree Bob. I’m still a sinner and having fun doing it.

But I have learned to truly heal our Nations, we need to cut out the dependency on government initiatives. How bout we show some ourselves?

Get a group of 20 people together that can cook and share resources until they have worked out some stuff?

A return to the traditional ceremonies’, traditional knowledge, traditional family units and values, no government rent a douche there.

Healing is a personal journey and to each his or her own.

But thinking the Canadian government is obligated to do anything other than say “we told you 5 years” seems to me to be a flight of fancy.

We got sold cheap, and now the word on the street is we are weak.

Prove em wrong people, prove em wrong.

Down with Penis Power: AKA: The return of Aboriginal Matrilineal lineage in Canada

I think it was in the middle of the 1980′s when my Mom opened a letter from the Canadian government saying she was once again an Aboriginal under Bill C-31.

I thought it explained her wicked ass tan and her addiction to Bingo and shiny things. (tee hee)

Back then it didn’t make too much of a difference to us kids. It just meant when we played Cowboys and Indians we didn’t know if we should burn our own wagons or what. Such confusion…lol

My Mom is Cree and my father a mix of Norwegian and a dash of Acadian. I am surprised that I never had more issues growing up between the two families. As I grew up my parents taught me my history and culture from both sides.

An understanding was taught to us that we were HUMAN BEINGS first and foremost.

But to date on every form I have ever filled out it has not been an option on any ethnicity check  mark. Although a few years ago I did check off Jedi as my religion…lol

Well now the big bru ha ha up at Parliament Hill is the addition of a possible 20,000 to 45,000 new “Indians” under the Indian Act.

And why the sudden rush of skins? Are we really REZ BUNNIES in every way?

Well it goes back to a case of an Aboriginal woman Sandra Lovelace who married a white man (Imagine interspecies dating and mating, Oooooooo!)

Anyways things went bad and she left him, after doing so she wanted to return to her reserve to heal herself through her traditions, art and culture.

The problem was that when she married him she lost the right to be an Indian. So Ms. Lovelace was persona non grata on her reservation because she was no longer a neech. Beside the fact she was born as one, now she was not.

Upon finding no help from the Canadian justice system (surprise there?)

She did like Chuck Berry 

She took her problem to the United Nations.

They granted denying her culture was wrong and illegal.

So fast forward to Bill C-31 the federal governments response to having a woman ask why the hell she wasn’t an Indian anymore. Especially when men could marry a white woman and boom they were Indians.

Magic stick indeed!

The government thought they cleared the matter up, women were reinstated and they had a plethora of skins again but they instilled a cute lil thing.

A generational cut off.

So now if your Mom a full-blooded Indian was reinstated she would be classified as an Indian and so would her children, but her grandchildren nuh huh, they was white. Unless you snagged at a Pow Wow.

Paternalistic as the knobs are in Ottawa, the deal with men was still the same. If you had a penis your kids were skins no matter who ya married.

No cut off. (insert smart ass comment here)

But the only thing they removed was the right to turn non status wifes and their children into Indians.

Confusing hell ya!

One thing my Momma told me was after decades of rapes, tribal wars and traders ya might not know who your daddy was but ya always knew who your Momma was.

Now fast forward to B.C. a woman named Sharon McIvor who is no longer an Indian because of the red tape and bureaucracy of the Indian Act.

Post Bill C-31  She registered and could become an Indian again, and so could her children but her grandchildren would not.

So In 1989, McIvor took her case to the B.C. Supreme Court and launched a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms challenge, alleging that the status provisions in the Act discriminated on the basis of sex and marriage.

Where it was decided in 2006 that yeah (surprise here again) the Indian Act is Sexist!

She testified that the experience of being non native left a scar.

” The division that happened when I was a child and as I grew up by not being accepted by the Indian community has had a long outstanding effect for me.  It was constant rejection, be it going down to attend a funeral, going down to attend my niece’s graduation or anything like that, it was a clear divide, and a lot of mean things that were said, it’s hard to sort of just put that all behind because magically one day here I am, I have my status and, okay, now you’re welcome to go on your home territory without that kind of rejection.  And for me it had long – I don’t know, I think there may be a bit of – a lot of hurt, a lot of hurt, and the rejection very deep felt, because as a kid you have no idea why, and then when you get older and you realize that why, and then the why doesn’t make any sense.  It has affected my relationship with my community to a certain degree.  It’s better that I’m welcome now, but I don’t know if the divide will ever be totally healed or that hurt that happened will be totally gone.”

