I discovered a native news program this morning that I'd never heard before. It was on the Canadian news channel at 6 A.M. and, at first, I thought it was a terrible waste of air time. The announcers lacked a polish that we're used to but then this is something new for the natives and they'll surely improve as time goes by.
I listened as they discussed the severe problems of alcoholism on the reserves and even admitted to a 70% unemployment rate. The honesty with which they spoke publicly about the things that have held natives back impressed me very much.
I've spent a lot of time blasting natives for their outrageous demands and still feel strongly about that but this news program allowed me an insight into their efforts to better the lives of their people. I'm beginning to see that the focus into native lives has been in the wrong place.
It began to make sense that natives really do live in terrible conditions even though it's mainly of their own making. The small band of well educated and well meaning natives should be concentrating on improving native conditions from the inside rather than wasting so much energy on infuriating their non native neighbors.
Government money pours into the reserves on an unending basis but so many of the natives are uneducated and they waste it on toys to liven up long, unproductive days. Tossing more money at them will not solve the problems on the reserves because there are not enough employment opportunities there. Natives will never succeed unless they step out into the general community and get jobs.
I think that most of them have developed a "welfare mentality" because they've produced generations of unemployed families. The children drop out of school much too early and empty days are filled with nothing to do but drink to forget their troubles. It's going to take a huge effort by the educated and motivated natives to improve their people's lives.
The news program this morning gave me hope that this could be accomplished. The Canadian government should have settled native land claims a long time ago because now it's gotten out of hand. We, the majority of Canadians, feel as though a small population of welfare recipients are demanding we hand over what we've worked for all our lives. We feel as though we're being robbed and I'm sure that's not what the sensible group of natives have in mind.
If our government would act rationally and fairly it would all be settled and we could get on with our lives but they seem hell bent on dragging the decisions out for another 200 years. I firmly believe that, with every native demonstration and roadblock, an ever widening wedge is driven between natives and the rest of us. They are further isolating themselves with every illegal protest.
One of the problems is that there are too many factions speaking for the natives as a whole. We hear the sane, reasonable arguments and then we hear craziness such as the group who threatened police officers and their families. It's difficult to tell who is in control of native demands. There has to be one truth about whether or not their ownership is accurate. Was the disputed land sold by their ancestors or not? Even if the land was bought at an unfair advantage, so be it. People take a loss on sales every day of the week but their descendents 200 years down the road don't raise hell and demand fair value.
I'm hoping there are a few wise leaders in our country who can make sense of all this and bring an end to the situation. I hope there are enough wise leaders in the native community who can motivate their people to improve their lives by being productive instead of accepting handouts. I'm hoping that some day soon there will be no such thing as a "reserve" which separates one people from another.
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