Education… Who’s Education ?
November 16, 2011
Of course education is assimilative – in the societies of the colonizers.
But education in indigenous cultures is liberating.
The choice is yours. Pick the kind of education you want for yourselves.
– Rarihokwats
Treaty Talks or Sham Talks ?
October 9, 2011
Silly me and I thought treaty talks actually meant something…
Which begs the question what exactly is on the table or up for negotiations ? And why would any First Nation bother with “treaty talks” ? Indeed it’s like a big f@#k you followed up with a , this is how it’s gonna go.
Further more who is claiming who’s land , seems to me it’s the settler state with the land claims ,i.e it’s claiming other peoples lands. O, arrogance thy name is an Anglo settler state.
And so it goes, “the more things change the more they stay the same”.
Geronimo was not killed in Pakistan
June 23, 2011
Hollywood History & Osama Bin Laden
May 4, 2011
Apparently Bin Laden’s code-name was Geronimo.
That word came from the SEALs on the ground: “Geronimo EKIA” — enemy killed in action.
How typical of American’s – & white/anglo settler Nations in general – they just don’t get it. Geronimo ????
Geronimo was a freedom fighter a man of courage and honor ,he fought to protect his family, his tribe and his Peoples freedoms & lands from the invading Imperial storm troopers.Indeed Geronimo had the character & stood for all the values Americans patriots like to claim for themselves ,well on paper and the silver screen that is not so much in actual practice.
Osama Bin Laden was a terrorist a man without courage or honor ,a more fitting code-name would have been Robert or Jackson. After Robert Andrew Jackson 1767-1845 (the 7th president of the U.S) who was quite proficient when it came to using terrorist tactics against the Indigenous Peoples.
Americans should & would understand all this, if they took an honest look at the real history of their country and its founding. In fact I believe the U.S would be a better country for the doing (this sentiment applies equally to my country Canada).
Unfortunately truth ,context and integrity are always the first casualties of those who tend to wrap themselves in the flag.
The ironies here are just so glaring , i.e the Empire naming their weapons & war making systems using the names & cultural artifacts of the very People’s it crushed unmercifully.
No thought was given to their rights or freedoms. Apparently not all Peoples are created equal & or entitled to life,liberty the pursuit of happiness.
On a side note according to leaked embassy cables , U.S considers ‘native Canadian groups’ as possible terror threats . Sentiments are quite similar here in Canada, in that the Canadian military recommended including First Nations as possible terror threats.
We definitely live in an upside-down world.
I’m reminded of a quote by Vine Deloria Jr. he wrote…
The American Indian has an intimate relationship to the American Revolution because,of all the people in the world,the American Indian have had to bear the impact of the criminality of the United States and to attempt to soften its impact on the rest of the world. In biblical terms,American Indians have had to be the suffering servant for the planet; their role has been to change the American conception of a society from that of a complex of laws designed to protect property to one in which liberty is not a matter of laws,coercive power,or shadow of government but is characterized by manners and a moral sense of right and wrong …. [Spirit & reason: The Vine Deloria,Jr.,Reader (Fulcrum Pub 1999) ]
Update
Just came across the following ,perhaps there is a ray of hope albeit tortuously slow & long in the making …
via Pam Palmater Facebook page, Pam is the author of the insightful & most excellent blog Indigenous Nationhood
Assembly of First Nations need not apply…
April 8, 2011
Chief Gilbert Whiteduck is tired of playing the same-ol game.
Rather he is proposing/organizing a grassroots funded First Nations gathering that is independent & separate from settler government funded organizations ,in particular AFN.
Indeed such a gathering is long over due. National F.N organizations end up being hopelessly compromised & ineffective when they accept and or rely on settler government funds.
Can you say grassroots…
For even more ; watch January 21st Infocus panel discussion featuring Dr. Taiaiake Alfred, Dr. Pamela Palmater and Rick Harp
Round II,Ancient poop gives insight into modern poop
March 6, 2011
After re-reading ,”Ancient poop gives insight into first North Americans” ,I was struck by one statement in particular, Dennis Jenkins, a University of Oregon archeologist states..
Jenkins said that discoveries like those in the Oregon caves “help us to reconstruct the American past.”
“Our heritage is really important, and it is important to the majority of the American public. If you don’t know where you come from, it’s hard to have a feeling of community, of participation.”
Excuse me what did he just say ?
Like ??…settlers know where they come from,here’s a clue, Europe. As for Native Americans they also know where they come from i.e right here, of that fact there is no doubt. Indeed Native Americans / First Nations identities & sense of place are hardly in doubt culturally or otherwise. The only Americans who question their own identity or feel culturally disconnected are the Euro & Anglo settlers.
After that brain fart how can any one take Jenkin’s or his “evidence” seriously ? This is what passes as science or somehow implies scientific methodology ?
