Assimilation Near Completion

~ Millie Chalk

I can only imagine the founding fathers of this country would be impressed at how successful their intentions of eradicating all native people along with their culture, their language and teachings has been and how truly civilized our people have become.

One could argue that we still remain and our traditional ways grow stronger with each passing day but I offer you evidence to the contrary, proof that this government’s insidious plan to kill the Indian is almost complete. 

So what is this evidence?  What could be so all encompassing and lethal to us realizing a way of life we have longed for through generations?

The answer happens to be a fact!  IT IS DANGEROUS TO BE A WOMAN IN NDN COUNTRY!  Domestic abuse, sexual assault and murder have hit epidemic proportions for our Native women.  Both in this country and in Canada women are turning up dead or missing each day and with a rate of one in every three women being raped and more being abused we become witness to a sad testimony that we have truly adopted the western ways of a male dominated society.

I read somewhere once that there is no legislation, no matter how beneficial it appears, that isn’t detrimental to our people.   Indeed it seems no matter how innocent and well intending a new law regarding our people may appear it isn’t long before the seedy underbelly of politics comes to light revealing the law’s true intentions of robbing our people of their land, their resources, their dignity, their freedom and even their very life.

I am not familiar enough with our legal history to judge but I do know there are numerous statues on the books now that make it often impossible to prosecute crimes against tribal women and children, both on and off of the reservation, for domestic violence and assault.  This creates an “open season” upon our women for predators.  And what disturbs me more is that many of our own men utilize these jurisdictional loop-holes to commit horrible crimes within our communities.

The teachings of our ancestors were to revere women, that they were the “life givers” with such a title not only referring to giving birth to children but to many aspects of daily life.  Because of this gift men considered a woman closer to the Creator, that they were co-creators with him and worthy of the highest regard.  Such a belief established a prominent role for women within Native society with many holding titles of leadership, counselor and possessing complete freedom as well as ownership of a family’s material wealth. 

Much has changed since then but still in this day the many murdered, missing and abused women of our First Nation peoples are lovingly referred to as our Mothers, our Sisters, Aunts and Daughters.  My question is one that I feel is so obvious that I need not ask but I must.                 

Where are the Fathers, the Brothers, the Uncles and the Sons?

Has the government’s program of assimilation been so complete that our men no longer possess the honor that was once worth dying for?  I would argue we need only look at the plight of our Native women often at the hands of a beloved man to answer the question. 

How can a man, whose ancestors saw women as the very essence of life on this earth, now turn in just a few generations from her sworn protector to her most feared aggressor?  No wonder America’s policies to eradicate our first inhabitants was admired and emulated by Hitler.  He was greatly impressed that our people’s destruction included eugenics as well as this country’s version of concentration camps that were gently labeled “reservations” in conjunction with the practice of taking away our people’s children and warehousing them in institutions that at best robbed them of their culture and all family ties but at worst left their sacred little bodies rotting away in some mass grave hundreds of miles from their ancestral homes.

Some of the greatest offences were imposed upon the women.  With rape, murder, the desecration of their female organs often worn as trophies on a soldier’s uniform, forced sterilization and separation from their families this country set the example of how to treat a woman.  

My but how well our people have learned.  It’s taken several generations but it appears the transformation is complete.  WE HAVE BECOME CIVILIZED!  Women are on their own!  They have been allowed to fall victim to the ills of society with no one to watch over them in a way that allows them the freedom to grow and be once more a partner in the creation of all that is good.

I see no answer to what has become a tragic fact of life for our people as long as we believe what has been taught to us to insure our demise.  Shall we continue to embrace the lies that have been orchestrated to manipulate our egos causing us to focus on what will bring us to certain destruction?  Are the treasures of this civilization so appealing that we will sacrifice the harmony needed to balance this planet?

Restoring women to their rightful honor in our society will begin to stave off the pain and suffering we experience now.  For centuries our people have borne countless atrocities along with efforts to undermine our teachings but regardless of the past, men (and women) are born with their own mind and at the end of the day we must take the responsibility for knowing what is right.  Treating our women with such little regard is not right!  It is not the path that our ancestors would have us take!

It is time for a change.  It is the time to take action.  It is time to do the right thing and be a man, not a just a male but a MAN!  Honor the women in your life.  Protect them, provide for them, revere them, support them, (and honor them-does this need saying again?).  In turn I promise they will transform your world into one that is better.  It’s just what we do because we’re women! 

When this country has come and gone we will still be here but only if we protect and nurture our women!

Please note:  There are currently quite a few good people working hard to change our laws to offer greater protection to our victims of domestic violence with Whisper n Thunder’s very own Rebecca Balog on the forefront of this effort.  Be sure to read her article in this issue of Whisper n Thunder entitled: "It's the End of the World as We Know It."