1063 replies to this topic

[tedward]

I attended the event Monday night. 

The person who impressed me most was Cheryl Brice (not sure I got the name right, there was no program or speaker's names put up.) She was funny and smart and passionate and if she represents the leadership that is coming up, the community will be well-served.

[amor de cosmos]

A spiritual fire roars at the centre of the former Alberni Indian Residential School in Tseshaht First Nation (TFN) on Vancouver Island.

Former students, survivors stand around it and pray into the flames.

“I remember going into church our Minister would slap our heads, ‘You savages, you heathens, you are nothing,’ and we felt that we were nothing,” says survivor Melvin Good from Snuneymuxw First Nation.

“We were dirty savages, we felt sad, it felt sad to be a savage.”

*snip*

A two day healing event, ‘Reclaiming Lost Souls of the Alberni Indian Residential School’ was hosted by TFN on September 27 and 28.

It is the first event of its kind at the site.

“You don’t have to spend too much time in any of the surrounding buildings to know that there is a presence here,” says Les Sam, the former elected Chief of TFN.

w/vid
https://aptnnews.ca/...ree-lost-souls/

[Victoria Watcher]

one of the slightly disingenuous things about residential school reporting is reporting of death numbers when they do not compare it to both deaths on-reserve and deaths in the general canadian population.

 

when the period covered is from the 1800's until the 1970's you have to understand for many of those years the largest cause of death in all of canada was tuberculosis.  so the number might seem shocking in contemporary view.  but not that extraordinary for the times. 

 

 

In Canada the tuberculosis mortality rate fell dramatically from 180/100 000 population in 1900 to less than 1/100 000 by the mid-1980s.

 

 

 

https://www.thecanad...le/tuberculosis

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 03 October 2019 - 08:27 AM.

[amor de cosmos]

The University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) and the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation hope a new partnership will help break down barriers for Lheidli T'enneh students.

The partnership, announced Wednesday, will offer two streams.

One stream is for Lheidli T'enneh students who meet UNBC admissions requirements. Those students will receive full tuition for their undergraduate degree.

The other is a transition program available for Lheidli T'enneh students who do not meet the admissions requirements but show strong academic promise. They will also receive tuition support.

The Lheidli T'enneh First Nation will help cover students' living expenses, including housing, food, transit, and textbooks.

UNBC's largest campus is in Prince George, which is Lheidli T'enneh territory.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...enneh-1.5308253

[tedward]

one of the slightly disingenuous things about residential school reporting is reporting of death numbers when they do not compare it to both deaths on-reserve and deaths in the general canadian population.

 

Talk about disingenuous, the death rates at residential schools were being compared to the death rates of soldiers in the war. 
 

The numbers were similar so if you are suggesting that the death rate in the general population was within a couple of percentage points of those soldiers I think you need to offer some proof of this absurd claim.

[Victoria Watcher]

well i'd like to see some stats.  we were not continuously at war from 1834 to the 1970's so i'm not sure how that comparison works out.  but let's see on-reserve and general population death rates.  the fact that 3,000-6,000 residential school students died is not very useful.  of course they died at school it was a residential school that others that also died did not attend so they died at home.  

[spanky123]

well i'd like to see some stats.  we were not continuously at war from 1834 to the 1970's so i'm not sure how that comparison works out.  but let's see on-reserve and general population death rates.  the fact that 3,000-6,000 residential school students died is not very useful.  of course they died at school it was a residential school that others that also died did not attend so they died at home.  

 

If I recall, the child mortality rate on reserves at the time was north of 40%. That was one of the justifications for getting them somewhere safer.

Edited by spanky123, 04 October 2019 - 11:53 AM.

[Brayvehart]

well i'd like to see some stats. we were not continuously at war from 1834 to the 1970's so i'm not sure how that comparison works out. but let's see on-reserve and general population death rates. the fact that 3,000-6,000 residential school students died is not very useful. of course they died at school it was a residential school that others that also died did not attend so they died at home.

I think it would be interesting to compare the death rates of students in residential schools, versus contemporary "mainstream" (predominantly caucasian) schools across the country over the same time period...

[Midnightly]

If I recall, the child mortality rate on reserves at the time was north of 40%. That was one of the justifications for getting them somewhere safer.

 

 

i think that would be the most practical comparison... comparing children of a similar age range (simply due to high infant mortality rate for the time, and this was across all races) on reserve vrs in residential schools.. but i imagine those sorts of records are not available or could be very spotty

[UDeMan]

I think you will also need to have the cause of death for the students in residential schools to compare to those in the general population.

 

Just remembering from my school days from K-12, I know of 5 students that died from the schools I attended.  1 in a car accident, 1 collapsed and died after a PE class, 1 leukemia , 1 suicide and 1 was abducted/murdered.  These are just the ones I can remember.

