First Nations delegation in Iran to discuss human rights offenses in Canada

[SeeBass]

I grew up in Manitoba and over 25% of the students were bused in from reserves.

I can think of only a handful of reserve students that even made it as far as grade 10.

I had seen 4 high school graduation ceremonies and not one of those kids were from the reserves.

[Coys1882]

I grew up in Northern Sasky and my hometown had 4 reserves nearby. I got to know a lot of the reserve kids from hockey and other sports and only one of them made the effort to go to Uni on the government's dime. I've said it before in other threads about the reserves: contracts or not - the treaties are destroying an entire nation of people living in Canada and everyone is too afraid of the political suicide to do anything about it. Tear those treaties up - force assimilation into modern society and watch those problems disappear.

[Nyah]

Originally Posted by SeeBass

I grew up in Manitoba and over 25% of the students were bused in from reserves.

I can think of only a handful of reserve students that even made it as far as grade 10.

I had seen 4 high school graduation ceremonies and not one of those kids were from the reserves.

I went to university with some natives, and they said the only reason they were succeeding as they were (academically they were doing outstanding), was because they left the 'Rez'. The reservation attitude is what brings these kids down.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by SeeBass

I grew up in Manitoba and over 25% of the students were bused in from reserves.

I can think of only a handful of reserve students that even made it as far as grade 10.

I had seen 4 high school graduation ceremonies and not one of those kids were from the reserves.

I went to school with many First Nations kids as well and witnessed the same thing. I remember one kid in particular who was extremely talented in pretty much everything (athletics, art, and acedemics), but he ended up dropping out in grade 10. Part of the reason was that he had younger brothers and sisters that he had to help look after because his parents were exteme alcoholics (as he is now too the last I heard).

Our family used to board reserve kids that lived so far out of town that it wasn't realistic for them to drive back and forth. Most of them were good kids, but there was a lot of negative peer pressure for them to not "sell out" to the white man. The kicker though, was that they had built a school on the reserve, but within a couple of years, it was so badly damaged and full of squatters, that it couldn't be used any more.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Coys1882

I grew up in Northern Sasky and my hometown had 4 reserves nearby. I got to know a lot of the reserve kids from hockey and other sports and only one of them made the effort to go to Uni on the government's dime. I've said it before in other threads about the reserves: contracts or not - the treaties are destroying an entire nation of people living in Canada and everyone is too afraid of the political suicide to do anything about it. Tear those treaties up - force assimilation into modern society and watch those problems disappear.

It will never happend (I think it should BTW), but it never will. They fear assomilation too much. I still believe that many natives believe they are still owed by "the white man".

[Azure]

I also went to school with Native kids, and very few of them graduated despite being offered every opportunity to do so.

[Coys1882]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

I still believe that many natives believe they are still owed by "the white man".

It's a shame but really they aren't owed anything. Like every civ at some point of its existence it's been taken over by another one - you conform or you die. It's sad but reality - what the Canadian government did though, good intentions or not, is try to keep their heritage alive by basically giving them just enough to work for nothing.

The reserves have become a breeding ground for abuse, neglect, and apathy. It's tragic and the only politician I can remember who told it how he saw it concerning the reserves was Preston Manning; but I think he had to drop that platform because of the political backlash.

[HOOT]

Originally Posted by Azure

I also went to school with Native kids, and very few of them graduated despite being offered every opportunity to do so.

The ones at our school were paid to go to school and still didn't show up. You can't help those that don't want your help.