Why Indians in Canada are spinning their wheels in the quagmire of perpetual poverty

It's all about the leadership.

Back in the day common folklore held that there were two kinds of Indians; the "hang around the Fort" guys and the others.

The Fort guys used to hang around the trading post seeking what favor they could from the White man.

The other guys stayed aloof, tried to stick to traditional ways as much as they could, and held the Fort contingent in contempt.

There will be those who challenge the legitimacy of a White man writing critically about Indian leadership. To you I say one doesn't need to be Norwegian to write about Quisling. Nor does one need to be French to speak critically of Petain.

This topic comes up because today Patrick Brazeau made it into the news as having the worst attendance record of any Canadian Senator.

Big Chief Harper made Brazeau a Senator a few years back, which was, among other things, a cynical exercise in co-optation.

He was a smart young leader.

They'd rather have him in the Fort pissing out than outside pissing in.

Meanwhile, over at the Assembly of First Nations, Shawn Atleo is running hard for re-election. There are those who believe that he too is excessively chummy with Big Chief Harper and a little too distant from the day to day reality of  Indians in Canada.

The current generation of Indian leadership doesn't have a whole lot to show in terms of achievements for their people. I've written before that the ultimate solution is the creation of a sovereign state.

The never-ending tragedy of aboriginal people in Canada will never end untill the leadership stops hanging around the Fort.

Canadian Native Reservations ravaged by Oxycontin addiction

But don't worry, Health Canada and the Department of Indian Affairs is coming to the rescue.

On many reservations the rate of addiction approaches the 100% level among the adult population. So the folks in Ottawa are going to help by taking away Oxycontin!

That's right. No addiction counselling, no methadone replacement therapy, no nothing.

Tens of thousands of Native Canadians are being given the opportunity to quit their Oxy addictions by going cold turkey overnight.

Some Native leaders are warning that as existing supplies run down there will be a massive disruption of the social fabric of some of these isolated and impoverished communities.

There is almost guaranteed to be a crime and suicide wave of epic
proportions.

So far the warnings are falling on deaf ears.

It's all sweet grass and feathers at Chief Harper's invitation-only Loya Jurga

Big Chief Harper summoned the lesser chiefs to a pow-wow today. They came in their hundreds. Grand Chiefs, Regional Chiefs, hereditary Chiefs, Band Chiefs, you name it.

Most of the morning was taken up with prayers and tributes to the sleeping Gods that haven't done their First Nations supplicants much good the last five hundred years or so. Why not take a page out of whitey's book and try for a bit of separation between church and state, native brothers? The white folks are just patronizing you when they indulge this stuff. Let sleeping Gods lie already!

In the afternoon Big Chief Harper had to duck out early to meet up with some serious folks in Davos, but not before delivering one of the most hackneyed speeches of his career.

Referring to the Indian Act, the 1876 legislation that codified native apartheid in Canada, Harper said "that tree has deep roots. Blowing up the stump would just leave a big hole."

And with that Harper was off to Switzerland, and the Chiefs were off to their impoverished communities, no more empowered and no wiser than they were before.