Moving toward Metis 'Recognition' -- Article 4

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the fourth article in a periodic series looking at the movement toward international recognition of the Metis (mixed blood) People. This article is a commentary by Michael Rondot

Who are We? Part 1

For many years I struggled with that question. Everywhere I turned, I found myself faced with one inescapable fact .... vested self- interest groups, led by individuals annointed from upon high (an old phrase, updated to reflect modern reality, comes to mind - "All roads lead to Washington."), have sought to sow dissent and splinter their respective larger groups for the benefit of a limited few.

To begin an answer - let's look at some of the history:

Once upon a time in this land, a person born or adopted into a tribe was a member of that tribe --- period. They fully shared in the fortunes of their tribe --- through good times and bad --- as an intrinsic member of the greater whole. Then a new cultural imperative arrived on the scene, "Me first, last and always and forget about the rest."

Tribal cultures were handed gifts, then told that they had just sold their land - 'Huh? No one can own the land, it is Creator's land! "Poor deluded savages," said the new culture, who responded with further 'gifts' of disease-laden blankets, burnt crops, musket balls, and forced relocations.

Families who resisted were either killed outright or herded farther and farther west, into lands occupied by other tribes. These tribes could not understand why these newcomers had shown up on their traditional lands, the concept of land ownership was as alien to them as it had been to the eastern tribes in that earlier age. Dismissing the truth as unbelievable, they then unknowingly furthered the new culture's pogrom by dealing with the 'invaders' in their own traditional ways.

Tribes that acquiesed to the new culture soon learned that their treaties were totally useless. "Dissolve your cultures, assimilate into our culture, and all will be well. Failure to due so will result in your annihilation." The reservation system was born --- resources were so tightly controlled that many tribal members would have to assimilate off-rez to survive.

Time passed and yet the 'indian problem' persisted. Worse yet to the new culture, some of their members were actually joining with tribes. 'Half-breeds' were born that could and did walk in both worlds threatening to disrupt the process. Controls on reservations were tightened --- elements of this can still be found in 25 USC. Always adaptable, the tribes found ways around many of these, yet the damage was slowly accumulating. Traditional culture was being lost. Language, value systems, ceremonies --- traditional ways of life slowly but surely were being eroded away.

The latest tool in this now not-so-new culture's arsenal to combat the 'indian problem' is tribal gaming. Having learned the 'Me first' paradigm, tribes have removed countless of their own family members from tribal rolls, to increase their own shares of casino profits. Simultaneously, 'SOME' older tribal members, relying on the traditional role of 'Elders,' use this for self-gain, but absent the application of traditional values or ancient cultural wisdom that has historically accompanied the status and position of Elder.

In this new environment, many tribal ordinances now seriously limit enrollment and in some of the more extreme cases, even limits the ability to even participate in what little culture remains by an individual who has been born or adopted in a traditional way into a family that is outside the power structure of the tribe. Blood quantum rules are vigorously enforced --- Question - "What part of a mixed blood is Indian and what part is not?" --- because by ordinance, the heart, the spirit, the essence of the individual no longer counts.

Tribal lands continue to be systematically either outright stolen or rendered unusable by exploitation of 'natural resources' by profit hungry moguls ... inside and outside of the affected tribes. The land I was born on, now sits under many feet of water --- stolen by a government looking for more wealth in the form of a hydroelectric dam to produce power that they could then sell at a huge profit. The nation of which my mother's tribe was a part responded by disbanding our tribe. We had lost our land; therefore, we no longer existed. Scattered to the four winds. Most have ended up in places far from our ancestral homelands, cut off from our sacred ties to the land of our ancestors. Not so coincidentally, the result to the nation is fewer members to split resources with.

The same situations covered in the last three paragraphs are occurring on every reservation, with every tribe Native peoples throughout the U.S. are having an identity crisis, why should the Metis be any different?

ADDENDUM

If there is doubt about the veracity of my 'assertions' in "Who are we? Part One," regarding the negative influence that Washington has had in day to day tribal life in the US, I direct your attention to the following:

http://www.socwel.ukans.edu/culturaljustice/strtribe.htm

http://tlj.unm.edu/articles/czc/content.htm

For those not familiar with the situation going on regarding the 'dispute' between the 'government' and the traditional longhouse council of the Oneida Nation:

http://www.oneidasfordemocracy.org/

To see how 'the powers that be' twist and warp' truth to fit their agenda:

http://www.oneidasfordemocracy.com/

There are a wide range of other sources of information available online.