Agreement with First Nations

[Pheroze]

I do not know the total story, but this has to be a positive development.

B.C. Interior First Nation government and province sign moose co-management agreement - Prince Rupert Northern View

http://flip.it/tH3IBc

 

[tigris115]

Out of all the chapters in North American history, what we did to the Native Americans is what I look back on with the most visceral disgust so anything we can do to reach out is an A+ in my book

 

[Red Leg]

Oh give me a break. Do you feel the same about the Celts in modern France and the UK? And your home town would now be where?

Stronger cultures have supplanted others since the beginning of recorded history and long before. There is Little that we can do about it now that doesn’t cause greater cultural dislocation. I would argue that the Canadian welfare system has done more to destroy First Nation culture than the cumulative damage done by every trapper that ever stepped into the Canadian wilderness.

 

[tigris115]

Yea personally I think that the welfare/NGO system isn't very helpful to anyone. I'm not gonna just blame liberals blanketly but I feel that many charities perpetuate the idea that we can just give people stuff and it's all good. Really, you have to create jobs and industry within a place so that people can live for themselves and their families. If I wanted to create a LONG TERM solution for the poverty faced by First Peoples, I'd set about creating businesses and jobs in reservations (probably in the form of game ranching) so that they can sustain themselves in the long term.

 

[Pheroze]

Oh give me a break. Do you feel the same about the Celts in modern France and the UK? And your home town would now be where?

Stronger cultures have supplanted others since the beginning of recorded history and long before. There is Little that we can do about it now that doesn’t cause greater cultural dislocation. I would argue that the Canadian welfare system has done more to destroy First Nation culture than the cumulative damage done by every trapper that ever stepped into the Canadian wilderness.

The Canadian and American experiences are quite different. In Canada, the centuries long effort to eradicate the aboriginal cultures finally ended with the closing of the last residential school in 1996! Leading up to that was such highpoints as the forced removal of children, the mass slaughter of 20 000 sled dogs (to control the movement of the Inuit in the 1960s) and an official policy keeping them on reserves with centralized control of their cashflow (welfare designed to undermine free will). Canada has the honour of being recognized as the model upon which apartheid was built.

The US conquered, the Canadians preferred cultural genocide. The welfare (Indian Act payments) you mention was actually a part of that plan. And is a huge part of the problem.

Now, the Aboriginal groups only want to remain a part of Canada but with respect. I would have thought they would want to shoot us! The more work I do with indigenous people the more impressed I am by their cultures. But theirs is a complicated patchwork of groups, cultures and languages that have survived. Some societies are burning wrecks with rampant drug use and corrupt authority figures. Organized crime has filled the vacuum. Very interesting problem we have now. But we made it, not them. Now the challenge is to build a Canadian Society that includes both groups. This agreement is one such step. There are many others that are being taken, but this will be a generational repair job, not 5 years or 10.

Anecdotally, I was consulted on an legal issue by a lady who spoke no English, only Cree. Her mother had hidden her and her brother away from the Canadian authorities that sought to take them and educate the "indian" out of them. I only mention that because too many Candians thinks this issue is ancient history. Nope.

 

[Pheroze]

http://nctr.ca/reports.php

The summary is worth the read for anyone with an interest on this subject

 

[tigris115]

If The Lion King taught me anything (besides don't throw your friends under the bus), it's that while you can't change the past, you should at least learn from it. You can't make things go back to the way they were (hence why Southern Africa land distribution plots are naive at best and economically suicidal at worst) but you can learn from the mistakes we made and go forward from there to try and create a better future.

 

[BenKK]

Fascinating, guys! All the best to Canada, hope it gets better. You guys could’ve been talking about Australia.

 

[tigris115]

Fascinating, guys! All the best to Canada, hope it gets better. You guys could’ve been talking about Australia.

Well I can name 10 countries off the bat that screw over their indigenous peoples to this day so let's take it one day at a time

 

[BRICKBURN]

Botswana is in the midst of the process with the San.

 

[tigris115]

Botswana is in the midst of the process with the San.

Really? Last I checked that Botswanan government were kicking the San off of their land for the sake of mining and other resources. Got any sources?

 

[BRICKBURN]

The reference was to the treatment, not an agreement. ie. The start of the process.
Botswana's government is ignoring its own High Court decisions like they are written on toilet paper.