When I was young I remember a pawn shop that had three brass balls hanging over the door down on Main Street, and it seems all barber shops had red and white stripped poles on them. But I can’t honestly say that I’ve ever seen a wooden cigar store indian ‘in the flesh -so to speak, in Winnipeg.
What got me thinking about the subject had to do with a news story of some American Navajo Code Talkers that showed up in the media on Wednesday at a First Nations Language Symposium. I find it more than a little ironic that it seems everytime Indians start talking about traditions, culture, heritage, preserving aboriginal languages being crucial to maintaining cultural connections the person’s name that’s involved is usually quite Anglo-Saxon or a derivative of Anglo-something or other.
Not that I expect the charge of the rediscovery of culture to be lead by someone named Maytwayashing, Shingoose, or Two Dogs Chasing a Deer, but I do kind of wonder sometimes what it is that they are seeking given the current definitions of status indians never mind Metis and non-status Indians.
The whole thing of native cultural identity seems to have become a growing cottage industry in the last 50 years. Titles abound and hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money flows while everyone gets back to their ‘roots’. Alex Halley and Kunte Kinte would be very happy I suppose.
I’ve got kind of mixed emotions about the subject. I’m proud that my ancestors have been kicking around here for well over a couple of hundred years, but I’m also aware that they’re likely responsible, in part, for the virtual extermination of the prairie bison for no real and valid reason other than exploitation and the greed of others.
It’s that same thing - greed and exploitation thats kept me from joining up with the Manitoba Metis Federation. Not that they’re the only Metis group around, but they, rather than the Union nationale métisse Saint-Joseph du Manitoba, which for some inexplicable reason refuses to recognise that not everyone of French heritage speaks French, seem to have been anointed by governments as the ‘official representatives’ of the Metis - which by default is the Indian organization for those who don’t meet status Indian eligibility.
But it was something that showed up on Derryl Sanderson’s Metis blog - Forensic audit of MNC to proceed on Wednesday that makes me think there might be some hope for the future. The MNC stands for Metis National Council, which is yet another level of bureaucracy for Metis organizations - complete with more titles and money resources at taxpayer expense.
I’ve been waiting for something to show up in the MSN, but so far there’s been nothing. Not that I find that strange since Derryl claims to have been keeping two Freep sources up to speed with Metis matters. Actually I haven’t been able to find anything about it on any government web sites either, so it seems to be still in the rumour stages.
It’s not that I consider non-status Indian to be cigar store Indians - i.e. not real indians, but it’s long past time that the goals of the MMF were severed from the aspirations of non-status indians wanting to seek parity with status Indians. The Metis have their own grievances that have nothing to do with status and non-status indian rights, treaties, and claims.
I’m hoping that the Harper government has the balls to start looking at not only the MNC, but the MMF as well. In fact I hope that they’ll take a good look at the growth industry in all Metis organizations, and they’ll eventually they’ll clean up the legislation dealing with the definition of aboriginals and put a quick end to the abuses that have been going on.
