I would also like to point out the fact that not all of the white people living in Canada today are descendants of those Europeans who colonized North America. While the great- great grandparents of today's natives were being subdued by the English and French invaders, my ancestors were busy being chased across Europe by the Catholic Church. I am a descendant of the Europeans who formed the Anabaptist movement of the 1500's. The Catholic Church did not take kindly to Protestants, so the persecution was fierce. You could read about the tortures and executions, as well as the courage and tenacity of my ancestors in a book called The Martyrs Mirror, by T.J. van Braght, published in 1951 by the Mennonite Publishing House. This persecution resulted in groups of Anabaptists fleeing together, which in turn resulted in the formation of ethnic groups like the Mennonites, the Amish, and the Hutterites. When the Mennonites (my people) fled to Russia, they were welcomed by Catherine II in 1762, and encouraged to settle and farm the land. They thought they were finally safe.
They were left to live peacefully until rulings such as the universal military service law in 1874 (Mennonites are committed to non-violence), the State Department of Instruction's order in 1881 that all instruction had to be in the Russian language (sound familiar?) Then during the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 the German-speaking Mennonites were suspect as enemies, and ruthless pillaging devastated the villages. In 1928, forced collectivization of farms was initiated. As a result of these conditions, several waves of Mennonites chose to immigrate to North America. My ancestors came to southern Manitoba in Canada, where they have been politically safe and were able to buy farm land and live peacefully. In 1915, the Manitoba legislature passed a new education law, which established provincial control of education and mandated the use of the English language in all schools (see a pattern here?) My great grandparents were among a group who saw these new laws as a threat to their way of life, and many of them migrated to Paraguay in South America. My grandmother stayed here, since she was already married and had small children. My father and his siblings all had to learn English in school, and in my generation there are few who are fluent in the low German dialect of our heritage.
Back to my original metaphor - give a man a fish. The Canadian government has been giving the First Nation people their daily fish, ( ie. welfare payments) for several generations now. Restoring their dignity and financial independence must be a priority. Continuing my fishing metaphor, it isn't enough just to teach a man to fish. You have to make sure that he has access to a pond that still contains fish.