The boys at the hill fought hard, launching an appeal and adding insult to injury, she had been supported by the federally funded Court Challenges program that helped people get justice related to Charter challenges.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper killed the program.

Being a feisty feminist and a legal beagel herself she raised the funds to pay for court where the Supreme Court of B.C. agreed with her, ruling that section six of the Indian Act  had infringed on McIvor’s right to equality under section 15 of the Charter.

Here is the kicker the judge gives Parliament till April 6th, 2010 to change the Act.

She took the matter to the Supreme Court of Canada but was told politely to buzz off, leaving the ruling of the lesser court stand.

Meaning now all the skins that were denied cause their Moms had no penis will now be able to be added to registers and bands.

Pre McIvor lineage

There is great doubt if they will be able to do this at all considering there has been almost no consultation with the various reserves and Aboriginal agencies regarding the change to the Act.

In effect leaving children born to Aboriginals after the deadline in a state of limbo until something is done.

The Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo said,

“It is fair and just that Indian status will be restored to those who lost it because of inequality in the Indian Act,” 

 “But the real problem is the Indian Act itself. The Government of Canada should not be able to decide who is and who is not a First Nation citizen. It is the right of any nation to identify its citizens and First Nations are no exception. We are calling on the federal government to work with us a on a broader approach that goes beyond these narrow amendments and deals with the real issues of First Nations citizenship.”

So now that Bill C-3, Gender Equity in Indian Registration Act, was tabled in the House of Commons on Thursday, March 11.

Aboriginals and their children are left wondering what will happen?

Will Aboriginals ever be given the right to decide for themselves who is Aboriginal?

Or will it as it has been in the past, a matter decided only by Penis’s?

Oil and Aboriginals

Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.

– Cree Indian Prophecy

 

You know that the world has gone downhill when the land you live on and off of is dying. This is what has faced he Aboriginal Nations of Treaty 6 in Alberta. They live downriver from one of the largest oil exploration sites in history.

The Alberta tar sands a mega project that is expected to fuel the American need for oil and the growing demand for oil from China by creating a huge pipeline that will cut through traditional territories, destroying fishing and hunting areas used for thousands of years.

That is unless the aboriginals can stop them. The Beaver Lake Cree Nation, has filed a claim saying that their treaty rights to hunt and fish on the land have been denied and the land has been ruined for future generations use.

An article by Cath Everett, in the July 21 2009 edition of  BusinessGreen.com states,

“The Cree gave up their ancestral lands in the boreal forests of Alberta – which were once almost as large as England and Scotland combined – in return for guaranteed rights to hunt, fish and gather plants in the region. But they attest that damage to the environment is now preventing them from doing so and are preparing to take on the governments of Canada, Alberta and huge corporations such as Shell in order to protect such rights.

Attempting to extract tar sands in Alberta has already cost Shell dear, however. The project bled £25.4m in the first three months of operation, but may see the company having to dig deeper into its pockets in order to cover both legal fees and initiate reputational damage limitation exercises.

The UK-based Co-operative Financial Services organisation has already donated £53,000 to the Cree’s fighting fund and sees the struggle as potentially the last and best hope to stop new tar sands development – a cause to which the ethical investor has made a high-profile commitment. The company has already provided £50,000 to help record the testimony of Cree elders laying out the damage they believe has been done to the environment.

The company also tightened up its ethical lending criteria earlier this year to exclude firms not only directly involved in extracting and producing fossil fuels that generate high levels of greenhouse gas emissions – which includes tar sand exploiters – but also those involved in developing and distributing them.

The Cree case is expected to take several years to come to court and is likely to cost millions of dollars. But the multinational corporations involved are unlikely to give up without a fight as they rush to exploit the estimated 315 billion barrels of oil believed to be beneath vast areas of the Canadian wilderness.

Despite the fact that both environmental and aboriginal groups say that extracting heavy oil from tar sands produces between three and five times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional crude, oil still accounts for 35 per cent of global energy supply and the multinationals are searching for alternative supplies now that more traditional global sources are starting to diminish.

Moreover, petitions and letters sent by a coalition of 18 US environmental organisations to US secretary of state Hillary Clinton requesting that she block the permits required by companies operating the Alberta Clipper tar sands-derived oil pipeline have so far fallen on deaf ears. Construction of the pipeline began last month and by the middle of 2010 it is expected to transport as many as 450,000 barrels of such oil each day to refineries in Superior, Wisconsin. “

So as the growing industry fuels the economy of Alberta and Canada what is the provincial governments stance on the issue?  According to the Government of Alberta fact sheets on the subject the aboriginals are overreacting.