Now I believe I am beginning to understand why so many Indigenous Peoples, & one eminent Nakota in particular Vine Deloria Jr, ,distrust & take issue with archeology* and anthropology*. Vine Deloria writes…
- Anthros look ‘objectively’ at other societies without ever coming to understand them, which can only be achieved in a subjective experienced way over considerable time.
- The US government does not respect indigenous ways of knowing their past – oral histories, folk histories, revealed religious knowledge – but instead accepts the word of the anthros.
- White Western civilisation – the US government – then takes the word of anthropologists as the truth, rather than that of Indians. Indians are left unable to speak for themselves.
- Anthros present themselves as salvaging lost cultures. They are in fact making their living through their improper portrayal of them.
- Anthros make their money from becoming ‘experts’ on the culture of another group, when in fact the true experts are the indigenous peoples themselves, who gain no financial benefit from this knowledge. In other words, anthros steal the knowledge of other peoples to make their own money….more @
In other words & or to put it bluntly, archeology & or anthropology are just one more Euro/Anglo tool used to justify and provide cover for Euro/Anglo colonialism while at the same time claiming to be objective & scientific.
Speaking of archaeology & anthropology check out Zero Anthropology well worth a read.
Anthropology: a room filled with white people, talking about non-white people.
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* Archeology & Anthropology are flip sides of the same coin. Both inform & feed off of each other.
Anthropology ; is the study of humanity. It has origins in the natural sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences.
Archeology : is the study of past human societies, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data which they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes
Ancient poop gives insight into modern poop
March 5, 2011
In particular the inability of scientist & archeologists to publicly admit they have no clue as to the “origins” of Native Americans. The latest “evidence” quoted from ,’Ancient poop give insight into first North Americans‘ …
New evidence shows humans lived in North America more than 14,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than had previously been known.
Which begs the question,so what happened to the old “evidence” .i.e…
Humans are widely believed to have arrived in North America from Asia over a land-bridge between Alaska and Siberia during a warmer period.
O,so in-fact there wasn’t any “evidence’ at all, just conjecture , opinion & belief, further more…
“This is the first time we have been able to get dates that are undeniably human,” said Dennis Jenkins, a University of Oregon archeologist.
Dates you say, and these “dates” were arrived at how…
….we’ve talked about the various methods archaeologists use to determine the dates of occupation of their sites. As you’ve read, there are several different methods of determining site chronology, and they each have their uses. One thing they all have in common, though, is they cannot stand alone.
Each method that we’ve discussed, and each of the methods we haven’t discussed, may provide a faulty date for one reason or another…@
So in short archeologists, anthropologists & science know nothing or very little regarding the “origins” of First Peoples .
Yet still these ever-changing theories, based on inclusive data/dates, supposedly carry more weight than the actual stories and oral histories of the Peoples of North & South America themselves.
O ,arrogance thy name is white euro-settlers trying to justify or imply that `they – white euro- settlers- are just the latest immigrants to the America’s. No different than the First Peoples, supposedly immigrants themselves albeit earlier.
It must be,it has to be,after all European notions of evidence are so much more reliable & accurate than the oral stories & history’s of “primitive hunter gatherers”. Indeed how would “primitives” “know” who they are & or “where” they come “from”, without first checking with some white archeologist / anthropologist / scientist.
Well that and the fact that settlers would have no more moral or historical justification left , no matter how far fetched & absurd, (e.g “Kennewick man” aka Cap Jean luc Picard ) to whitewash the initial & ongoing oppression of the original Peoples of North America Turtle Island.
Read, “Ancient poop gives insight into first North Americans“
Duty to Pretend
January 10, 2011
Like death and taxes somethings are as plain & certain as the nose on one’s face. White-settler governments lie all the time.
Albeit not as openly nor as obvious as it had been done in the very recent ‘past’ , public perceptions & all. Rather things are now done in a round-about way , using terms that do not mean what many presume or expect them to mean. After all there is a huge difference, between what is supposedly legal,and that which is honorable,moral and just.
One such example is the “duty to consult“…
That is the governments of Canada (Federal,Provincial & Municipal) have a “duty to consult” with Indigenous peoples regarding any development etc, on their traditional territories .Much is being made of this notion , indeed certain white-people are constantly patting themselves on the back for finally doing right by Indigenous Peoples.
Unfortunately its nothing but wordsmithing …
The Cnd government will & does interpret “duty to consult” to mean anything it wants it to mean,as long as it means, that in the end the government gets it’s way. A duty is the one thing it is not, just more of the same-ol, same-ol.
Just as First Nations Peoples of B.C & Ontario have found out,regarding mine development the Inuit of Nunavut are now discovering this reality for themselves.
Using settler courts and laws in hopes of inducing settler-governments to do the right thing & act honorably, is an exercise in futility. The powers that be just change their laws or interpret their laws in their favour , failing that, they stall, double-talk, & stall some more . So much for the supposedly sacrosanct notion of the ‘ rule of law’,that Canada always goes on about.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
