Indigenous Arts & Stories - A History Lesson

Sometimes I get so resentful; certain days are more difficult than others. Like today for instance, it seems as though I am invisible, or perhaps all of my non-Aboriginals peers simply choose not to acknowledge my existence. “I hate being the Native in the classroom!” Oh God, I know I heard myself say it. I was hoping it was one of those moments where I really only thought it, but I said it. “What are you going on about now?” Ashley retorted, throwing the last box of macaroni and cheese into a boiling pot of water…aah the life of a university student, so alluring. Ashley is probably one of the best roommates I ever had. She’s clean, organized, and for the most part, nice. Four years of deadlines, crowded dorms, and anxiety and I believe I know what a good roommate is. However, I do have my judgments, I mean, how can I not? Ashley is white, thin and popular with wealthy parents. I am Native, average, quiet and the distribution of wealth in my family is, well, non-existent. So how could she possibly understand what I mean when I say I hate being the Native in the classroom?

Take the other day for example. I am thirty minutes into my History of Psychology class, bored, tired, and contemplating yet again why I didn’t pursue an English major when my instructor asks the class “why might it be that Europeans new to North America could apply Darwin’s Survival of the Fittest theory as justification for mistreatment of Native Americans?” I know I heard it, yet I couldn’t help but think to myself did he really just say that? Yeh, he said it. Unbelievable, and of course I just happen to be the only Native in the class; just as I am in every other class, with the exception of introductory Cree. As I sit there, I feel the lump in my throat grow hoping no one will have an answer while I try to summon a rebuff, but nothing comes to me, all I feel is fuming emotion. Then, a hand goes up. Aah yes it’s that twenty-something what’s her face. I don’t even know her, but I’m sure her conclusions are nothing short of ignorant. “Could it be maybe because they (Europeans), perceived the Natives to be more primitive as they were more technologically advanced, and so they deemed themselves more ‘fit’ for survival?” I know, I know, as the only Aboriginal in the room I was obligated to speak out in opposition but at this point I was so livid, all I could think was are you kidding me? How ignorant, how arrogant, how…egocentric!

It took me all of ten minutes after class had already been dismissed and my emotional reaction to subside for me to consider what I should have said. Sitting here now is utter torment knowing I cannot go back in time to articulate a rebuttal that is based on fact, not ignorance. I should have said “excuse me, but what exactly makes Native people primitive? You’re telling me that carving stone into a spearhead for hunting isn’t ‘technologically advanced’? I suppose you also believe, as many others do, that Europeans came over to this land and instantly thrived. I hate to burst your bubble but that is not the case. Thousands of Europeans died from diseases they brought over from Europe. Not to mention their inability to adapt to the climate and locate food sources. Without the knowledge and assistance that you so arrogantly refer to as primitiveness from Native peoples, Europeans would not have had been granted such a privilege as to prosper on this land. It was the Native people who taught Europeans how to hunt, fish, gather, survive the harsh winters, and treat their ailments with traditional medicines. So, you tell me who was more technologically advanced.” Furthermore, how is there any justification for the ‘mistreatment’, which is an extremely understated term to use when pertaining to cultural genocide, of Native Americans? There isn’t, and to suggest otherwise is pure ignorance. I mean, that is how it really happened, that is the truth and the story which is rarely heard. That is what I meant by I hate being the Native in the classroom and Ashley couldn’t possibly understand.

I feel as though I have been conditioned by the education system to believe that Aboriginal peoples were ‘civilized’ by Europeans because that is how the history is presented to us; half truths and everything else gets swept under the rug. Yet, nobody cares. We can talk about what happened with the Jews and Hitler, black people and slavery, but to learn about the astonishingly cruel history of Canada and its indigenous people is completely taboo. When people talk about concentration camps and the beating of Rodney King they feel compassion and disgust. When Native people speak out about their experiences and injustices, non-Aboriginals turn the other way. For me, Idle No More is something to be proud of, not for what it aims to achieve, but for what it represents; unity, solidarity, and strength. Never have I ever in my short life experienced racism at the rate I am today since Idle No More garnered national and international attention. Our historical and fundamental attachment to the land is what makes it so difficult to accept legislation that undermines the importance of environmental consciousness, but in the eyes of government and non-Aboriginals, it is all about money. In this society, to be Aboriginal and opinionated, is to be under the microscope of heavy scrutiny. I hate being the Native in the classroom.

Anytime the word Aboriginal is presented in a slide-show, textbook, or discussion it is followed by “overrepresentation” in child welfare and prisons or “low percentiles” in the areas of education, health, and income. I hate being the Native in the classroom. Presenting statistical data without contextualizing it only perpetuates the idea of Aboriginal people to be ‘disadvantaged’ or ‘disenfranchised’. Wow, is that what we have become? Subjected to statistics? I suppose since ‘according to some studies’ because my kohkom and môsom were alcoholics and my father is an addict, I should be one too, suggesting that alcoholism among Aboriginals is hereditary. The truth is that we, as Indigenous people of this land, simply do not tolerate alcohol at the same rate of Europeans because their ancestors have been drinking it for centuries. But we don’t talk about that. Nor do we talk about why recidivism rates are so high amongst Aboriginal people, particularly our Aboriginal youth. All we say is “Aboriginal peoples are overrepresented in the Canadian Judicial System”. As Aboriginal people, we make up only about 3.3% of the Canadian population, yet somehow account for 20% of the prison population. People see these statistics without context and instantaneously believe that Aboriginal people are a not only a threat to society, but a drain on Canada’s resources. While many like to place the blame on the family unit, the truth is that the Canadian Judicial System is flawed in its entirety, especially in the area of offender [conditions]. When you give an Aboriginal person, especially an Aboriginal youth, conditions like ‘no drugs and alcohol’ or ‘no contact’; you are setting them up to fail, particularly if they live in a rural or remote area. If you reside in a community with a population of less than 5,000 people, how can you be expected not to hang around with the people you have probably known all your life? Furthermore if you do not have access to resources of recreation and productive activities, what more is there to do but drink and do drugs? But we don’t talk about that. In university, we talk about the implications and consequences not the history and causes. I hate being the Native in the classroom.

High school is no different if not worse. In university I read literature like “In Search of April Raintree”, “One Native Life”, and “Pretty Like a White Boy”. To me, these works were a history lesson; to everyone else they were an assignment. In high school we read literature like “The Giver”, “The Outsiders”, and “Lord of the Flies”. I learned very little of the true history of my people in high school and honestly thought that Europeans “civilized” the Natives; not the reality of cultural genocide and residential schools. I feel so cheated. A person like Ashley, who believes being a citizen of European ancestry is what makes you truly Canadian, couldn’t understand. But her forefathers are settlers and so is she. So why is that I as an Aboriginal, whose ancestors were here first, am made to feel like ‘the other’ in Canadian society? It is because we as Canadians know too little of our history. The education system has little regard for educating our generations, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, effectively. We know too little about the affects of residential schools, desolate isolation, unrelenting racism and exclusion…I hate being the Native in the classroom.