Since I began this blog, I have endeavoured to create resources for people unfamiliar with specific aboriginal topics. I like to call them Indigenous Topic Primers, because they are introductions to topics you could spend a lifetime specializing in. Not every post I put up is a primer, so I’ve decided to list them below topically, for ease of reference (and so I remember what I’ve already addressed!).
My focus is very much on what I call “myth debunking”. I have found it very difficult over the years to have discussions about anything related to indigenous peoples because so many bizarre beliefs get in the way. Try discussing what happened at Oka, for example, and you’ll quickly realise you’ve got to explain a lot of history and address a lot of misunderstandings before you can even get to that topic.
For me, this is a time saving device. A series of resources for myself and anyone else who wants them, so that some of the most prevalent myths can be quickly and clearly addressed, allowing a bigger conversation to (hopefully) happen.
These pieces have been written over a number of years, so many hyperlinks will probably no longer work.
Specific Myths or Misunderstandings
- An Explanation of Indian Status.
- First Nation Taxation.
- “Free Housing for Indians” is a myth.
- The Stereotype of the “Drunken Indian”.
- The wandering nomad myth
- Are we just our genes? Blood quantum.
- The myth of progress/post-colonialism.
- The level playing field myth.
- The myth of the corrupt chief and band council, part I.
Identity and Culture
- Aboriginal, Indian, First Nations? What To Call Us.
- Does traditional mean “frozen in time”?
- Issues in Defining Métis Identity.
- Who are the Métis?
- What is cultural appropriation?
- HOW TO: an example of an analysis of cultural appropriation
- How to sniff out fake “Native American” stories/legends and why you should.
- Two-Spirit identity.
- What my kids learn about themselves in school (spoiler: nothing)
- The mythology of Métissage: Settler moves to innocence
Aboriginal Law and Treaties
- A brief intro to: approaches to Treaty Making in Canada.
- The Nature of Aboriginal Law and Historical/Contemporary Treaties.
- Watch out for derogation clauses.
- Without Prejudice Agreements as a Method of Denying Aboriginal Rights.
- The White Paper and the First Nations Property Ownership Act.
- Understanding the Navajo trademark and restrictions on claiming “Native made” in US.
- Hunters/gatherers to trappers/harvesters, does it matter?
- Law school is a hostile place for Indigenous people
- Are you an Indigenous person thinking about studying law?
- Our laws are in our stories
Historic and Continuing Injustice
- Canada’s closets are packed with skeletons
- Residential Schools (introduction)
- Some of the arguments used to deny Aboriginal rights (heavy satire).
- The 60s scoop and present day Child Welfare problems, our stolen generations.
- High Arctic relocations.
- First Nations farming in the Prairies.
- What was the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples?
- How do we use the RCAP to move forward?
- Ruby’s Story
- Education: the First Nations Education Act
- We can’t be allowed to manage wildlife?
- The Natives are restless, wondering why?
- Rhymes for Young Ghouls: The Indian Agent
- An inquiry on murdered and missing Indigenous women.
- How the debate over a MMIW inquiry has been framed.
- Read the TRC report!
Indigenous Health and Safety
- Access to safe drinking water in First Nations communities
- OxyContin, targeting First Nations on issues of abuse
Organisations
Thoughts About Language/Culture
- Problems with fluency as authenticity
- Roadblocks to effective indigenous language development
- Cree kinship terms
- Why Indigenous language learning should be mandatory for all Canadians
- Sovereignty schools needed
- Nationhood is a verb, just do it!
- The reports of our cultural deaths are exaggerated.
- Play a game! Idle No More: Blockade
- That our languages thrive, not merely survive: Skwomesh immersion
Articles About Attawapiskat
- Dealing with comments about Attawapiskat. Dealing with Comments About Attawapiskat_print version
- What is Chief Spence Hiding? Not your logical fallacy.
- Third-party manager gets the boot and you don’t even care (heavy sarcasm).
- Attawapiskat not mismanaged says the court.
Elsipogtog
57 Comments
Scott · February 22, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Hi, did you know that your links on this page are all to missing pages? Looked like some pretty cool articles too, not sure if they got moved or were deleted.
âpihtawikosisân · February 22, 2012 at 7:14 pm
Thank you very much for letting me know! The links must have been broken in the move. When I have a moment, I’ll fix it all up!
Dylan · May 6, 2014 at 9:35 am
Hi apihtawikosisan, what’s new? I’ve found your writing super helpful as a settler trying to understand how we’ve got to where we are.
I realize you must be pretty busy with the Cree Language Classroom these days, but if you get a moment to repair the links on this page, I’d love to link to it from my blog (awizardofearth.blogspot.ca) and get more people reading up on decolonization.