“ Alberta’s heavy oil resources are a growing contributor to the world oil supply and a stable, secure energy source for domestic and international markets.  Alberta’s oil sands have proven recoverable reserves of 170 billion barrels.

This is enough oil to meet Canada’s current oil demand for almost 400 years. The oil sands are the second-largest source of proven crude oil reserves in the world, next to Saudi Arabia.  As of January 2009, there are 91 active oil sands projects in Alberta. Of these, five are mining projects; the remaining projects use various in-situ (in place) recovery methods.

“ To put that in perspective, the oil sands are located in an area about the size of Lake Superior and Lake Huron, with the amount of land disturbed for mining smaller than the City of Toronto. Or, it’s roughly the size of Florida, with the amount of land disturbed roughly equivalent to the size of the Kennedy Space Centre.

Oil sands are located in three major areas beneath 142,200 square kilometres of northeastern Alberta. The majority of this resource can be developed only through in-situ recovery. To date, about 530 square kilometres of land has been disturbed by oil sands mining activity.

The total mineable area is 4,801 square kilometres, of that 1,352 square kilometres has been approved for surface mining as of January 2009. Under Alberta law, any disturbed land must be reclaimed.

 The Government of Alberta is developing a regional plan for the entire northeast region of Alberta, which looks beyond oil sands development on a project-by-project basis by addressing the cumulative effects of development.

 Government continues to collect feedback from Aboriginal and environmental groups to ensure there is a balance between environmental protection and economic development.

 Concerns over oil sands impacts on water and traditional food sources of First Nations downstream of the developments are of utmost importance to government and all Albertans. “

At this point can I say, “I’m sure”

What is a few billion in revenues compared to the Constitutional rights of a small band of Indians? But what about the other Nations that are gathering to say no to the oil line expansion?

An article written by Dawn Paley, of the Vancouver Media Co-op on Feb. 12 2010 says,

“Toghestiy (Warner Naziel) traveled from Smithers to Vancouver on Thursday in order to add his voice to the chorus of Olympic resistance. He came with a message for activists gathered in Vancouver: he thinks the pressure for corporate development on Wet’suwet’en territory, which encompasses 22,000 square kilometers in central British Columbia, will increase when the B.C. government has to start paying down the deficit accrued because of the 2010 Games.

“When the time comes for them to actually pay off that bill, we know they’re going to start making their way into our territories, as well as other First Nations’ peoples territories that aren’t ceded yet, and they plan on paying off that bill by extracting resources from our lands, and doing it as quickly and as efficiently as possible,” he said.

There are two proposed oil pipelines that would cut through Wet’suwet’en territory: the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline, and a separate Kinder Morgan pipeline both of which to carry tar sands bitumen from Alberta to the BC Coast. The Wet’suwet’en have expressed their absolute and unconditional rejection of pipelines in their lands.

“The Wet’suwet’en want to protect our land, we want to protect it from any type of pollution, any type of industrial development, because we need to make sure the lands are available for our children and our unborn children,” Toghestiy told the Vancouver Media Co-op”

With more and more Aboriginal Nations coming aboard to try to stop the tar sands the sad fact remains,  more people know about the issue outside of Canada than ordinary Canadians.

It is not just an “Aboriginal issue” it is a global issue.

One of the things my elders told me was the meaning of the word Anishinabe, It is a word that covers most of Canada. It is the name of the people who live here on Turtle Island.

It means, “Keepers of the Earth.”

Hopefully we live up to the name.

 

The Politics of Hair

I have heard about teachers cutting off and threatening to cut off Aboriginal children’s hair. 

Up here in Canada it was in Thunder Bay. I went through the roof when I read about it on Facebook. The following article from Windspeaker Magazine explains why it is important.  

“When you’ve chopped off someone’s hair you have taken away their pride,” said traditional healing coordinator Teresa Magiskan. She works with the Anishnawbe Mushkiki Health Centre in Thunder Bay.

“The worst thing to do to someone, historically, is to take their hair,” she explained. Magiskan was reminded of past centuries where men were shamed by their enemies in battles by having their hair taken from them.

Magiskan, who has been involved with the cultural teachings program at the centre for the past five years, said even the length of hair and the way it is styled can be incredibly symbolic in Aboriginal culture. She said some traditionalists believe that the cutting of hair represents a time of mourning the loss of a loved one.

The boy’s mother ­who asked not to be named- was quoted in the Globe and Mail comparing the importance of hair to Aboriginal culture as the Kippot or yarmulke is to Jewish tradition. Hebrew men wear the caps on their heads as a sign of respect to their religion.

