Algonquin Response to Ottawa Citizen Article

My great-grandfather was Chief John Baptiste. He came to Ontario from Quebec and settled in the Baptiste Lake area. This lake was named after him as he was the first settler in the area. He married a white woman and they had children. My mother was born 1/2 native. She married a white man. They had children. I am 1/4 native indian. I married a white man. My children are 1/16 native indian. The blood line is thinning out and soon will be gone.

I was raised in a white society, going to white schools and did not know about my heritage. What I did learn in grade school, in 1972 was one paragraph in a history book on the Algonquin Indians. One paragraph. That was it. It has only been the last 10 years that I have learned more as my children want to know more. It took our family about 2 years to trace our family history back to the 1700's, beyond that no documents available. We then organized a "Family Reunion of the Baptiste's" carried out every 2 years in the area of Bancroft, Ontario.

My great-grandfather was not a "Registered" native indian and therefore his decendants are not entitled to "Status". What was created were "Algonquin I.D. Cards". I am having a difficult time understanding all the legal stuff in regards to the "Algonquin Land Claims". I was sent a survey to fill out on education, employment and family information. Living and being raised as a "white" person with Irish and Native heritage, the native part got lost or was never really spoken about because I was surrounded by "white folks". Well I felt the need to share a little bit about the idea of being "lost" as part native.

You are again absolutely correct. Please contact me at algonquincitizen@hotmail.com and I will explain our endeavours based on historical record and law.

Paula
Kichesipirini Algonquin

http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/2007/11/111807_5.html

I happen to be a Researcher in Aboriginal issues. The problems lie in our governments past and present treating these people as if they were the intruders of this land, making laws for them and taking away priviledges from them that all other Canadians have been allowed.

We have stolen their lands, committed genocide upon them through blankets laced with smallpox, murders and abuses allowed through Residential Schools, yet no one has been formally charged, and now, genocide in a more humane way by the use of status cards.

If these people are forced to live in an environment away from their people, it will destroy their culture and some individuals could not survive away from their homelands. It is the governments faults for the poverty that is inflicted upon them. Maybe money is given but accountability is ignored which is the same way all governments seem to be operating, stealing from the pot and covered up.

Land claims are an issue that our government tends to place on the back burners and no wonder Native Peoples have to form protests, what options do they have? The governments will not listen.

The only options I feel that is left for these people is to go back to the past and go for a land claim for all of Canada. If you think this is impossible, I kid you not, the proof is there and was well hidden, but documents have now turned up outside Canadian archives that might shock this government. These documents have been hidden from all Canadians since the 1700's and have just recently been found. Correspondence letters that belong and show the true intent of these treaties have now been uncovered and state by the British that they were here to "protect them from their enemies, not take away their country". This is just a sample from over 400 letters, manuscripts, and maps finally exposed and yet to be presented to the media. Let's see what the government does when they read these documents and how they will handle this situation. How would they accept an Aboriginal Government controlling all of Canada? This might be very interesting to see.

http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/2007/11/111807_5.html

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Jeannine Myers,

Thank you so much. You give testimony to my great confidence in the decency of the majority of Canadian people, and if given the full facts they would be appalled by the terrible dealings of their governments and institutions.

These types of situations occur all of the time. There are even more sophisticated forms of desecration, using internalized oppression, such as the example of repatriation of Kichesipirini remains. Rather than bring them back to the sites where they have come from they are sent them to Indian Act reserves. Anishnabe beliefs stipulate that our ancestors are to be buried in their own community.

Few people realize that one of the most historically documented Aboriginal gravesites in Canada is sitting under a golf course. The specifically described Kichesipirini gravesite, with their carved and painted totems and houses for the departed which Champlain described is invisble to the public. What should be an extremely important spiritual and sacred place to the Algonquins and an important cultural and historical site to the rest of Canada is unmarked and almost forgotten. Although my ancestors took the greatest pains to ensure their family members rested in dignity, situated to watch the beautiful sunsets in their final resting place.....golf is played on top of them....another poignant example of the Kichesipirini genocide.

The Kichesipirini gravesite should be a place of great reverence.

