Reply to post by ACCESSDENIED
Originally posted by AccessDenied
While there are some stuck on reserves that live in poverty, there are many that live the high life.
I also live in canada, am married to a metis woman and am friends with many Aboriginal people. I think that you have your terms reversed and have
missed a category. There are SOME who live the high life, there are many who live the middle class, however the majority are living at or near
poverty, both on the reserve and in the city.
Natives that come off the reserve, to go to college or university, completely government paid for, as well as housing and living expenses, paid
for.
They come in new vehicles, buy new furniture, and dress in the latest fashions.
Their children have all the most expensive toys.
this really depends dramatically on where in the country you are. Some Native Bands have negotiated their treaties favourably, many have not. Some
have developed a solid business community, many have not. Some have developed large conglomerate corporations that are rife with corruption, most have
not.
They walk into any store, and pay no tax on anything.
this is a complete untruth. Native people pay all kinds of taxes on all kinds of things, there are a very few taxes, like some sales taxes, that some
Native people are exempt from, and very often, depending on the treaty, this is only the case on reserve
They stay here till their courses are done, then go back to the reserve either well educated enough for a good job, or back to the home built for them
by the band council, no charge, with monies earned from the Native run Casino just south of me.
It is a positive thing that young Aboriginal people are finally becoming able to engage positively in their (the greater) communities.
Where they mistreated years ago?
Yes..I believe so.
Now...not at all.
Do not be obtuse. The last residential school in Canada closed in 1990. Thousands of Native people over the past hundred years were ripped from
their homes and placed into "re-education camps", many were physically and sexually abused in horrific fashion, most had their "old-ways" stripped
from them by the Church and the State and if you think that the effects of this...psychological problems, widespread substance abuse, and many more
have not been felt by subsequent generations then you are grossly misled.
As for religion, I have seen very few keep up with the "OLD WAYS" unless there is a special occasion or a POW WOW.
My god, it was the
official policy of the Canadian Government and the Catholic church to weed out traditional Aboriginal spirituality and the
"OLD WAYS" for decades! Do you feel compassion for the thousands of Japanese immigrants that were interned in Canada during the second world war?
Did you feel ashamed of our country for THAT? Did you think that it was horrific that there was a holocaust in Europe, that there was a Genocide in
Rwanda? That the South African system of apartheid was conceived only after South African officials had done a tour of the Canadian Reserve system?
wow. 2010 here we come.
[edit on 7-10-2009 by Tamale_214]