Indian unification a pipe dream?

[Gache]

I agree with K and old chemist being united on specific issues and fronts that affect all indigenous communities is something that should be but also being tsitsistas, dine, lakota is something that we should see ourselves as not as pan indians otherwise we really are just brown white men.

[OLChemist]

I agree with K and old chemist ...

So, I'm an OLD Chemist now, LOL.

[Gache]

[crazywolf]

the tribes unified?

Boozhoo niji,

Ok I got a really cool comparison on how this may work. Before there ever was a "United States" there was this land full of native peoples, most of which lived in harmony with their environment without too much grief from neighboring tribes. Yes there were wars and feathers ruffled, but was it really all that bad?

Now we live in a country made up of states, which are made up of counties, which are made up of cities, blocks, and households. The country as a whole has laws. Then each state adds some of its own rules, followed by county, city and so on. The laws vary from state to state, from county to county, and so on. The same thing could also be said about other elements of society, such as religion, entertainment, and other things. There were times in history when some states took up arms against other states, as in the Civil war where the issue of slavery was the issue at hand, supposedly.

Also each individual state has its own government, so does each county, and city and so on. These governement officials and councils are voted upon by those individual states, counties and cities populations.

So now we, as NDNs are full of tribes, Lakota, Cherokee, Ojibwe, etc, each tribe with its own rules and elected officials and all the other good stuff I mentioned above. So then why cant we be a United Tribes of Native America?

Every state has elected officials that meet often in the main body of this country, call them the House of Representives and also the Senate. Why can we not have council officials that meet in a House of Tribal Council Members?

The structure of the American Democracy was based on the early colonists observations of Native American council meetings. Then they took it a step, or a few further. So why cant we take back what they took from us, and build on it the way they did?

We are survivors. We are still here, different slightly but still here. If people like me were taught and raised white and we come out of the woodwork acknowledging that we are NDN, then the American governments plan to stamp us out is set back one step further. My boss and I had a discussion this morning, on how we fought against the whites throughout the history of this country. He says sooner or later one side or the other must stop, and that will end the confrontation. I said that NDNs will never let it go. The only way the government would stop its battle against us is if they wiped out every single one of us, and then they would probably still dig up the bones and start arguements.

Its reasons like that we should unite, become as strong as possible to build the pillar that holds up the overwhelming weight of the battles against us. That more than anything is reason enough.

Derek

[badmaninc]

The government has been using divide and conquer techniques for over 500 years, they don't need to change cause it still works. We are so concerned with our own little piece of territory that we neglect to help our other tribes during times of difficulty. So many of our youth feel disenfranchised by the hoplessness in our communities. I work with many men and a few women who are our worst examples of the tragedy of our communities. On most reserves, reservations, villages, rez's whatever you want to call them the biggest problem is the lack of housing. This is a very large social problem. As we grow up in our communities we soon realize that we must live with our parents due to inadequate housing in the community. We aren't, at least in Canada, put on the housing list until you have at least one child. The Band Council has to make a priority list and single men or women are always at the bottom. I have been doing a lot of thinking on this topic. I believe that is one of the reasons why many of our youth begin having children of their own when they are so young. Otherwise they would have to live with their parents forever. It is sad but that is how it works in our communities. Then after they have a child by the time they are 15-16, they get put on a housing list. In one of our communities, I know a young lady who has 5 children with three different partners and she is only 22 years old. She has a grade 8 education. I have traveled to many communities with my job over the last few years and all of the social problems and dysfunctional issues are the same in every last one of them. I bet you I could travel to many of the communities in various states and provinces and it would be the same. Sometimes it is so hard not to sit and cry when you witness all of this. Our people can't unite when we sit and blame everybody for the dysfunction. The government doing all of this to us doesn't help but we need to teach our young to aim for higher goals and expectations. I asked my mother what she wanted to do when she was young and she said she wanted to get married and have children. Her mother and father were the same, as was my father and their parents. One of our biggest problems is that when we look around, Indian kids don't have dreams because they don't have any heros. If they know heros, they can know dreams. When this happens then we can be united. My humble opinion.

[Kiwehnzii]

Your idea is nothing new in Canada. The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is the largest native organization.

Then there are the provincial organizations. Sometimes there are more than one Provincial group.

Then there are the local community governments with elected Chiefs & Councils. Sometimes there are local traditional governments who try to work together with the elected governments. It doesn't always work as the trad. are the way that has been done for eons while the elected are relatively new and were developed by the Canadian government.

The elected governments are recognized by the Government of Canada and are funded while the traditional Chiefs are not. This too is a divide and conquer tactic. The feds always have ways to divide people and money is used quite often.

Anyways, I could ramble on & on but I get too lazy to type and today is no exception.

[AngelFeather]

Our people can't unite when we sit and blame everybody for the dysfunction. The government doing all of this to us doesn't help but we need to teach our young to aim for higher goals and expectations.

I totally agree with those statements. Agreed that the government has done alot to our people but unforunately we continue to allow it it to happen. and YES money is very often used by the government as a a divide and conquer method but is the government soley to blame for that or do our leaders that get suked into the greed and lust of such $$ have some accountability? So when we have leaders that contribute to the dysfunction than who are we to trust? It is WE the People under both rules of tribal laws and federal white man laws that get stuk in the middle and have the hard time of breaking such cycles. How much longer do we think that this can go on without consequences? We have already begun to see consequences of such actions and behaviors, but i mean Unification to its fullest? Hmmm not until our leaders take a stance for the people without being bought by lame promises that they know isnt going to benefit anyone but themsleves and the people in thier councils.

We say we have many social issues... which is true. take housing for example. Where I come from we had our own plant to build houses for tribal members. I Have had realatives complain and cry about how they need a house and the waiting lists and then when they are given one ... what do they do? they trash the house and expect the band to pay for it, not thinking of the long term effects that this will have (less $$ for housing in the future). I can drive through my reserve townsite and tell you that the majority have broken windows, busted doors, unkept yards ect, but whos fault is that, the federal Governements? Hmmm.. I dont think so. I have seen houses less than a year old, beautiful homes, given to people and then months later the house in need of major repair because it was unkept and abused. This is just an example of how things work both ways and that BM had a good point, that we cant sit an continue to blame everyone for our own dysfunctions and expect unification between our own people let alone unification with other governments. It is our leaders and we as Native people that have been given the right to vote for them so we ALL have a part to play in the process and cannot just keep pointing fingers at a single party. This is Just My humble opinion.