We were never taught in school that the very area where we live has been recorded in such important historical documents... that we are the descendents of the very people Champlain visited.....that we drive by this important gravesite of our ancestors everyday....We have been left in ignorance....our self awareness raped and violated. Our spiritual obligations denied us.

History, spirituality, is being dug up, relocated, denied and fictionalized for an agenda contrary to the common values of Canadian citizens.

What is the Canadian state so afraid of?

These are matters of human dignity and respect.

Recognizing this important history and these important sites could have tremendous positive benefits to the local areas.
Pontiac County where the Kichesipirini burial site is located has been identified as one of the poorest regions in Quebec with an average annual income of 16,000.00.

The proud Kichesipirini Algonquins are still oppressed. Why?

Thank you so much for your courage, integrity and great sensitivity.

I am so encouraged.

Paula LaPierre
Principal Sachem
Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation

I wrote the article, "Genocide is that the Government's Portfolio?" This time I am going to sign my name, I am not native. I am a researcher and genealogist.

Paula, you are a very articulate writer!
Let me share an experience with you.
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Has anyone ever wondered what has been going on in the Archeological Departments when it comes to excavations of Aboriginal artifacts? In 1997-98 I was involved in a project concerning the Aboriginals protesting against the Jemseg Bridge in the outskirts of Fredericton, NB. The Aboriginal People were protesting the construction of this bridge, believing that it was encroaching their sacred grounds. The site at the time was being explored by the Archeological Dept.

After many hours of research I came upon some very interesting materials that exploited the archeologists digging up Native burial sites which shocked me. I locatd the govermental reports that exposed the plot plans, open graves, bone fragments, grave goods, photos outlining human skeletal remains, some reports even published the facts that remains had been vandalized through open graves left unguarded, reports verifying people haaving gun shots in the skull, and on and on.

These projects were preformed in the name of history. Can you believe this? I question how is the digging of graves and cemeteries a project of historical importance? What gives anyone the rights to go and dig up someone's ancestors in the name of history?

I continued my investigations a little further just to see who was responsible for this and who or what departments had the control if any, to allow such a thing to happen. While scanning the Law Library, I came upon the Historic Sites Protection Act, and learned that the Dept. in charge was the Minister of Education. He was the person responsible in the issuing of permits to the Archeological Dept.

After reading these reports I began thinking of the well known facts of history that the Natives had received poisoned blankets laced with smallpox, which almost wiped them all out. Somewheres within this Province they were all buried, and what if excavations were or have they been already been done in these locations?

I then notified the Dept. of Health and questioned them as to the risks of having smallpox brought back into the atmosphere, for some viruses can lie dormant for years, and if exposed into open air again, can return. My answer was that they had no idea if this could happen, for no one actually has gone and done this to prove whether yes or no if it could happen.

In the meantime, correspondence between departments were continuing. I knew I had opened up a major pot of worms here. I had turned in my findings to the Aboriginal Peoples to report the excavations that had been done. My research led to to a signing of a moratorium by all the chiefs at the APC in Nova Scotia.

I question, what rights do people have to consider that the excavations of someone's ancestors be legal? Of course they have denied doing this, but their reports beg to differ. At that time reporters were involved and plenty did not make the headlines. All these reports were not made public and even today, many are not aware of what has been done.

I wonder what people would do if someone were to apply for a permit to go dig up any cemetery in the name of history and see if it would be allowed. I guarantee, if this ever happened you would see a major outcry of people protesting, and and ordering this to be stopped. It would probably cause a riot in some areas.

At that time there was a war of words being published within the news media. Many people might not have noticed this at that time, but the archeologists were stating that their dept. was open to all and nothing was being done that anyone could not have access to.

Well, the challenge was there! I made the trip for I knew just where these artifacts were being held, and in I go along with two other parties. I had access to their files and spent many hours photo-coping items of interest. From these articles I came across a list of Natives burial grounds that have been excatated within the Maritimes Provinces.

I believe this is uncalled for. I do not believe that the Native People would ever allow for something like this to be permitted. They have great respect for their ancestors and I believe this violation of their sacred grounds should not have ever happened.

