Quote:
Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
In talking with some of the aboriginal on Bear Island in northern Ontario, they are most upset that they CAN'T live off the land. Their traditional hunting grounds are on the mainland, not on the island. Same with their farming land. The island is too small to sustain the population if they are living off the land. Right now the aboriginese have 1 square mile of reserve whereas their traditional hunting area was 4000 sq miles. They are trying to negotiate with the province for about 100 sq miles such that they CAN go back to a more traditional lifestyle of hunting/fishing/agriculture. So I don't think we can say that their old ways are absolutely "gone forever", save for that they use guns now rather than spears.
The ones I have spoken with don't want a hand out... they want the opportunity to live within their community, sharing their culture and traditions. The Hutterites have been fortunate to have very good farmland and now have the money to purchase MORE land. Many native reserves are on hard rocky land or swamps ( http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/?id=8356) . |
That's the thing, people were packed onto reserves which were made up of useless land because it was the least valuable. In the 1800s a white male could simply claim 160 acres for themselves as part of the pre-emption system. All that was required was that they make modest improvements on it to maintain ownership. Many extended families claimed up thousands of acres of adjoining plots and in many instances as few as 10 members of an extended family who pre-empted land would have as much land to use for themselves as Native tribes made up of 3000-4000 people.
People like to say history doesn't matter, but many of those reserve boundaries are identical to what they were 150 years ago while the land around them is worth billions.