A horrible incident occurred in Sagkeeng First Nation Manitoba. A young girl was killed. She was brutally beaten. Beaten by other young girls while it was being recorded.
Steve Julian You know I had a copy of the video in messenger. I made the mistake of asking to see it. I looked at it for 5 seconds. The image and sounds is now in my head. That night I couldn't sleep knowing the connections we have with them. It was my stupidity and morbid curiousity and just being a f**ing nosey person. I am so mad at myself and sorry for getting it. The brutality of death is nothing to search for. The poor families involved. I am surprised the guy who recorded the incident has not been charged?
Sagkeeng.
We can't deny the ugliness in the community. We can try and deflect it and say our community is fine and that this incident was an anomaly. It isn't. It may have been the extreme of ugliness and it is. There are many who are affected by the killing of the young woman. Lot of hurt people. Its tragic and its horrible. The poor families of all involved; victim and perpetrators. Its not a bad scene from a movie or from a different country. Its here in our home. Sadly our community has seen lot of death, either by killing of others, by taking our own lives or by sickness. Our community is is despair. We can do all the smudging and the vigil' now but what and where we were before? We need more of the good efforts and there are some but let's look at what is happening. The pill explosion has expanded to the meth disaster. We can point fingers for sure. You know the way other communities and reserves see Sagkeeng? We are dealers of death.Our community is so filled with bad that it glows at night. We can and try sanitize the reputation of the Reserve but we all can see and feel the way it is. Of course there are pockets of good in the Reseve, no doubt. But the ugly and the bad is like cancer; it grows and it kills. We need to actively try and change that. How do we that? First is to admit there is in fact an ugly. Then we can start to fight the ugly, the bad the evil. We need to acknowledge there is a cycle of ugliness. There are bullies who thrive in the dysfunction. There are rodents who prey off the sick and the addicted. There are opportunists just watching for any excuse to market themselves. There are those with integrity who just go along trying to make the Reserve a better place. I truly love my community and it saddens me to see what is happening. The old adage of a village raises a child is not applicable here. "Who the fuck are you to give heck to my kid?" "Fucking teachers calling cops on my kids." "Fucking crooks." "Someone gives heck to my kid I'm going to kick ass."
I was speaking to a friend in the Reserve and he/she was appalled at the situation of what took place. No one intervened. No one checked. No one.
It can't happen to me is not a safe way to live. Anything can happen to anyone.
We are not immune to bad things happening around us.
I for one know ugly.
The big problem is we are not engaged. And its not the fault of anyone. The change just happened. From a community where everyone thought of everyone to where we are only concerned with our immediate group.
The other thing is we know who people are and we care or don't care for what goes on. "Its not my business." Or we can turn away from what we see.
The justice system is not kind to us. So of course we distrust them-the police. Will having more police in the community cure the ills we face? Nope. Just have more folks in the jails.
So what can we do? Where do we start?
Banning dealers? Perhaps a start.
More community involvement in people's business? Why not?
More discipline in the community? Curfews? Stricter rules of behaviour in school?
Are we afraid to say anything for fear of our own history?
We all have a past and we may have all made mistakes but does that now exclude us from having a voice?
Are we afraid if we say something, someone will say "but what about you, you fucking piece of shit?"
I feel bad for the families all our families. People will point and blame. That is not going to be helping.
Sagkeeng is a beautiful place and does have good good people. At the same time we do have a great number of ugly things.
Ojibway Revelations: Indian Stuff. Not for phoney Indians with zero funny. Important, this could very well be the greatest blog on Indian stuff. Note may not please anal bleached perspectives. So read on Neechies, Blacks, P0C and White folk. Comments appreciated.
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