In my opinion this is a violation of the Freedom of Religious Beliefs, for no Aboriginal person today believes that their ancestors should be violated in their final resting spots. They were placed here for eternity and no person should have the rights to go and expropriate these area in the name of historical research.

If they are so interested in this subject, then why are they not getting permits to dig up the old colonial cemeteries? These old colonial soldiers were a piece of history all living at the same times that the Natives were, yet they choose to pick on one culture. I believe this a violation of one's Freedom of Religious Beliefs!

I will produce to you at a later time the lists of what I have found. I think people have a right to know where some of their tax dollars have been spent in order to create jobs for some people. It is nice to know that they seem to have money to spend on the dead but not the living! This also proves to me that the Aboriginal Peoples have not been safe living in their own Country, whether dead or alive.
Jeannine Myers

The previous writer is absolutely correct. "Status" recognition is a terrible ploy....and a carefully crafted deception leading the Aboriginal people down a path of terrible destruction through a number of fronts.

It is a bloodless genocide. It is a gutting of the heart, soul and the spirit of Aboriginal nations and families that kills and rots everything of genuine substance only to leave behind a corrupt physical corpse of what once was. It is the senseless, selfish work of the poacher left wasting in the forest.

One target is the physical. The racial requirements will be impossible to maintain and the people will be forced to marry out and eliminate themselves according to the blood quantum criteria. Eventually there will not be enough people unrelated to carry on the biological requirements imposed. Everyone taking false pride in their possession and use of the Indian Act standard of "status" must really think twice about their participation in the gradual elimination of their own people. It is not a status I would be proud of.

Secondly it is a genocide of the distinct nations. Aboriginal national identity was not based on race but rather on attachment to territory. This attachment to territory was not just strictly geographical but emotional and spiritual as well, guaranteeing protection and responsible management or relationship to the natural gifts of the environment. Creating Aboriginal bands based on racial criteria means that persons of the same "race" as determined by Indian Act "status" will be imported into territories to maintain the blood quantum rather than continuing relationships with other individuals who have possessed a historical and spiritual attachment to the territory. This dilutes the very essence of important cultural and spiritual values and replaces them with persons with no such commitments. Such is the situation so clearly illustrated by the "Algonquins of Ontario" land claim negotiations and the federally supported dominance and preferred treatment of the Indian Act band of Pikwakanagan...at the terrible expense of the majority of Algonquin descendents not federally recognized. Can all of the persons guaranteed beneficiary under the Indian Act included as members of Pikwakanagan prove that they are actual descendents of the traditional Algonquin nation? The Indian Act introduces a false and artificial double standard discriminating against legitimate beneficiaries. Those Algonquins relying on their Indian Act "status" are imposing an act of genocide against their own people...and are being well paid to do it. This is not a "status" to be proud of.

The third area of contention is the social arena. The vast majority of Aboriginal nations were organized as societies that adhered to strong kinship networks as social and institutional foundations. A federally imposed system of "status" that forces families to reject and deprive their own people after a couple of generations is absolutely deplorable according to traditional and customary laws, norms and values. It must be remembered that those accepting "status" did so at the expense of many of their relatives and family members. The vast majority of previous members of social units and families were left out in the cold....."Status" identity is one of exclusion and rejection of family. According to Anishnabe perspective that is a serious crime and disgrace. What kind of status is that to explain to your descendents, or your ancestors? Is it something to be proud of?

Fourthly, the "status" card, as alluded to above, is a spiritual insult. It is a grave spiritual assualt visited on the people. It forces them to commit a terrible abomination against their own members, their culture, their Creator. To reject your inherent Aboriginal identity to become an adminstered people under a federal administrative policy is terrible enough but then to agree to deny the inherent rights of your descendents is despicable. To deny the contributions of your ancestors that do not meet the "racial" qualifications is a terrible sin. To be willing to do this in exchange for a laminated card bearing your photo and registration number is actually criminal, against the traditional laws and customs....to be placed in a position where you consider this a privledge is perhaps the most heinous and deepest manifestation of the grossness of this now internalized genocide. Anishnabe people were an egaltarian society....any special recognition or "status" was derived through acts of service and sacrifice to your family and community. No wonder the Aboriginal people are in such pain. They are being government funded by their oppressors to commit spiritual suicide. Is that a "status" worth having?

