government blamed for First Nations treating the land like crap

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/greenpage/environment/Environmental-rules-more-lax-on-reserves-than-off_-audit-68914752.html

"Piles of flaming garbage on reserves, and drinking water tinged with raw sewage, are just two possible consequences of weak environmental enforcement in First Nations communities, says Auditor General Sheila Fraser.
In an audit released Tuesday, Fraser takes the federal government to task for not cracking down as hard on environmental hazards on reserves as it does off reserves.
"A healthy environment and control over the management of land and resources are critical to sustainable economic development," Fraser told a news conference.
"Without them opportunities for First Nations to improve their quality of life and approach the standard of health and well being enjoyed in other communities are severely limited."
"

And several of us reading this are left asking the same question....when are First Nations going to take responsibility for their own environments? I thought the concept of Mother Earth was central to Aboriginal culture and spirituality.....oh yeah, that's right, we beat it out them - all of us......it is all our fault even though some of us can only trace our Canadian heritage to the 1950's.

What a mess. Too much infantilization, too much political correctness and not enough accountability.

I wonder... Will it ever be convenient for first nations to be accountable for their own actions?

grumpy old man wrote:I wonder... Will it ever be convenient for first nations to be accountable for their own actions?

not when we have the auditor general standing up and saying... its the governments fault for allowing them to act this way.....and the cheifs saying... quit telling us what to do we can manage ourselves quite well.

The government has to stop pretending they are responsible for anything let alone people's own actions. 100 yrs from now people will wonder how we could be so damn stupid. Were we standing so close so as not to be able to see it? It's downright bizarre that people think this situation needs a few more billion dollars of studying out of Ottawa or anywhere else. If people want food and a house and money then damn well work for it or you will have nothing. Kind of like the old days when 1 + 1 = 2. It's time for the return of common-sense. I thought Sheila Fraser was smarter than this but I suppose she wears a few hats.

Ass Hat perhaps being one of them?

Miz point wrote: I thought the concept of Mother Earth was central to Aboriginal culture and spirituality.....

That concept is a myth. Before contact the indigenous people were nomadic hunters and gatherers who stayed at one place until they had virtually destroyed anything living there and then moved on to the next place. They only had the concept of HARVESTING - without ever sowing a seed. This concept has now been perpetuated into the handouts from INAC to First Nations.

I would like to think you are wrong but I will do some further referencing because I think your blanket generalization that the concept is a myth may not be applicable as not all tribes were nomadic.

Yeow.

Another instance of passing the buck I guess.

I wanna blame the city for taking my own car, overturning it on my lawn and setting it ablaze.

Disgraceful state of reserves has opposition fuming

Opposition parties slammed the Conservative government yesterday
for allowing Canada's First Nations to live in Third World conditions.
The criticism came after Auditor General Sheila Fraser exposed
reserves as unregulated, filthy and environmentally toxic places.
"The environmental protection is not sufficient," Fraser said.
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada turned a blind eye to
landfill sites, sewage treatments and disposals on reserves that
pollute and operate without required permits, she said.
Septic systems, water treatment facilities, waste water
discharges and hazardous waste are not subject to any regulation on
reserves, although they are strictly controlled for other Canadians by
provincial and municipal authorities.
"The federal government has taken little action to change this," Fraser said.
Liberals accused the government of having no real interest in improving social, health and living conditions on reserves.
"It's not acceptable, not in the 21st century, in a country as wealthy as Canada," said Ontario MP David McGuinty.
ALARM BELLS
NDP Leader Jack Layton said First Nations need protection and adequate financial support.
"They need help," he said.
First Nations have been sounding alarm bells for years, the
auditor general noted. The federal government is well aware of problems
but has failed to monitor and enforce compliance of the few regulations
that exist, Fraser added.
The AG's report found while the government's objective is to
encourage First Nations to manage their own lands, it plans to train
only one person per community. That means if that person dies or leaves
the reserve, there is no one trained to replace them.
Indian and Northern Affairs blamed a lack of funding for
failing to meet its obligations. Spokeswoman Patricia Valladao said the
government will work with First Nations communities to fix regulatory
gaps and assess contained sites to reduce risks to human health and
department liabilities -- now estimated at $143 million.

Like the previous 13 years of government(liberals) did anything. NOT

Lets blame it on the current government.

That concept is a myth. Before contact the indigenous people were nomadic hunters and gatherers who stayed at one place until they had virtually destroyed anything living there and then moved on to the next place. They only had the concept of HARVESTING - without ever sowing a seed. This concept has now been perpetuated into the handouts from INAC to First Nations

O do,s that explain the sites like Banock Point , Red Rock , Cliff Lake .
They are Indian Sacred sites that have many rock formations and Paintings , 3 of many you can look them up on Google . Myth seems like a lot of work to perputute it to your own 450 yrs ago some of these sites

Not sure I follow what you're saying, Pav.....

