Dan Green

A deadly crime spree on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, highlights the similarities of crime and drug abuse which also plague reservations in the United States just as they do here in Canada. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/us/wind-river-indian-reservation-where-brutality-is-banal.html?_r=1&sq=Timothy Williams, Indian Reservation&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=print.

Average life spans on American reservations are 49 years, twenty fewer than in Iraq. Unemployment hovers around 80 percent whereas the rate for all Wyoming is 6 percent. Teenagers are twice as likely to kill themselves as their peers elsewhere in Wyoming. The high school drop-out rate is twice the state average. Child abuse, teen pregnancy, sexual assault are endemic. Alcoholism and drug abuse are so prevalent that positive results on drug tests prevent aboriginals from getting jobs on Wyoming’s booming oil fields.

What the hell is wrong with this picture? Why do aboriginals in North America continue to spiral into this endless vortex of hopelessness? What prevents them from thriving like immigrants from war torn countries such as the Vietnamese who faced circumstances that were in many cases far worse than what was ever experienced in residential schools and who find a way to shake off the tragedies of the past and move on.

Are these the same sorry circumstances that resulted in governments setting up the residential schools in the first place? As a way to help  aboriginal kids to escape a culture that does not provide the framework to enable them to earn their place in mainstream society. I pity the kids borne into this cultural prison since there appears to be no way out, except by slitting your own throat or losing your mind in a bag of gas fumes.

The Vancouver Island Health Authority wants to hire an increased number of aboriginals to more closely reflect the numbers of First Nations people living on the island. Eighteen months ago they hired Steve Sxwithul’txw as the authority’s first aboriginal employment advisor.http://www.nanaimobulletin.com/news/137719968.html Guess what Steve?  Unless First Nations youth on the island start improving their graduation rates from high school nothing is going to change.  Secondary institutions can open training spots to First Nations people, but if there are no aboriginal kids as equally qualified as other non-aboriginals, it would be unacceptable to give them the spots since it could affect the quality of patient health-care in the future.

The focus of Steve’s work should be to hold out the carrot to aboriginal youth who are now just entering high school, informing them of the great employment opportunities in health care that await them if they buckle down and prepare themselves for a rewarding future.

Aboriginal communities such as Attawapiskat would be well served if their elected councillors contacted the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition http://www.cvhc.org/index.php?id=19, in southern California. This non-profit housing development corporation was formed in 1982 and since that time has constructed nearly 3000 homes and apartments for low-income households. Their Mutual Self-Help Program seems to be something which could be emulated by First Nations communities all over Canada where the unemployment rate is so high.

In this program, first time homeowners are given the opportunity to help build their own homes and thereby “earn sweat equity”, which can generally add up to be 10 percent of the value of their future home and which becomes the down payment. Families work together to build each others homes under the supervision of construction supervisors with licensed sub-contractors doing the more specialized tasks. In time aboriginal youth could be trained to take over these higher skilled tasks as well which could help solve the abysmal unemployment problem which is soul destroying for aboriginal youth and the primary source of their high suicide rate.

These are the type of real result programs that Band Councils should be initiating rather than wasting time flying back and forth to Ottawa for endless meetings which accomplish nothing.

The recent documentary film called The Life You Want about a young aboriginal woman’s battle to overcome OxyContin addiction really paints a bleak picture of how boring and unhealthy it is to live on an isolated northern reserve.http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Hooked+painkillers+aching+help/5961705/story.html Who wouldn’t want to get zoned out in a pitiful place like that? Maybe it’s time to think about moving to communities where young people can get an education and have something more stimulating to do in their spare time then get stoned.

As usual, band leaders are blaming everyone but themselves for what is going on, even to the point making stupid noises about taking their case to the United Nations. Hello people, it’s time to police yourselves. You can’t tell me that nobody knows who is bringing this stuff into the reserves. Why not follow the example of the Mistawasis First Nation, near Prince Albert and evict the traffickers from your land.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/alberta-first-nation-votes-to-give-band-power-to-evict-gang-members/article2291513/ Then you might find outside agencies more willing to step in and give you a hand.

In a year-end interview with James Bradshaw http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/the-governor-general-on-health-care-diversity-and-candid-talks-with-harper/article2282940/page2/, Governor-General David Johnston agreed with my opinion that education models on most Canadian First Nations reserves are not working. He suggests that initiatives in British Columbia which develop curriculums that fit the language and employment needs of the reservation such as logging, mining, and fishing are good ideas which should be expanded. This is fine as far as it goes, but without first having the security of adequate family housing, aboriginal kids have little chance of succeeding in these other areas.

Each reserve must make a priority of educating individuals in the basic construction trades to build and maintain new and existing housing on their reserves which will provide a safe learning environment for children without the stress and dysfunction that occurs with housing debacles like Attawapiskat. Any kid growing up in crowded, unsanitary, unsafe conditions, with no privacy or confidence about having a decent roof over their heads, doesn’t stand a chance to succeed. 

First Nations councils and government beaurocrats must put First Things First.