The Kichesipirini Algonquin First Nation are now preparing legal actions that will hopefully address these grave injustices. This is not simply an assualt against Aboriginal people.....These policies are an assualt against what most consider basic human rights and freedoms by decent and ethical people throughout the world.

Do you want to be living your life as an oppressed person holding a card that confirms you are a person registered under a program and policy destructive to every value held dear by your ancestors, compromising every inherent right in your possession, risking the rights of your children? Or do you want to stand tall with dignity and pride, holding the banner of your Aboriginal nation and stating clearly that your people, your nation, your ancestors were above ever creating such an immoral policy and you want no part of it?

We should soon be holding status card burning demonstrations!!!!

Soon.

But beware of the strawman strategies and distractions scattered all over Indian country attempting to distract and lure the people away from any legitimate solutions. Social chaos will not serve anyone. Any positive social change must be based on the integrated positive social norms law abiding societies, Aboriginal and not, and historical fact. It will be a complex road ahead but begin the journey by starting to understand the difference between adminsitered and sovereign.

Migwetch.

Paula LaPierre
Kichesipirini Algonquin,
Never ceded,
Never conquered,
Never administered,
Still sovereign

algonquincitizen@hotmail.com

When you look back on history, you will see how the Governments have treated the Aboriginal Peoples. Things haven't changed too much, only the methods used to wipe them out have changed.

The British tried their raids by slaughtering, burning , raping the women and children, but they didn't get them all. Then the expulsion of the Acadians did not totally work, for some came back to Acadia and hid among the Indians for survival. The treaties of peace and friendships were signed and promises of blankets etc. were kept, but the blankets were laced with smallpox killed off many, but didn't wipe them all out.

Now today, their methods are more humane, but eventually, we will see the population of the Aboriginal People wiped out. This is being done now, only at a slower pace. Now you might ask how are the governments doing this? Well it's very simple that the method being used today will eventually do the trick. The rules created by the governments through the Status Cards.

The system works like this, When two Aboriginals marry and have a child, This child is considered to be a full blooded Native. If this child then marries a white person, then their offspring becomes half Native. This child is entitled to a status card. If that child marries a white person, then their child become a quarter, but still holds a status card. It will be up to the person who holds the status card proving one quarter to marry another Aboriginal, or else if he or she dosen't, then their offspring is not entitled to be an Aboriginal. The blood-line stops here.

According to the treaties that were signed, the agreements were to be passed on to their heirs and heirs forever. Now what rights does the governments have to put a time frame on the word, "forever"? Does this word only mean 3 generations? Is this not a violation against those treaties?

Getting back to something that maybe we can compare this to would be the Royal Family and the blue-bloods. How does the Royal Family state that they have Royal blue-blood and claim their rights to the Throne?

The descendants are supposed to be passed on the Crown of England being ancestors of the blue-blood. If you look at the genealogies of the British Kings and Queens, you will see many marriages from Denmark, Scotland, Russia, Germany and many more. How can a person state that this mixture is still Royal Blood with all these different countries involved?

Apparently, there are no generations limited to inherit the throne in England. They have been free to choose their mates, intertwining many countries, yet are still considered to be Royal Blood. Their heirs are not punished like the Aboriginal People are.

When you look at the British Family Tree, you will see many Countries inter-twined amongst them. If you do an Aboriginal Framily Tree and spot a marriage between a white person, then start counting the next two generations and if they didn't follow the blood-line, then that line will be pushed out. Native blood will be considered extinct.

If the Aboriginals want to remain as a culture according to the government's rule, then they are forced to marry within themselves or other Native Tribes. By marrying white people, they begin a trek of possibly losing their Aboriginal rights that were signed in the treaties.

Now one can see how this method will eventually wipe out many and should be looked upon as a violation of the word "forever".

Take some time and read this!

“The Ultimate Hypocrisy”
Indigenous Poverty: The True Story!

This article was written on 3 September 2003 and was printed in “Shunpiking” in the fall of 2005.