“You have to respect that,” she said. “It’s the same thing.”
The reality is, however, most people are not aware of the symbolic nature hair has in Aboriginal culture. That was apparent in the reaction to the event after the hair cutting incident was reported to the public. A diverse range of opinions were voiced when it was reported that the teaching assistant would not face charges, but would be suspended from her job for choosing to cut another parent’s child’s hair without permission.”

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

And in the U.S. the saga also continues as you can read in my fellow bloggers page  The Thing About Skins by Gyasi Ross 

” See, this beautiful little Native boy, Adriel Arocha, and his parents were some of the most recent people to discover the political nature of Indian hair–the 150 year old curse for Native people. His parents discovered the curse that broke hundreds of thousands of Indian hearts and crushed many Native parents. They were hit with the same curse that caused Native children to be strangers in their homelands, as well as in the schools into which they were forced to attend. This curse vitiated Native parental authority and robbed so many Indian parents of the ability to even learn how to be proper parents. In fact, Native parenting suffers to this day because of this of the kids that were stolen away from them, that said “You are not allowed to raise your kids how you want them to be raised because your ways are inferior.” 

It was the very first “big government,” but it was big government that intruded into the very most personal and intimate activity–how we raise our kids.” 

 

I understand this and I know it first hand. 

I remember grade three as the year of Ms.Z*** and she was a nasty throw back to the bad old days. I was so proud cause my Mom taught me how to braid my hair and I could do it myself. I practiced everywhere, including in the old bats class.
 
So one day she took her scissors out of her desk, came to my desk grabbed a braid and said if I ever braided it in her class again she would cut them off. I was soooooo scared.
 
For a week I played sick at home. My Mom being the sly fox she is asked if it was another kid cause sooner or later I’d have to learn to fight. I broke down crying and told her what she had said to me.
 
 

   

Me and my Mom at age 2 

My Mom waited till my Dad got home from his morning coffee around 10:30 am. She handed my new-born baby brother to him and took me by the hand and we marched to school together.
 
The whole time I was kinda chilled up because my Mom never ever got this mad. She was furious! As we walked in the principal ducked into his office and sent out the Vice Principal to deal with it.
 
The vice principal was like 6 foot 4 and even he was scared. My Mom demanded she see Ms. Z*** Since grade one my Mom had been an active member of the PTA and various school groups.
 
If she was ticked then something was wrong. He called for the Aboriginal Student Liason Worker and away they went down the hallway. 

I kinda held back, I could feel the tension. My teacher came out of class and my Mom asked her.
 
“Did you just tell my daughter you were going to cut off her braids?”
 
Stupid head replied, “Yes, and I will if she braids them in my class again.”
 
My Moms arm wound up just as the VP stepped in to block the punch. WAMMM!!!
 
He hit the floor, she might be 5 foot nothing but that’s raw Momma Bear strength.
 
The Aboriginal Student Liaison who came around the corner just in time to hear the last words of the teacher put raised his fist in the air and yelled, “Indian Power Bea!”
 
We walked home and nothing was ever said until after I had my first daughter Aurora. 

 

I recalled the event and laughed until she told me why she had freaked so much.
 
The indian agent had come right after Mooshum died and said to Cookum that he had to take the girls. She said no and then he said she would be sent to jail. She had no choice.
My Mom remembered the car then the train ride. She was lined up with the other children and separated from her sisters.  

  

Aurora Jade at Pow Wow  

They were all stripped naked and all their medicine bags and belongings were thrown in an oil drum and set aflame.
 
My Mom had this little sock doll that Cookum made for her and when the nun threw it in the fire my Mom reached in to try to save him. Her arms still have scars on them today.
 
The last thing she remembers before the end of the day was the nuns dragging all the girls to a room where they cut off their hair, then they coated their heads in DDT to kill the “bugs” that were always on “little savages”.
 
It burned her raw scalp and as she went to bed in her cot she felt naked and ashamed. She stayed in that frame of mind and at those horrible places for another 12 years.
After she told me I hugged her and tried not to cry.
 
I knew I would grow my baby’s hair long and if ever the time came I would knock some dumb ass down in defence of her.
 
She told me a little more and it was then I realized how much power our hair has. 

Like Sampson in that old book they shove down our throats. It is a source of power.
 

For me it reminds me of my elders, the ones that came before. The ways they fought to protect and the teachings I must keep and learn for the ones yet to come. 

 
NEVER AGAIN should our children be made to suffer for the ignorance of others.
NEVER AGAIN should our children be made to feel weak or lesser than others.
 

 

Not on my watch.

