Lubicon Cree Argumentative Essay

Critical Summary #3: First Nations Perspectives In Chapter eight of Byron Williston’s Environmental Ethics for Canadians First Nation’s perspectives are explored. The case study titled “Language, Land and the Residential Schools” begins by speaking of a public apology from former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He apologizes for the treatment of “Indians” in “Indian Residential Schools”. He highlights the initial agenda of these schools as he says that the “school system [was] to remove and isolate [Aboriginal] children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them[…]” (Williston 244).

The United States of America is a land of freedom, a land of equality, and opportunity. We value independence and should look to exercise this in every form, as a nation. We must stay united and show respect to one another. This means we should not disregard ones ' ethnicity and culture, and use names in which are offensive towards their culture, in order to promote any sort of activity. This is aimed mainly at sports teams that carry racially inappropriate names.

Richard Wagamese brings to light the troubles of aboriginals living in Northern Canada in his book Indian Horse. Wagamese demonstrates the maltreatment aboriginals have faced at the hands of the Zhaunagush and their residential schools. The disgusting truth of the treatment of aboriginals in Canada is shown through recovering alcoholic, Saul Indian Horse, who recounts his life from the time he lived in the bush with his native family, the Anishinabeg, to the the time he checked into The New Dawn Treatment Centre. Seen through Saul’s eyes, the Canadian government captures and transports native children to residential schools. Not only are these children stripped from their native way of life, they are placed in an environment that eerily resembles an internment camp.

Driven by the belief that space was bequeathed to them, the Native Americans feel justified in defending their land against the growing encroachment of the white man as the American landscape unfolds. Their motive is the premise that a higher authority has granted them the right to the space, and that the Great Spirit has created the landscape exclusively for them. Fueled by the formation of conflict over land, the Great Ottawa Chief, Pontiac, in his speech at Detroit, seeks to persuade the tribes, including the Ottawa, Huron, and Pottawatomi to agree to resistance. Invoking the words of the Delaware prophet, Neolin, Pontiac recounts the vision which he believes justifies resistance. Neolin urges the tribes to sever all relations to the customs

UNIT ONE: AUSTRALIA POST 1945 CONTEMPORARY ABORIGINAL SPIRITUALITIES • Aboriginal spiritualty as determined by the Dreaming The Dreaming: - The Dreaming is the root of Aboriginal spirituality and is important to every Aboriginal culture and societies. -

The indigenous population in the geographical location of western Canada had their land officially taken over in 1869. (Daschuk 79) From then on, even with multiple treaties signed, the aboriginal people in this area and on the plains were ravaged with disease, fighting, famine and theft of land from the Canadian government. In this paper, I will first present a summary of James Daschuk’s two chapters outlining the issues stated above, and then an internal critique of the chapters, and, finally, an external critique of the chapters, comparing and contrasting it to Sidney Harring’s ““There Seemed to Be No Recognized Law”: Canadian Law and the Prairie First Nations’. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight and analysis on the aboriginal issues raised by Daschuk.

How different would life be if your nation was discriminated and seen as unequal to the rest of the people in your country? Unfortunately, this is a major problem in the Indigenous community of Canada today. Discrimination against the Indigenous dates back to early European settlement, and although efforts have been made in recent generations to make the country a mosaic of peoples and cultures, a recent poll suggests that more than one-third of respondents believe racism against Indigenous people is increasing in Canada. Although the Indigenous are considered the “First Peoples of Canada,” they are continuously being discriminated because of their ethnicity / race, they are being unreasonably searched, and they are not receiving the basic

government started to civilize them and moved to control all aspects of their lives through passing the Indian Act and residential schools. According to Carole Blackburn “although assimilation was the stated goal, in actuality, the Indian Act facilitated the ongoing supervision of aboriginal people as a racially segregated population, marking their externality from the nation and separation from the rights and duties of Canadian citizenship” ( ). Therefore, biology has been used as an ideology to maintain capitalism and used to determine society behavior. In the other words, prejudice, discrimination and racism become the reason that they occupied the subordinate position in the political, economical and ideological relations of Canadian’s society.

Violence against Indigenous women has been perpetuated throughout history, beginning with settler colonization. White settlers used a process of violent eviction to claim the land as their own. This eviction was rationalized by the assumption that the land was either deserted or that the inhabitants needed to be saved and civilized (Razak 129). Sherene Razak’s concept “spatial segregation” refers to the geographical separation of the Indigenous people and settlers. The Indigenous people were confined to reserves which facilitated the colonizers ideology of segregating the colonizer and the colonized (Razak 129).

In the first source, the author takes the dominant, societal view that Columbus had, which held the perspective that colonialism is a positive thing. Normally, at a European perspective, someone would see Columbus as a great symbol, but, this author challenges that view with his own as an Aboriginal. The author finds colonialism and imperialism as a negative effect on Aboriginals as he uses unflattering vocabulary to express his deep concern with colonialism such as “the exploitation of people” and “in which people were dispossessed from their land and forced out of…” From these few sentences, it gives a strong impression that the author was not happy with the results of colonization. An infamous example that came from the effect of colonialism was when the Indian Act was first introduced.

The historical backdrop of the Cree Indians starts where they live generally in Canada, and some impart reservations to different tribes in North Dakota. The Cree Indians, an Alogonquian tribe at times called Knisteneau, were basically woods individuals, however a branch, the supposed Plains Cree, were wild ox seekers. The Cree's first experience with white individuals was in 1640, the French Jesuits. The Cree Indians later lost a large number of their tribe in the 1776 break out of little pox, fights with the Sioux, and a thrashing to the Blackfeet in 1870. The Cree lived by chasing, angling, catching, and utilizing muskrat as one of their staples.