While such writings are starkly revealing of the wretched condition in which Aboriginals were living, they tend to blame Aboriginal people themselves for their poverty, and suffering, a tendency that only serves one purpose extremely well – that of concealing the true reasons for the poverty. For a deeper understanding of the connection between Aboriginal poverty and the theft of their lands one needs to read only a few books, such as Gustaavus Myers’ History of Canadian Wealth (1987), or Neu and Therrien’s Accounting for Genocide (2003).

Ref: http://www.newtfn.com/poverty

Firstly I would like to thank you both for your interest, as well as those that responded to me directly, and while the original document was written in response to a specific letter appearing in the Ottawa Citizen,(who have failed to print any of my many correspondences), I am appreciative of the fact that many important issues have been raised.

It is important to remember that the Algonquin Nation has not been conquered. The Algonquins were recognized as allies to the Crown and their rights were protected by legal decree and contract. The possibility of willing disposition of their land and resources were to have been carried out only through specific legal recourse, ie the Royal Proclamation of 1763, as well as subsequent legal contracts with the British Crown. These procedures were never followed but were in fact blatantly disregarded, or false contracts were substituted for the legitimate. According to law, the Algonquin Nation is still a soveriegn nation, never having signed a modern treaty, or relingquished their title to their territory or resources.

I don't think ancient history applies here. I don't think we should compare Rome's military invasion of Gual and their forced submission to Roman assimilation with the current Algonquin situation. There has not been a military defeat here but a proported relationship based on the Law of Nations. And what is the political status of Gual today, and how did that transpire? Is Great Britian still under Roman rule?

It is not "fact that the Algonquin nation was defeated by a wave of migrants driven to their shores by economic pressures." The Algonquin people, after existing for thousands of years as organised civilizations within their territories, allowed migrants to participate with them in what were to be mutually benefical relationships founded on peace and friendship, and agreed upon law. Unfortunately colonisation became the primary motivation of the visitors, and laws were often "redefined" or "administered" for exploitation.

That exploitation is contrary to law and the Canadian Constitution. I hope to address the issues in more detail in a subsequent article.

Mr. Poole's pessimism seems rather unrealistic to me, in light of many recent developments such as the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People and the recent Ipperwash Inquiry Report, as well as many court rulings and international pressures. I have more confidence in the moral character of Canadian citizens, who do not view themselves as migrants simply seeking better economic opportunities. I believe that they are individuals highly committed to learning more of the actual legal facts and foundations of this country, facts that they have also, for the most part been unjustly deprived of, and would be happy participating in the continued creation of what we all call home.

My point is there is a social justice movement beginning amongst us and that this movement, now started, will run its course, either through legal, legitimate process, or frustrated resistance. Existing Aboriginal policy in Canada is deceptive and fraudulent, fraught with corruption.

My community has submitted a land claim based on historical and legal fact. It offers the foundations of genuine and responsible reconciliation. It has been rejected by the current process, as we are repeatedly directed to submit under the dominance of an Indian Act band and their coherts, abrogating and derogating our constitutionally protected rights. As a civil leader of my community, committed to serving the best interests of the people I represent, I have no alternative but to take legal recourse.

Thank you again for this opportunity.

Paula'a comments lead me to relect on the situation of the Algonquin and Canada today and in history.

The Algonquin conquored other nations in war which did not remain as identifiable units within the greater Algonquin nation as far as I've read.

When Rome invaded Gaul, though, the Gauls retained their identity, maintained their traditional government at a local level, but were a province of Rome with the possibility of full citizenship.

Perhaps we can say that Canada implicitly offers the Algonquin the first model on an individual basis while simultaneously attempting to govern them under a hybrid of the second model.

Canada was populated by people groups advancing over the land bridge from Asia 12,000 years ago and from Asia across Europe crossing the Atlantic 400-500 years ago. These were the two landmark migrations that abruptly and irreversibly altered the pre-existing order.

What is my point? The fact that the Algonquin nation was defeated by a wave of migrants driven to their shores by economic pressures is not unique in history. If those same migrants from Europe now today take time from their lives on an individual basis to study and remake their world in a new, equitable society as Paula suggests - that would be unique in history. I can't see what she expects will come of this. She doesn't seem like the type of person to sit back and wait on big government. What is her point?