Lilyanna Lune and her sister Aurora

Another forgotten Chief…

I remember the day that Stephen Harper was voted into power.

I cried for the horror that was to be unleashed upon my country.

My grandfathers fought and died so that I could enjoy the blessings of this land Canada in freedom, so little did they know.

And to you hardcore neechies out there. I know I am a member of a sovereign nation within the nation of Canada … and it’s not Quebec Mr. Harper.

Uhm, we are called the Cree Nation.

You know one of thoose brown people whom you have been screwing for oil since 78 in Alberta when you worked for Esso, as in the little known case ofThe Sampson Cree vs the Queen.

(Not my Cree, the tribe in question is Blackfoot, but it doesn’t matter cause we all look alike…lol)

Oh you don’t recall the alledged events? Hmmmm?

Yes, OK do you remember the Calgary Stampede, uh huh there ya are.

The long haired brown people with all the pretty horses and beads. Been there a long time?

There ya go, good boy.

Anyways for years he has had one of the most idiotic knobs writing and forming his Aboriginal policy.

Tom Flanagan another good old boy hick academic that has had a hard on for Aboriginals for years.

I suspect it was a game of ‘whose is bigger?’, that made him hate the skins, sorry Flanagan don’t you know that Neechies only have a few toys?

No.

For real, I am not making this up … Ok maybe the pee pee stuff.

An article in Oct 2004′s edition of The Walrus by Marcie Mcdonald stated,

“For the past three decades, Flanagan has churned out scholarly studies debunking the heroism of Métis icon Louis Riel, arguing against native land claims, and calling for an end to aboriginal rights. Those stands had already made him a controversial figure, but four years ago, his book, First Nations? Second Thoughts, sent tempers off the charts.

In it, Flanagan dismissed the continent’s First Nations as merely its “first immigrants” who trekked across the Bering Strait from Siberia, preceding the French, British et al. by a few thousand years – a rewrite which neatly eliminates any indigenous entitlement. Then, invoking the spectre of a country decimated by land claims, he argued the only sensible native policy was outright assimilation.”

(This was also the book that made me not want to go to McGill or Queens University. For that matter it had made me think twice about writing for the National Post, they give a lot of knobs space any one that gives racist and ignorant twits a venue can go

*******edited for content*******)

But I digress.

The point is this guy has been in Harper’s inner circle so long he is probably on speed dial.

He was his CHIEF of staff.

Well I guess he doesn’t like the government of Canada brutalizing on other indigenous people in other countries  so he spoke out about the treatment of the Afghan people by Harper’s government.

Assimilation is a bloody business Mr. Flanagan or does torture and violence of an unarmed population by an invading force only bother you in a modern context?

Anyways the way the conservatives are distancing them self from Harper’s former best buddy old pal is  like someone who has just cut a big greasy one in the middle of a dance floor filled with Miss Universe contestants.

Shelly Glover is Member of Parliament for Saint Boniface and Parliamentary Secretary for Official Languages.

An ex cop out of Winnipeg who denies of ever hearing about Flanagan, funny considering how she flaunts her Aboriginal heritage as a Metis and her position as a member of the Conservative Aboriginal Caucus.

To my understanding people who are connected to their history and culture have a knowledge of those who attempt to destroy it academically or at the very least have slurred and discounted their culture.

If Louis Riel could take one action today I am sure he would want to bitch slap her from his grave.

But then again like so many so called self identifying “Aboriginals” Steven Harper knows, you may only be proud of being aboriginal on July 21st or when you checked off the box on government employment forms.

Yet with years behind her strutting about her Metis heritage you think you would know of him?

He did write a book about Riel.

YA KNOW THE LEADER OF THE METIS IN MANITOBA? HELLO!

Who knows maybe she doesn’t talk to the brown side of her family, or maybe they are rolling over in thier graves as we speak?

The fact is she denied ever having any knowledge of the man that wrote, literally wrote the book on Stephen Harpers Conservatives.

Once again I will repeat former Chief of Staff!!!

Hmmmm, finally a woman in politics that is making Sarah Palin look good. I do wonder if our Metis friend will keep her position?

I might be a high school drop out who is now just a lowly student but even I know who is screwing my peeps. I can only assume she doesn’t subscribe to the Moccasin telegraph.

In short, I saw a man who had been marginalized, his very existence denied, after his years of service and friendship were all but forgotten.

All this after years of dedication to his so called friends and country.

Left alone to die off in the western wilds somewhere, hopefully quietly without too much of a ruckus.

A so called Canadian.

A once proud chief.

Can’t ya be quiet and just go away?

In the words of a great American poet B Dylan, “How does it feel?”