lative f DESPITE the consider- able support I have received whenever I have jumped into the native fray, the vitriol from the stakeholders has been vicious, almost too vicious to withstand, Ordinary Canadians, on the other hand, have been fair-minded to a fault on abo- riginal affairs. What they told me, in a nutshell, was this: they respect diversity, but they want to interact with other Canadians, natives included, as equals before the law of the land. Canadians also question the native industry’s version of j justice in which they must now acqui- esce. There are certain narra- tives that come to dominate the marketplace of ideas to the exclusion of competing perspectives, The narrative of justice in society is one exam- ple. Like any successful monopoly, the monopoly over cultural discourse is won through government privi- lege. In partnership with gov- ernment, native leadership, the lawyers, consultants and academics get to decide who is on the side of the angels and who must burn in purga- tory. With hetty incentives at stake, these special interests work particularly hard to relieve Canadians of their decision-making rights, while coninuing at the same time to indenture them in the funding of their agenda. zg Pee TTErLerencs Time to act on issues ‘Dear Editor: © Those three new ferries that were built recently cost about $400 million. Lots of people talked and com- plained about it. Does any- one see one person marching down the street or any group of persons protesting? o- Gas prices are at record levels. Do you see any group of people protesting? I don’t. Yer almost every night on “the news, you see small ‘groups of protesters ranting and raving about things that are trivial matters. They get _the news coverage. J would think if you have 100,000. people marching through - the .sireets of Vancouver, “protesting the cost. of the new ferries and asking fora public inquiry, protesting othe health crisis, and ‘protesting the — gasoline prices, maybe someone would listen, and the public - would get answers. '. Lorne E, Dennis North Vancouver lorne_dennis@telus.net cis Sair comment Before they were effective- ly silenced, Canadiaos spoke loud and clear on aboriginal privilege. They delivered a resounding referendum-No to the 1992 Charlottetown Accord, which proposed to entrench special rights for Indians. Believe it or not, but the battered — and might I add, Western — principle of equality before the Jaw stil] had its adherents. Alas, gov- ernment found other legisla- tive tricks with which to undermine the Charlottetown Accord, forging ahead with its agenda and overriding the will of the people. The cul- tural script concerning all things native became indis- purable. For example, buoyed by the perverse principle « of cal- lective guilt tor posterity, native readers informed me that my ancestors were land thieves, as was [. Who cares that my people have an alibi? At the time of the crimes against natives they were being persecuted in Europe for being Jews. No matter; according to orthodoxy, all Eurocentric folk stand in the dack accused (falsely) of stealing the land from natives, who, of course, had onty ever chia lived in harmony with it. Natives are narure’s custo- dians: there’s another fallacy popularized by Jean- -Jacques Rousseau’s panegyric on the Noble Savage. Voltaire was in the know when he said that Rousseau is to philosophers as the ape is to man. Rousseau certainly was unin- formed by facts when he described natives as living in unity with nature. Less forgivable are the many present-day authors and researchers who, despite the corpus of research attest- ing to the lack of conserva- tion among natives, persist in describing pre: -Columbian America as “a pristine natural kingdom.” Before the decimation of the native population, largely via the white man’s diseases, the Americas had a sizable population of natives that exerted a considerable eco- logical footprint. For one, native tribes engaged in bi-annual forest burning. According to an article in Environment by B.L. Turner and Karl Butzer “the forests of the Americas, from Canada to Argentina were sp highly disturbed or modified by Amerindian use by 1492 that it is surprising that even the popular fitera- ture missed this point.” “The species which the Indians most wanted to hunt... were found most easily in areas of recently burnt forest, which is why they burnt the forest over and over again.” Then there was the stam- peding during a hunt of herds of animals over a cliff. I We solve space problems. FE a Sieber ~ Rack ‘n’ Roll Car Rack Shop Now Now Spent SON TENT | hs neers Many “ae “WELCOME TO BIKIN’ & BOARDIN" HEAVEN SO0-d00 Brookabarnni. WW Ped wewvcto bnhanry Dileen- ori: 50-70% OFF ALL STYLES Don't miss our one-time evening sale event Tuesday, September 19th 5-gpm Sale continues uncil September goth BOBOLI 2776 GRANVILLE. STREET, VANCOUVER, 8.C. VeH 3J3 FEL, 257- 2300 Sanit cates § lenge cul moral superiority” and chal- lenge the cultural script. —~ momeGatteanadanct treatment natives have endured. All they do is cut through the “rhetoric of Used repeatediy, some buffa- jo juraps hold the remains of hundreds of thousands of ani- mals, with patterns of Jocal entinction being document- ed. Where agriculture was practised in the central and southern parts of America, evidence from sediment points to severe soil erosion, which was already widespread before the arrival of the white man. And who penned the famous words “the flowers are our sisters ... the eagle our brother... Whatever we do to the earth, we do to ourselves...2” Chief Seattle's famous 1854 New Age speech, deployed by environ- mentalists to buttress native conservationism, was written in 1972 by a Hollywood scriptwriter by the name of Ted Perry. In light of archeological findings, the myth of the purity of primitive life juxta- posed to the savagery of Western Culture is even less justified. The Americas are scattered with archeofogical evidence of routine massacres, canni- balism, dismemberment, slav- ery, abuse of women and human sacrifice among native tribes, Why, the Northwest Territories Yellowknife tribe eventually disappeared as a direct result of a massacre carried out as late as 1823. By the same shift of logic, should remaining native “nations” perhaps not be made to pay reparations among themselves? In no way do these facts mitigate or excuse the cruel weve” 21 pt. 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