Pavolo wrote:That concept is a myth. Before contact the indigenous people were nomadic hunters and gatherers who stayed at one place until they had virtually destroyed anything living there and then moved on to the next place. They only had the concept of HARVESTING - without ever sowing a seed. This concept has now been perpetuated into the handouts from INAC to First Nations

O do,s that explain the sites like Banock Point , Red Rock , Cliff Lake .
They are Indian Sacred sites that have many rock formations and Paintings , 3 of many you can look them up on Google . Myth seems like a lot of work to perputute it to your own 450 yrs ago some of these sites

I call bullshite on this one as there are many tribal groups in the Americas who were NOT nomadic like the BC tribes on the coast or the Iroquois or the Aztecs, Maya, Inca - HELLO???? And I am just naming the celebrity Indians?

OK and also the Zapotecs, Olmecs......in central Mexico - Oaxaca......the cradle of the tortilla.

Miz point wrote:OK and also the Zapotecs, Olmecs......in central Mexico - Oaxaca......the cradle of the tortilla.

do any of those live in Canada?

No, but they are fiercely independent.

Miz point wrote:

Pavolo wrote:That concept is a myth. Before contact the indigenous people were nomadic hunters and gatherers who stayed at one place until they had virtually destroyed anything living there and then moved on to the next place. They only had the concept of HARVESTING - without ever sowing a seed. This concept has now been perpetuated into the handouts from INAC to First Nations

O do,s that explain the sites like Banock Point , Red Rock , Cliff Lake .
They are Indian Sacred sites that have many rock formations and Paintings , 3 of many you can look them up on Google . Myth seems like a lot of work to perputute it to your own 450 yrs ago some of these sites

I call bullshite on this one as there are many tribal groups in the Americas who were NOT nomadic like the BC tribes on the coast or the Iroquois or the Aztecs, Maya, Inca - HELLO???? And I am just naming the celebrity Indians?

In Canada, not all of the aboriginal tribes were nomadic. On the great plains (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Oklahoma.) they would roam from northern manitoba all the way to oklahoma following the bison.
Costal aboriginals like those on East and West coasts were not nomadic. They would head out hunt, fish and forage or trade with other tribes.

You have just contradicted yourself there LD......

Miz point wrote:You have just contradicted yourself there LD......

I missed one word.

It should have said, "In Canada (insert "not" here) all of the...

Sorry, my fingers were still half asleep.

cool.....

From today's perspective, it is difficult to imagine the ethical system
that would justify Soto's actions. For four years his force, looking
for gold, wandered through what is now Florida, Georgia, North and
South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas,
wrecking almost everything it touched. The inhabitants often fought
back vigorously, but they had never before encountered an army with
horses and guns. Soto died of fever with his expedition in ruins; along
the way his men had managed to rape, torture, enslave, and kill
countless Indians. But the worst thing the Spaniards did, some
researchers say, was entirely without malice—bring the pigs.According to Charles Hudson, an anthropologist at the University of
Georgia who spent fifteen years reconstructing the path of the
expedition, Soto crossed the Mississippi a few miles downstream from
the present site of Memphis. It was a nervous passage: the Spaniards
were watched by several thousand Indian warriors. Utterly without fear,
Soto brushed past the Indian force into what is now eastern Arkansas,
through thickly settled land—"very well peopled with large towns," one
of his men later recalled, "two or three of which were to be seen from
one town." Eventually the Spaniards approached a cluster of small
cities, each protected by earthen walls, sizeable moats, and deadeye
archers. In his usual fashion, Soto brazenly marched in, stole food,
and marched out.

After Soto left, no Europeans visited this part of the Mississippi
Valley for more than a century. Early in 1682 whites appeared again,
this time Frenchmen in canoes. One of them was Réné-Robert Cavelier,
Sieur de la Salle. The French passed through the area where Soto had
found cities cheek by jowl. It was deserted—La Salle didn't see an
Indian village for 200 miles. About fifty settlements existed in this
strip of the Mississippi when Soto showed up, according to Anne
Ramenofsky, an anthropologist at the University of New Mexico. By La
Salle's time the number had shrunk to perhaps ten, some probably
inhabited by recent immigrants. Soto "had a privileged glimpse" of an
Indian world, Hudson says. "The window opened and slammed shut. When
the French came in and the record opened up again, it was a transformed
reality. A civilization crumbled. The question is, how did this happen?"

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200203/mann