Quote:
Originally Posted by jolinar of malkshor
Oh come on....are you for real? Given the life expectancy prior to european's in the 14th century was around 35-40 years and now is 80+. I guess they were much better off.
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I didn't say that I believed this.
What I said was that a lot of people would argue this, and that after seeing some reserves and the conditions that some of the homes are in that going back to unsettled land in a TeePee might be preferable. Keep in mind that before white guys showed up natives were living in a sustainable way and didn't have the pollution they have today. They also didn't have many of the diseases they have today, and the certainly didn't have the rampant alcohol abuse that is so prevalent today. So some would say that their standard of living is not that much better.
That is not what i want to debate really as it is inconsequential.
The fact is that a large portion of the native community lives in conditions very much below that of the average Canadian. A lot would argue (myself included) that a good portion of this problem is self inflicted, particularily by the leadership of many of the bands, and that claims such as this one about cell phone signals do a lot more harm than any good that is unlikely to come from getting paid off for such a rediculous claim.
Untill the leadership of these communities stop making stupid claims like this, most people will continue to see them as money hungry lay-abouts who just want handouts, and in this particular case this image is not only self inflicted, but waranted.