Indian Reconciliation In Buffalo
Just say No to separatism with a genuine alternative to Wexit.
Use the reconciliation process to restore Buffalo and with it our national unity.
Imagine a world where we abolish the Indian Reserves, create 114 or so new parliamentary seats, 69 from Saskatchewan and 45 from Alberta, for which only members of that seat’s tribe/district can vote just like anywhere else in Canada. Reunifying Alberta and Saskatchewan into Buffalo as our Pioneer and Indian founders originally intended before the territory was torn apart in 1905. The West would finally have the votes to balance Ontario and the country! Canada would enter a golden age! A re-unified Alberta/Saskatchewan would reduce costs and increase the return from our common investment in healthcare and other essential social services.
“Twins separated at birth. Not a bad way to describe Alberta and Saskatchewan.” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-saskatchewan-western-alienation-kathleen-petty-1.5350082
Currently, in Canada the winner of federal elections is announced before the votes in the West are even counted. The East so completely dominates the spread of parliamentary seats that the West has no real say in any important national interest. You might ask why this is the case. It’s obviously not fair. Well according to parliamentary notes it was a deliberate act by the Eastern Laurentians to destroy the trade routes the Indians were using with Pioneers in order to favour border trade near New York “encouraged” by American trade interests.
“Where did the Métis originate in Canada? The Métis are a distinct Indigenous people with both First Nations and Euro-Settler ancestry. They arose out of the fur trade, in the late 1700s, in the interior of west-central North America as the children of First Nations women and Euro-Canadian/European fur trade employees.” — APAC
By the late 1800s the East was brutally racist toward Indians. While we in the West were making families creating the Métis(originally near Winnipeg) who enjoyed a population explosion in the aftermath of successfully defending the Southern border together, the East was busy dismantling Indian heritage. When the opportunity to switch from the Indian trade routes, previously established to move fur then later military supplies in the war of 1812, to American rail presented, the racist Laurentians of the time jumped on it. Expanding the residential school system and reserves designed to fundamentally land lock Indian traders, separating them from local Pioneer producers; making a competing western trade power impossible to maintain.
This is why the West is a production engine held hostage by the Eastern traders even to this day. Basically, everything from 1870 onward is the forced transition of influence from the Western producers to the Eastern traders.
And they did this all while telling everyone it was for everyone’s greater good. Especially for the Indians’ own good. Lying pieces of shit. These racist pricks in the old East wanted nothing more than to shove Indians and independent Pioneers alike into the margins of poverty where they and their rich trader friends on Wall Street wouldn’t have to deal with them. They’d been busy pushing the creation of reserves since the 1870's.
If they could put most Indians on reserves they wouldn’t have to respect the Indian contribution to building Canada. Wouldn’t have to pay Western producers properly because if we want to sell anything for any real money then we do so at the dictate of the East who of course do so at the bribed request of America in the South. They probably took away their bank accounts, too! (Assuming the racist bastards even let Indians have bank accounts in the first place.)
Ironically, PM Sir Laurier himself was a vocal supporter of the Métis and Indian Nations, generally. He wrote and did speeches that seem to place him in opposition to the idea of residential school system or the reserves, but his “corporate” shill advisers exploited his tendency to compromise on divisive political issues. They said he’d lose the next election if he didn’t go along with the forced segregation of families and production partners. He lost anyway (in 1911) and it only cost Canada its soul. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sir-wilfrid-laurier
There is only one way to truly reconcile the relationship with the Indian Nations and it isn’t forcing the West to pretend like the anti-Indian agenda was some universal sentiment across early Canada. It was NOT. The Métis are blood proof that the Western relationship with the Indian Nations was productive and fruitful. The true path to reconciliation is to honour the promises made through all those years working together. Breaking the land. Defending Canada from American invasion.
Reconciliation lives in Buffalo because Buffalo is the heart of Canada. And while the systemic consequences of the racist Laurentians have dominated the country all these long years, since cutting our heart in half, I sense an opportunity in recent efforts to reconcile the mistakes of our past. We have a chance to correct this original sin. To fulfill the promises made between brothers and sisters of the prairies.
“There are internal pressures within the Canadian confederation, due to geography and where most Canadians live, that lead to regional conflicts no matter who is the prime minister.” —Lorrie Goldstein
The original sin was denying parliamentary seats for the Indian Nations. It would have balanced the self interest of Canada’s tri-polar concern. It’s not too late. Support reunification through reconciliation.
“Is there a law stopping them from running for office?”
As individuals, nothing is stopping them from running in non-Indian districts, as Indians there are no seats representing their tribe or their territories.
“Parliamentary seats are primarily based on population numbers, not ancestry or geography. 2/3rds of the country’s population living in Ontario and Quebec will do that.”
Basing the spread of seats entirely on total population without any historical context or acknowledgement of who actually accomplished what will do that. It should have been based on all three. Whatever it takes to balance power across the country. When a full half of the landmass doesn’t, in effect, get a say over who runs the entire country there is obviously something very wrong.
“Power is balanced. The locations with the largest populations should have the most representation. Currently that happens to be in Ontario and Quebec. What you are advocating for is an imbalance of representation, biased by your current location. If you want this to change, advocate for and encourage immigration to Saskatchewan.”
The power is not balanced if half the provinces have no say in who is PM.
What’s Grok think?
“The Indian nations you’re referring to are people just like us. Our ancestors arrived in Canada and kicked out the people who were here before us. So reconciliation is totally unnecessary.”
I disagree. In 1812 the Indians used the old “hidden” trade routes to move arms for our soldiers and fought side by side with pioneers defending against American invasion. Without them we would have lost. Facts. It was reasonable that they expect a piece of the new country to be an expansion of the relationship they already enjoyed, not this eastern imposed network of prisons and culture schools, designed to destroy them in all meaningful ways.
It’s the reserve legacy. Out of sight; out of mind. If the Indian dialects like Cree collectively held the third official language along with their own multi-provincial territorial constituency then we wouldn’t be able to forget them anymore. Then our Canadian family would be complete again.
“The Indians are a perfect illustration of how this country was supposed to serve minorities, starting foremost with them, recognizing that we would be Americans right now without them and that their low population numbers should NOT be used as an excuse to marginalize their voice in Canada’s affairs in exactly the same way the East dominates the West generally arguing about majority. Out of sight out of mind. The reserve legacy in a nutshell.” — Anthony Mountjoy
So many basic services denied. So many lost lives. A result of bureaucratic/political segregation delaying or denying any productive relationship with public assets. It’s been in place since the Great Laurentian Betrayal(culminating in 1911) that separated our peoples’, expanded the reserve system, severing the partnerships that built Canada.
Talk to your Indian friends. Call your local Chief/Elders and suggest this reunification as an alternative path leading to reconciliation. While it may not be the answer they expected, it is at least a solution that might actually work. Reunifying Saskatchewan and Alberta as Buffalo IS reconciliation. Adding parliamentary seats for the Chiefs is real power in government the West has been unjustly denied. Together we can mend the heart of Canada. Bring the East and West together as family once again.