Marilee Pittman · December 18, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Thank you! We need a Primer.
Barry O'Regan · December 23, 2012 at 8:40 am
Maybe I am a tad off base here, as many movies previously show First Nations travesties.
One wonders if anyone after watching the 1980s movie “Red Dawn” where Communist forces invaded the USA. Then take the movie “Red Dawn” reshoot it and put it in the 16th century (without the helicopter gunships etc) .
Replace the premise of invading Communist forces with Europeans and replace US Citizens with First Nations peoples. Betcha that would put a unique perspective.
Just sayin………….
Steven Allen · January 8, 2013 at 4:19 pm
Excellent site. The treaties need to be framed in contract form that we all might understand. Canada has been “leased” to european settlers for certain treaty rights like education, health care and resource useage. Deciding not to live up to our end of the bargain means the bargain is null and void. I wonder if Europe or Asia would accept most of us back and how we would fare if we returned.
algonquincollegeguy · January 23, 2013 at 1:39 pm
FANTASTIC site. I’m forcing as many people as I can to read everything on this site.
Turquoise-feather · September 12, 2020 at 6:22 pm
And I fully agree with you! Starting with me… I have a lot of reading to do!😉 Wonderful website!! Just what I’ve been looking for! Even if some of the links are broken …at least I can copy the sentence & paste it into Google search & find the info that way!
Andrew · April 4, 2013 at 11:35 am
Article: American History As It Should Be Taught
“Historians often overlook the fact that the early explorers found, not a savage people ready to kill and scalp them, but a peace-loving, hospitable people ready to love them and who welcomed them to their land. When there was a time of famine among the early whites, who was it who brought them meat, corn and fish? It was only after guns were given the Indian with which to kill his brother, liquor was fed him to make his mind weak, his country was taken from him, treaties were violated by those whom we call civilized, and his people were driven from place to place, that he became the savage that we read of in history. Of the causes of his savagery, little or nothing is mentioned!
“If we continue to think of the Indian as a savage, should we not hide our heads in shame when we look at the horrors of modern warfare? Did the so-called savage Indians invent poisonous gases that would sweep away whole villages of people? Did he invent the modern bombs, cannons, tanks, machine guns, submarines, warships and other implements that are being used in every country that today calls itself civilized! Well might the Indian laugh at some teachers when they call his ancient ancestors warlike savages!”
—Aren Akweks, The Native Voice, March 1950, p16 (http://nativevoice.bc.ca/)
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
LosIndiov1 · May 4, 2015 at 5:59 pm
So awesome. Thanks for all the hard work on this.
pete trung · December 27, 2015 at 7:31 am
equal is equal Canada is a country where all are equal giving one race special rights based on outdated agreements is racism. If the native population wants equal they should start by paying equal tax and accepting equal hunting and fishing rights
âpihtawikosisân · December 27, 2015 at 10:12 am
Looks like you desperately need to read some of the pieces in this collection, as you are sorely misinformed about the history of this country, and the way in which “equality” has been, and continues to be denied Indigenous peoples. Not in the way you seem to think of it, where we are somehow “given more”, but in fact, in the way in which we are systemically denied standards comparable to non-Indigenous peoples. This is not a choice we have made, it is a foundational objective of the colonial state.
pete tung · December 29, 2015 at 6:25 am
The vast majority of non native Canadians came to Canada with nothing fleeing war oppression starvation persecution, yet instead of using these horrors as excuses to fail they prospered. It is time natives quit using excuses for there failures and prosper. If any other segment of the Canadian population had the extra benefits Natives receive they would all be millionaires
âpihtawikosisân · January 1, 2016 at 8:41 am
If any other segment of the Canadian population had to exist with the discriminatory lower funding, systemic racism, wholesale removal of children that continues to this day, the forced and coerced sterilization, the brutally higher sentencing lengths and overall over-representation in the prison system, the murders and disappearances, the lack of food security and potable water…
Well, if any other segment of the Canadian population experienced that, you’d probably have empathy for them.
Which suggests something, doesn’t it.
Malika · May 26, 2020 at 12:11 pm
I would recommend to read Chelsea Vowel ‘s book, you will find a good explanation and details about taxation, that would enlighten you and stop you from being ignorant.
