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Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
BC is kind of a special case though. It was a separate colony and many of the First Nations never signed treaties and are negotiating without that legacy.
Chief Louie is also the first one to admit that his location helps a lot with the economic development. I like that he recognizes that more funding for actual development and not for social services is needed in a lot of communities, but he also makes a good point that a lot of the reserves are on crap land with access issues and few resources. How can those communities survive without being welfare cases? I would love to see it happen, but short of forced relocation, I can't fathom it.
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Um, they can move. AFAIK they aren't trapped on the land. These aren't prison camps. I don't know, if it's so bad they could always move, grab themselves some free university, get jobs and earn some money? That's what every other Canadian has to do when they find themselves in poor economic conditions (minus the free university).
What culture exactly do they even think they're preserving at this point? I'm pretty sure the plan wasn't for them to be supported by the Canadian government for 100s of years. My understanding of the reserves was they were so they could preserve their way of life by hunting and living in tipis apart from mainstream Canadian culture. Now a good number of these reserves just seem to be disasters.
I can't believe you'd ask how they can survive and not be welfare cases. It seems so defeatist. I survive by not being a welfare case because I live somewhere that has jobs and I get up and go to work every day. It's really not that hard.