Michael, why should the Indians have to buy back land that was stolen from them? That seems a little unclear on the concept, at least to me. And Ted Turner and his wife (dare I even type her name?) Jane Fonda are buying up huge tracts of land, but they are doing so in the attempt to preserve open spaces and endangered native species. I think that is an extremely patriotic gesture, in fact!
I was watching a PBS special on the California Gold Rush the other night. As is typical in our history, when the miners came the Indians welcomed them, and helped them out. There were about 300,000 of them living in the area in 1849. A quarter of a million of them died very rapidly after the white men came. I am not sure the rest were in any condition to buy their land back, decimated and on reservations.
Here is an article from January, 1998 about what the Canadians are doing to make life a little better for their surviving Indians:
Canada Tells Indigenous Peoples It's Sorry
David Crary
Associated Press
In an unprecedented gesture of reconciliation to Canada's indigenous peoples, the government apologized yesterday for past acts of oppression.
The apology--long sought by indigenous leaders--was part of a sweeping federal initiative to improve strained relations with Indian and Inuit communities. More explicitly than ever before, the government expressed regret at past treatment of aboriginals and pledged to support indigenous self-government.
The statement of reconciliation was read aloud by Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart, then presented in the form of scrolls to five senior indigenous leaders at a ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
"Sadly, our history with respect to the treatment of aboriginal people is not something in which we can take pride," Stewart said. "We must ensure that the mistakes which marked our past relationship are not repeated."
These include a network of boarding schools established across Canada with the goal of severing indigenous youths from their own culture and assimilating them into white society. More than 80 of the church-run, government-funded schools operated for nearly a century, beginning in the 1880's.
Hundreds of former pupils have told investigators of rapes, beatings, suicides, suspicious deaths and humiliating punishments at the schools.
"To those individuals who experienced the tragedy of sexual and physical abuse . . . and who have carried this burden believing that in some way they must be responsible, we wish to emphasize that what you experienced was not your fault and should never have happened," Stewart said. "To those of you who suffered this tragedy at residential schools, we are deeply sorry."
The government pledged $245 million for counseling and treatment programs for victims of abuse at the schools.
Steward also promised additional funds to improve life on reservations, including programs for health care, youth employment and career development.
Canada's aboriginal population is about 810,000. They include Indians, 38,000 Inuits (formerly known as Eskimos) and 139,000 Metis--people of mixed Indian and white ancestry.
The government initiative was hailed by the head of the national assembly of Indian chiefs as an "historic opportunity."
"This gathering celebrates the beginning of a new era," said Phil Fontaine, grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations. "For the first time, the government has accepted us as full partners."
But Fontaine cautioned that more work remains to build self-reliant indigenous communities. And some other indigenous leaders criticized the initiative for not going far enough.
Gerald Morin, president of the Metis National Council, said the initiative "offers very little" to the Metis, especially because it still excludes them from filing land claims that could lead to self-government.
Stewart's comments yesterday were a response to a 1996 report by a government-appointed commission on Canada's aboriginals. The report urged the government to allocate billions of dollars to improve the economic and political status of aboriginals.
The commission recommended a major change in government attitude to avoid a worsening of current problems, including a 25 percent indigenous jobless rate, Indian street gangs, pervasive substance abuse, family violence, high rates of teenage suicide and poverty. |