[todd]

I only ever lost one in k-12 larger size schools (suicide never knew them) always thought that was a pretty low number. Grandpa supposedly had friend freeze to death on the way to school in Saskatchewan.

[amor de cosmos]

A delegation of Nuxalk hereditary chiefs and community members traveled to the Royal B.C. Museum Friday to view belongings taken from their territory and start a conversation about bringing them home.

In particular, they want to bring home a house entrance pole on display in an area of the museum called Totem Hall. For some, it was their first time seeing the pole carved by the late Snuxyaltwa (Louis Snow).

Today, that name is held by his great-grandson, who said he didn't know the pole was at the museum or that it even existed until recent years. Now, he and the community are starting talks to repatriate the pole and other belongings to their territory on B.C.'s Central Coast.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...eting-1.5318376

[Sparky]

^ Another version of that story, penned by Randy Shore of the Vancouver Sun and repeated by a local "news" paper, has once again annoyed me for quoting generalizations and untruths in order to further an agenda.

 

Deric Snow, hereditary (read non-democratic) chief, is quoted as saying “Thousands of people were murdered at that time,”

 

Randy Shore goes on to report that "Family treasures were left behind when the government ordered the Nuxalk to move to Bella Coola after they were intentionally infected by European settlers in the late 1800s."

 

Really? "Intentionally infected"? Did the European Settlers use hypodermic needles? Did they pee in the water supply? How does Deric Snow know they were murdered? That's a legal term. Was there a court case or at least an investigation?

 

These wild allegations do not help further a cause. The narative is disingenuous. How about government workers were concerned about health conditions and facilitated a relocation? You know kind of like when the cops tell you to evacuate your home because a forest fire is on its way. Safety first.

 

This reminds me of the climate activist on a Halifax bridge stating that a lot of young people do not want to have children because they watch their babies die of a lack of food, water, and air.

 

Maybe Deric Snow wants the government to write him some more cheques. 

 

https://vancouversun...amily-treasures

[LJ]

This reminds me of the climate activist on a Halifax bridge stating that a lot of young people do not want to have children because they watch their babies die of a lack of food, water, and air.

 

Good, only take a generation to get rid of the whiners and get back to work.

[Rob Randall]

^ Another version of that story, penned by Randy Shore of the Vancouver Sun and repeated by a local "news" paper, has once again annoyed me for quoting generalizations and untruths in order to further an agenda.

 

Deric Snow, hereditary (read non-democratic) chief, is quoted as saying “Thousands of people were murdered at that time,”

 

Randy Shore goes on to report that "Family treasures were left behind when the government ordered the Nuxalk to move to Bella Coola after they were intentionally infected by European settlers in the late 1800s."

 

Really? "Intentionally infected"? Did the European Settlers use hypodermic needles? Did they pee in the water supply? How does Deric Snow know they were murdered? That's a legal term. Was there a court case or at least an investigation?

 

These wild allegations do not help further a cause. The narative is disingenuous. How about government workers were concerned about health conditions and facilitated a relocation? You know kind of like when the cops tell you to evacuate your home because a forest fire is on its way. Safety first.

 

This reminds me of the climate activist on a Halifax bridge stating that a lot of young people do not want to have children because they watch their babies die of a lack of food, water, and air.

 

Maybe Deric Snow wants the government to write him some more cheques. 

 

https://vancouversun...amily-treasures

 

Are you really that uneducated about a major event in BC history?

 

There's solid evidence local authorities deliberately spread smallpox among south island First Nations and then spread it into the interior. If that's not genocide I don't know what is.

[spanky123]

Are you really that uneducated about a major event in BC history?

 

There's solid evidence local authorities deliberately spread smallpox among south island First Nations and then spread it into the interior. If that's not genocide I don't know what is.

 

There is no doubt that FN died due to diseases that were introduced from the new world and which they had no immunity. I am sure that to a lesser extent the opposite was true as well. What I don't believe has been widely accepted is the concept that in the 1700's the white man had found a way of weaponizing small box to intentionally kill FN or the belief that infection was intentional vs incidental. 

[Victoria Watcher]

Are you really that uneducated about a major event in BC history?

There's solid evidence local authorities deliberately spread smallpox among south island First Nations and then spread it into the interior. If that's not genocide I don't know what is.

I believe this is false. at that time Europeans had little to no knowledge of how small pox worked let alone the skills to intentionally move it in to certain populations.

[Victoria Watcher]

as this macleans article says there is “no evidence” this was intentional. I know lots of us with white guilt wish it was.


https://www.macleans...itish-columbia/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 October 2019 - 03:41 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

you might go as far as saying the First Nations that left recklessly endangered interior tribes by moving there while infected.

I won’t go that far. but a case could be made that’s as strong as the other theory.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 October 2019 - 04:07 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

i don't for example blame africa for the worldwide aids epidemic.  asia for sars etc.