Gord Hannah (1:17/23.1) wrote to Steven Horn at 06:23 on 27 Oct 2004:

 GH> Sorry about the long quote, but to keep my comments in context I
 GH> felt it necessary.

Understood.

 GH> When peoples pride, dignity, and self respect have been removed
 GH> from them and there being an obvious discrimination against them,
 GH> as well as a negative stigma thrown in what can society expect? 
 GH> More of the same I suppose.  The police forces national,
 GH> provincial, and municipal need to get a lot more consistent, with
 GH> less discrimination, then maybe we can get some where.  I also
 GH> wonder if this is planned genocide, remember the tribe in
 GH> Newfoundland that has no living members left?  I suppose the whites
 GH> ought to have kept their noses out of the mix and tried to just
 GH> co-exist instead of being the be all to end all,  End all is right
 GH> if this type of behaviour keeps up there will be no more natives
 GH> left period.  In many instances it not only saddens me but makes me
 GH> sick. 

My sense of the history of aboriginal-white history leads me to believe
that genocide was never the policy but assimilation was.  Using the
residential schools to try to turn Indians into good whites was deliberate
policy.

In addition, by the time Indian policy was beginning to be developed, the
fact that Indians had fought side-by-side with whites as their allies in
the War of 1812 appears to have been forgotten.  Instead, the powers of the
day, (Upper Canada [Ontario] in the 1850s, appear to have thought that
Indians were inferior and needed help to become productive.

I often think that the conflicts (on battlefields and in courtrooms)
between Indians and Whites south of the border may have stood American
Indians in better stead than what happened here.  One can of course point
to forced relocations and other American misdeeds but have we done better?

What bothered me about the Stonechild case was not the obvious
discrimination but the fact that this treatment was considered entirely
acceptable in a police force.  The already disadvantaged became the sport
of the law enforcers.

But enough of this.
   
Take care,

Steven Horn (steven.horn{at}gmail.com)
Moderator, ALASKA_CHAT 
--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+