#6: R.G. 2010 - THIS IS OUR LAND, THIS IS OUR WATER, THIS IS OUR RIGHT 

Hmmm... that's all well and good but how does it benefit you to complain about your problems on a scarcely visited website? What happened, happened. Its in the past and there is nothing you can do about it now, so instead of posting meaningless paragraphs of text go out and do something productive to solve the problem. In the time it took you to compose this message you probably could have planned a trip to visit a university where you could receive an education. Had you taken this trip and decided you liked the school, then you could have applied for entry and begun working towards a degree in engineering with a focus on freshwater resources, perhaps even achieved a master's or a doctorate. Once you received the degree, you could bring your knowledge and qualifications back to the community and use it to help improve the situation. Ah, but wait. Why am I speaking in past tense? This is still possible. So stop complaining about your situation and go out and do something about it yourself, because I hate to be the one to tell you this but the government is not going to solve your problems for you. They simply don't care.

#12: Guest - Re: THIS IS OUR LAND, THIS IS OUR WATER, THIS IS OUR RIGHT

Wow - RE: #12 :  What a lack of humanity you have.  With your brilliance in being university educated, you lack the knowledge of what exactly occurred over the last 150 years right across Canada which created the filth and the dirt and the contamination all the yip and yap over Global Warming and has in many cases created nightmares - do you know about James Bay and the "Mercury Poisoning"?   Bringing awareness is necessary, as quite honestly 99% of the Canadian non-native population have the attitude that "they" are better, more educated, and above an Indian.  Growth you have not had, for if you did and had you listened to the indigenous people of this country they have been telling us for over a century what we are creating and doing to Mother Earth is detrimental to our own survival.  Oh wait, that's past tense, they still are, as they have your tunnel vision of what "society" is supposed to be.  So perhaps it's time for you to listen, it's still possible.

I don't care if its the West Coast straight through to the East Coast, the story is the same.  The indigenous people of this land settled for Treaties, they did not want war.  If you cared to spend time, reading some of the history of the Indigenous Peoples, written in the journals by the first explorers and what they had to report, you would find these people were not so easily talked into a peaceful settlement.  They endured much death, and great hardship.  They never gave up their land, there land was on many account "taken" from them.  I simply can not tolerate an ignorant individual attacking a person with a simple petition and believing that clean water is a human right.  He's including you in that statement.  Enjoy your organic salad tonight that's been most likely watered from a source after a sewer treatment plant, and yes it is still organic - all the way.

Few people get it through their thick moron skulls that what happens on a reserve, happens in your back alley, down your street and even in many cases in your home.  Alcohol, tobacco, drugs, dysfunction follows each and every one of us "whities"; but we can so easily close our door and ignore it, whereas on a reserve it is a small concentrated population and so with those thick skulls you continue to live in denial; and become a very judgemental and non caring, and what is even worse a person who does not have any the grace to find out more about a people.

I was born in Canada, and for years as a child listened to Oh Canada our home and native land; and the thought of this country, our home, and I would see "the natives" as part of the land, it was pointed out to me several years ago by an Indian Chief who was extremely scholarly, that no, Oh Canada our home and native land, had nothing to do with the indigenous people who were the first people to live in this land.  I was demoralized that in this song, "native" meant the white people were saying our home and native lands.  It belonged to the newcomers.  The Natives were not even inclusive in that song.

Not having the courtesy to have any inkling of understanding is absolutely the lowest educated person in the world, it is narcistic and selfish.  To have a degree is nothing if your mind is tunnelled into a thought process that never wavers, yes it's letters after your name, but to make you a better person, it means nothing.  To speak such words and not have the courtesy to sign it, and identify yourself is reminiscent of the black hooded axeman who severed the heads in Europe; so no one could see his face whilst he did his duty.

The statement is made - the government is not going to solve your problems for you, they simply don't care is the only thread of truth you wrote, as the government did not care from the beginning.  If you bothered reading the archival materials you would soon find out, the governments biggest agenda from the beginning was how to get rid of the Indian problem.  In the beautiful Glenbow Museum, there was an entire area dedicated to the Plains Indians, and part of it was a school house; and on the counters were the journals kept, of how many Indians died over the winter.  Go further into the archives; and you will find that when they were a farming nation they brought them guns, when they were a hunting nations they hauled out seed and tractors; not quite suitable for rocky mountainous territory.  However you have not sought out the archived documents throughout this great country, to read for yourself what your forefathers did to this dignified race. Do yourself a favor and go onto Google Books and look up and download Scenes and Studies of Savage Life by Gilbert Malcolm Sproat.  See if you can read the first 100 pages and own up to this is what happened.

Few people know what pride is.  If any people should have pride it is every Indian that lives in this country.  Before us assholes arrived, these people lived off the land, moved from place to place, let the land rejuvenate, let animals rejuvenate, let fish stock rejuvenate, as they moved knowing what Mother Earth needed in order to continue thriving.

The joke is on all Canadians other than First Nations.  Try to access the forests and enjoy a walk through a natural forest.  Most places you can't they are gated off.  We have been given campsites with toilets and running water as we are a civilized people.  Civilized perhaps, wise not.  We (not I) as a people don't even understand that the waters that run past our ankles never touches as we stand in a stream, don't know of one plant or berry that can help you, or sustain you, have no clue of how the earth feels on your bare feet - clean earth, not your overly fertilized back yard, seeping into the water for your future organic salad or someone elses.

When an Indian writes, this is my land, he is correct; it is his land, he was here first; and what happened was wrong and now we have a multitude of people and have to figure out how we can achieve harmony together, but in all of this we must remember the Indian does have a right.

When an Indian speaks of Mother Earth, Father Sky - listen for you have no idea of the connectivity these people have with Mother Earth, she is there umbilical cord, they are tied to the earth.

Despite all of what occures on a reserve, the Indian has something greater than white people can ever have and that i love of family.  No they don't get together once a year for Christmas and say platitudes and exchange appropriate presents, or ignore themselves for 30 years because of the dysfunction that is in their family; despite what happens, they are family, and family always comes first.  I think we have much to learn from the First Nations

Patience - with all of the atrocities that have occurred over the years, the patience of these people is that of the ant.

Stillness - We have gurus who teach us that stillness speaks:  Spend some time with an Indian, and in a very short period of time you will find out that stillness - does speak, it speaks of creation and all that Mother Earth gives.  It stops the chatter in your brain, and your ears become the tools they were born to be.

Well I've had a long enough rant, and your ignorance really ticked me off.  I can't change things for the indigenous person; but I can stand up and say when a person is being ignorant and has not a clue as to what they are talking about, get's totally off topic and attacks the individual in such a manner. You without knowledge, did an attack and that was extremely wrong of you.  You assassinated the person's character, and as I read it I felt the humiliation you were causing.  Is that fair?  I don't think so.

Before you assassinate, perhaps you should get some background knowledge of the person and the people you are attacking; it may make you a touch humble, it may give you some heart, and you may truly know what gratitude is all about.  May the Great Spirit in all of your ignorance watch over you and lead you to a place where you mind and your heart can be opened and healed.