Niigaan Sinclair’s discussion in class gave me a chance to understand the growing problems American Indians face today. We always think of Canada as the United States’ friendly neighbor to the North. So, it was surprising to me how barbaric the Canadian government treats its native population.
I was especially horrified to learn about the struggles native women face daily. The rape and murder that they are subjected to is bad enough, but it is expected that the victims will never get justice. The outrage that those communities have must make it unbearable to just live and work.
I knew it must be hard to live as native in America. Every week I learn that as bad as I can imagine it, it’s even worse.
inieland June 22, 2018
It is incredibly troubling that the situation is horrendous even to this day. I am worried that people really want to ignore that it is happening. I am curious how we could actually make a difference and change the way this nation and Canada has been treating the Native Americas and the First Nations peoples.
It’s troubling that, as was described in class, ‘Rape Tourism’ is a thing. Its even more troubling that they are more likely to be sexually trafficked and Exploited. I want to ask them a good way for the Federal Government to actually assist in their communities in a way that actually helps. I think that if anything we owe it to the Many various tribes to actually sit down and on a tribe by tribe basis create a network that actually helps people.
blengel June 22, 2018
Michael, I definitely relate to your statement about learning something worse every week. I think it can’t possibly be much worse than it is, but then there’s that one article that gets me. With the topic of rape, I think it also is just terrible. Even though the percentage of people held responsible for their sexually violent actions are fairly high in our society, they still aren’t where they should be. Which makes the fact that the percentage of people held accountable in reservations is far under that of our own. I did enjoy hearing Niigan talk to us about multiple topics, as well. He had some very informative stuff to say, and it was nice to hear it from someone who has been practicing the culture. The information he shared about the Canadian tribes was very sad. As you said, I can’t believe that it is probably worse in Canada for the natives nowadays than it is here. You really don’t think of that when you think of nice ol’ Canada.