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So, several jobs available that would infuse a decent amount of cash into the local economy yet because of a certain course requiring quals (what quals?) and cash those jobs remain idle?

Mysterious quals aside, I'd love to know what the course would cost and then hear the explanation from the chief on why the band cannot afford it? Hell, I recall she makes a decent wage, surely a community leader such as herself could even see ponying up some of her own money for the sake of a course to get some jobs into the community would be worth it?

I'm not buying this....at all.

Again, I won't deny Fed mismanagement, but I have yet to hear you admit there is any serious mismanagement, irresponsibility, or even any accountability here, Jeff. I hear a 'just give them the money' argument that does not address the concerns I raise.

Guess we'll just go around the buoy on this just like the reserve and the Feds. How's that working out for them by the way?

   

Many who leave the reserves and get a trade or education, have no desire to go back, even to those reserves that don't have huge gang and drug problems. look at any small non aboriginal community. Most young people, or those who have acquired an education or trade, don't come back to live there either, after they've been out and about in the world.

   

We're done here, Jeff. There is no one sided accountability here. If you think you can take the Feds to task and give the natives a by, then you're wasting time here and convincing no one. And if you're not convincing anyone, then you become another agenda driven thread spammer out to stand on a soapbox and make noise in the forums, and frankly, we've got enough of those.

   

Really? Yer equating a teleconference with federal bureaucrats to phone solicitors?

   

We're done here, Jeff. There is no one sided accountability here. If you think you can take the Feds to task and give the natives a by, then you're wasting time here and convincing no one. And if you're not convincing anyone, then you become another agenda driven thread spammer out to stand on a soapbox and make noise in the forums, and frankly, we've got enough of those.[/quote]
Which side has the agenda? I am the only one that has actually stepped up to defend her in any sense, instead most of this forum has bought into the government story hook, line, and sinker. Hell, I was on the other side for the longest time, after doing reading I completely flipped sides as a huge portion of the problems stem from the fact that there is absolutely no system in place to educate the leaders of the band, instead Indian Affairs just told them they were in change and started to send the payments as required by the treaties. There are only two real solutions to the problem, the rest are just like putting a band-aid on an arterial bleed, it'll stop it for a second and then it is worse than ever.

You either move the whole community somewhere less isolated, transporting the trappers and miners into and out of the region (the settlement is an entirely foreign creation) on treaty money. Or you go in full force and rebuild the community from the ground up including making it possible for them to produce large quantities of firewood and build their own houses using material readily available in the area and just importing things that require factory manufacturing while also training them on the equipment and sending the leaders through courses so that they know what the hell they are doing.

   

So, how many times do you think she has been asked about the housing crisis by reporters? Just a couple? How about the reporters that landed in Attawapiskat and began digging? Multiple agencies of the federal government? Other band chiefs?

People are always tolerant of them for a short time, then you get tired of it, then you start to just hang up because there is nothing different from the latest call from the ones you received a thousand times before. How are they different?

   

Don't bother throwing the reporters into this. If she can't distinguish between nosiness and offical business, then she has no business being chief.
And if things are so damn bad, how does she figure an extra 50K a month will solve any of it?

   

...longer holidays at a better resort, a nicer truck and a few more bright and shiny baubles? His stance might be a little more believable if it wasn't a complete 180 from the views he's posted on every other issue/thread dealing with the endemic corruption and mismanagement on reserves

   

It's amazing what reading 30+ articles and 2 books will do to your view of a particular issue.

   

She is a chief of a small reserve, you will be hard pressed to find anyone willing to be a mayor/chief of a band that size if they have to put up with being asked the same questions hundreds of times and being expected to give the same answer because they are too damned competitive to actually compile their information and not annoy the hell out of their victims.

That's another 2.4 new homes every year, or renovating 6-12 condemned homes. Maybe she is trying to get something instead of nothing, though it seems that concept has never occurred to you before.

   

Then maybe they shouldn't be living there

   

This may be a stupid question, but if the point of living on the reserve is to maintain a traditional native lifestyle, why in the fuck are we building them houses? Shouldn't we be building them teepees?



I see hydro lines, a satelite dish and an ATV...nothing terribly traditional looking to me.

   

Traditionally, weren't they more nomadic? Didn't they move with the food sources and adapt? Seems to me they want it all delivered now. Is also tradition to leave garbage strewn around? Not really living up to caring for mother nature is it.
When my bother was working up there they tried to hire as many of them as they could because it was cheaper than paying to transport labour to the job site and part of the deal was to employ members of the reserve. He said very few ever stayed to work and would only show up for a day or two then leave, never to return. That was the norm, not the exception.

   

With respect, reading a couple books on the issues doesn't make you an expert. Far from it. In fact, a lot of what you've read on here is more factual and realistic.

Having spent a decade + on a reserve, you placing the blame on the Government of Canada is laughable.

More money is not going to solve the problem.

You want to place the blame at the feet of the Government while on the other hand, you expect the Natives to have zero accountability for the money and the housing they've provided?

Simple maintenance leads to buildings lasting longer and when you don't take pride or ownership into something you've been GIVEN, it falls apart and you blame everyone else for your lack of effort to maintain even the basic standards of living.

   

he read a couple of books, while I used to live and teach in a fly-in, but what he read gives him a deeper understanding of their plight.....don't think so sparky.

   

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