Jaqueline · January 15, 2016 at 12:55 pm
Wonderful and informative site. Thank you so much for taking the time to enlighten people about Native issues in Canada.
shubhra agrawal · April 5, 2016 at 3:41 pm
I had come across a few posts about human rights issues relating to Canadian aboriginals on Tumblr but I never really paid much attention to them. I was assigned Canada as the topic of our International studies project and I remembered there were some major issues to be discussed here so I went looking for them on Tumblr because Google was incredibly unhelpful when it came to aboriginal issues. I found a link to your blog there and thank you so much! I’ve gone through a few posts here already and they’re all incredibly helpful. I hope to start a good discussion in class about the issues so more people can find out about it. 🙂
Alex Kubish · September 13, 2016 at 9:26 am
A professor at the University of Alberta Faculty of Law just shared this blog with our class, and I’m delighted to find all this well-written and very educational information in one place. It’s very important for non-Aboriginals to learn these things, and I hope provincial governments make changes so that students learn this kind of meaningful material in an age-appropriate way. I know I didn’t in grade school, and I think that has created a society of people who just don’t have the foundational understanding needed for reconciliation. So, âpihtawikosisân, thank you so much for this important resource; by writing it you are making Canada better. Non-Aboriginal readers can do the same if we respond with an open mind, which is an attitude every person can have even if there are some things he or she struggles with – it’s our choice.
âpihtawikosisân · September 13, 2016 at 9:41 am
Ha, was it Hadley Friedland? My LLB is from the U of A 🙂
Ian Weniger · December 20, 2016 at 3:46 pm
Klahowya from the big saltchuck. I heard you on Unreserved. This blog is a blessing. I’m very surprised the last message was posted four years ago. I wonder if you heard about the Sawyee Aboriginal Safety orientation for the Island Health Authority. I listened to three sisters who facilitated these sessions speak on White Coat, Black Art. I look forward to finding the section in your blog on healthcare.
âpihtawikosisân · December 20, 2016 at 3:58 pm
Unfortunately I haven’t talked much about healthcare yet; there are still so many topics to cover, including health, post-secondary education and finishing my piece on the issue of “corrupt chiefs”. Too many things for me to get to…maybe one day!
Gayl · July 1, 2017 at 1:27 pm
Hi, I’m perusing your archives looking for a post about the funding process for reserves/bands that debunks the “grants from taxpayer dollars” myth, as well as describing the process of applying for and receiving funds from the federal government. I can’t find the post and I don’t recall the title. It was a detailed piece about the allocation of funds in the federal budget process, the time lag for receiving funds due to all the assessment and business reporting required, the hiring of vetted contractors, and the time crunch especially for northern communities who have a very narrow window of time to break ground and actually get the work done due to the weather and location. Thanks in advance!
âpihtawikosisân · July 6, 2017 at 11:20 am
I touched on those things in the context of Attawapiskat: https://apihtawikosisan.com/2011/11/dealing-with-comments-about-attawapiskat/
Douglas Miller · August 23, 2017 at 5:39 pm
bully wants to change school names from John A. Macdonald – i’m fed up with these people who want things their way Irregardless of the fact that they are trying to rewrite history all to no point other than to cause trouble and glorify themselves with attention..
âpihtawikosisân · August 25, 2017 at 11:39 am
Lol, look who’s talking? Your lot have completely rewritten history to puff yourselves up and justify genocide, eugenics, forced sterilization, rape, murder, theft…now that people are insisting on a more honest account, you cry yourselves hoarse. Well stock up on tissues. The time for your colonial lies is past.
alexandra · May 16, 2018 at 2:22 pm
hiy hiy
Dawn · April 14, 2018 at 8:14 am
This is an incredible resource eve. Thank you so much for doing this!
aztecatl13 · July 16, 2019 at 7:03 pm
Thank you so much for taking the time to put this together! You’ve worked so hard on this. As a non-native person, I’m really excited to read all these articles as they look very interesting and are important information for all non-natives to know.
David Harper · September 13, 2019 at 9:52 am
I’ve read through several of these and they’re fantastic! Thanks very much for taking the time to make them. They’re clear, sometime humourous, sometimes personal, always helpful.
Would you mind if I were to use one in class? I teach history and some Canadian identity and some of these could be very useful.
John D. · April 7, 2020 at 11:30 am
Good work! I’m descended from colonial settlers on my father’s side and Cree – Ojibway on my mother’s side. As you’ve said the myths and misconceptions get in the way of having meaningful discussions about indigenous issues. Everyone has opinions and I guess this shows that they care about our country but these are too often based on emotion, ignorance, illiteracy, colonial ideology and racist nonsense. If I were the Dictator of Canada I would make your essays required reading for all Canadians. Those who fail the exam would be banished to live on a patch of muskeg somewhere along the James Bay coast. Be careful at the blockades! Best wishes for a better future!
rafawa · June 1, 2020 at 3:46 pm
Thanks so much for this.
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