The history of all this in Canada and the US infuriates me because its not a history of forgotten about ancient civilizations that don’t matter any more … it’s history that still has survivors living today or who were children that heard the stories from their parents or grandparents.
The sad evolution of all this for me is in seeing white settlers basically co-opt Native injustices and loss of right as basically their own. Look at what happened to the midwestern tribes that settled on prime oil field country. Colonizers were more than willing to fulfill treaties on those lands, so long as they married into the tribes, then eventually get rid of the original members and take over the identities of the people they wanted to rule over. It’s a point in history now where many of the original Native people who fought for rights and a place to live are being supplanted by their oppressors and the ones who created the injustices are now also reaping the rewards of reconciliation. It’s crazy … they caused the hardships, they apologize, they reward themselves, they accept the apology on behalf of the dead and forgotten.
It’s the whole debate that’s raging in Native country here and in the US about cultural appropriation - where people who have either little or not ancestry are identifying as Indigenous because they see it as some sort of benefit either in the arts, with government, with business, real estate, taxes, land laws, hunting rights or just grabbing some free money. It’s frustrating because on the other end of that scale are actual full blooded or majority blooded Natives who receive little to no benefits for being who they are.
The history of all this in Canada and the US infuriates me because its not a history of forgotten about ancient civilizations that don’t matter any more … it’s history that still has survivors living today or who were children that heard the stories from their parents or grandparents.
The sad evolution of all this for me is in seeing white settlers basically co-opt Native injustices and loss of right as basically their own. Look at what happened to the midwestern tribes that settled on prime oil field country. Colonizers were more than willing to fulfill treaties on those lands, so long as they married into the tribes, then eventually get rid of the original members and take over the identities of the people they wanted to rule over. It’s a point in history now where many of the original Native people who fought for rights and a place to live are being supplanted by their oppressors and the ones who created the injustices are now also reaping the rewards of reconciliation. It’s crazy … they caused the hardships, they apologize, they reward themselves, they accept the apology on behalf of the dead and forgotten.
It’s the whole debate that’s raging in Native country here and in the US about cultural appropriation - where people who have either little or not ancestry are identifying as Indigenous because they see it as some sort of benefit either in the arts, with government, with business, real estate, taxes, land laws, hunting rights or just grabbing some free money. It’s frustrating because on the other end of that scale are actual full blooded or majority blooded Natives who receive little to no benefits for being who they are.