There are always "goings-on" happening in Indian country: Provincial Government of British Columbia sent RCMP to remove people from their land of Wet'suwet'en territory. RCMP went into a blockade against Coastal GasLink project to remove Hereditary Chiefs and supporters. The RCMP were heavily armed and in a fear mongering frenzy. Mi'kmaq people are being attacked over the fishing of lobster by commercial fishing industry. Mi"kmaq are fishing as is their inherent Right and White Fishers don't like it. The white fisher folk don't like it so much they have been burning the boats and buildings of the Mi"kmaq. The Premier of Manitoba is trying to rally the racists against First Nations with COVID vaccine scare, basically saying there will be no vaccine because Indian's get it before them. Canada's minority Liberal government is wanting to make a law passing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). As we all know the devil is in the details. The City of Iqaluit in Nunavut has contaminated drinking water. Something many First Nations communities have been dealing with for years and years. It has been found out a racist RCMP officer was an influential Intelligence analyst. RCMP cop Tim O'Neil developed reports on Indigenous activity, issues for the Top Officials (The Brass) of the RCMP. It was O'Neil who used descriptions on Indigenous protesters who were trying to keep water clean as "violent Aboriginal extremists." O'Neil was administrator of a Facebook page which incited hatred towards Indigenous people and minority's. The page was an RCMP member page. O'Neil worked with CSIS and other police services. The amount of issues going on around and to Indigenous people are too numerous to really comprehend. The Indians are consistently and persistently linked to the Land; protecting, using, and living. Which each issue, the "powers to be" move to pry the Indians away from the Land, by either force, propaganda, and or public pressure. When these things fail, the government uses money to try pacify the Indian. The money thing is a tool they use to pacify a situation. The first attempt is of course is not to use money but to discredit the Indians. The government use of force is not new, nor is their tried and true method of divide and conquer. Governments are doing this in Lands of Indigenous people the world over.
In Canada the thing about the federal government, the provincial governments is the fact their faces are stuck to the arsehole of big corporation. Corporation makes jobs and the government takes credit for those jobs. Fact is the jobs, the money corporations make are off the lands which are not theirs; the Land is Indigenous peoples' land. So this is the trade off, government pays a little money to the First Nations to pacify them so long as the system keeps running. Corporations eat and eat, get fat, shit and then pass crumbs to the masses who lick up the groins of the corporations. Government is seen as smart benevolent because they let the corporation ram their butts so people can have jobs. Meanwhile the masses see the First Nations as wood-ticks stuck on their cash cows. Every once in a while the masses and the government put on a show for the masses. They cull a few of those pesky vermin wood-ticks. The wood-tick, Dermacentor variabilis is scary because they can make you sick. The wood-tick is of no use to their host. So it's best to get rid of them. While Canada (and the US, New Zealand, Australia) have been trying their best to eradicate the wood-tick through killing, assimilation. The best way to get rid of the wood-tick would be to kill them right away when you find them. A tweezers is a good tool but chemicals are fine as well. Trouble is there were lots of ticks and they were not that easy to get rid of. One of the best ways to get rid of ticks is to destroy their natural habitat, and oh yes, call and exterminator. The efforts to kill off the wood-tick has not been totally successful. There are some ticks that have become ill from all the efforts. Some even will try to get rid of other wood-ticks for the sake of the host. Still the wood-tick is not letting go. They are part of the land, while the new hosts are an invasive species.
The problem with this story is that it's all wrong. You see Indigenous people are not the wood-tick. They are in fact the Land. They are the Beaver in the water. They are the Raven in the sky. They are the Salmon swimming up stream. They are the Deer grazing along the forest edges. They are even the Turtle sunning it up on a rock sticking out of the creek. They are all of those things and more. While the Indigenous peoples the world over live with the land, the real vermin is the people, the many entities that feast off the land with no regard for how much is left. They are ravenous, they have an appetite of a worm. They are the colonial fold. The government, the corporation, the ultra rich capitalist.
The King: "What is the secret of the grail? Who does it serve? Have you found the secret that I have lost?" Percival: "Yes you and the land are one." This exchange in the movie Excalibur highlights the relationship between the Leader and the Earth. In this story the King is ill and so the Land is sick. In the real world, Indigenous members are the land. They are consistently fighting for the protection of the land, because protecting the land is protecting people. Why the corporation, the main stream population doesn't see this is sad. If the Indigenous peoples are doing well, the land does well. If the land does well the world's population does well. Indigenous people are Keystone; Keystone in the ecosystems the world over.
Keystone Species are vital to the health of an ecosystem. Like the Wolf is a key animal in the protection of the habitat and ultimately human beings. Wolves eat the grassing animals which can kill off vegetation. In Yellowstone National Park the Wolf introduction helped develop vast ecosystem of growth. So ensuring the Keystone populations are healthy leads to a healthier world.
Indigenous people are being killed off for being Keystone to the planet. "In the Amazon one Indigenous Rights Defender is killed every second day." Why is it no one recognizes the Keystone Indigenous people are vital to the health of the Earth? With the corporations talking climate crisis, solutions, the Indigenous Keystone is ignored. The Amazon is being killed and no coincidence Indigenous people are also dying.
We need the world to see us as we are, we are the Starfish.
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