Thanks for this Charlie. I've included a link to this in the materials I send to schools in advance of a Six String Nation presentation. Puts the silver from Cobalt on the first fret in clearer perspective.
When speaking with native elders, non natives (or settlers) such as myself can be very impatient. Our sense of time is military and industrial and regimented in us all since childhood and in our school systems.
Time and motion studies in industry were first pioneered by Frederick Winslow Taylor, who focused on systematic time studies using stopwatches in the late 19th century, and further expanded by Frank Gilbreth and Lillian Gilbreth, who developed detailed motion-tracking methods. We are indoctrinated since childhood to be on time, never be late, constantly checking our watches.
In 1914, the German army completed its strategic railway mobilization and concentration for the Western Front in 15 days, Germany built a rail system designed to bring anyone , utilizing roughly 20,800 trains to move over 2 million soldiers and hundreds of thousands of horses to the frontier according to precise, rigid timetables.
When in the bush, I occasionally meet native hunters or trappers and ask them questions. I asked Isaac Mathias of the Beaverhouse first nation, "what is the importance Chemainus Mountain"? Shamanus in Ojibway is a large "sleeping giant" like formation quite visible from the ski hill at Mont Kanasuta if one looks south and west. Six months later he dropped by to see me and said, "the locals (from Howard Lake) believe this is where the world started."
In another case, elder Fred Pine from the Garden River First Nation was tapping the rock with his cane. I asked him why he was tapping the rock. He replied, "to hear if there is no hollow rock." (there was a large expanse of cleared rock) I followed this with another question and sometime later he replied that this is where we space travel.
Prior to building of the James Bay (hydro electric) project in Quebec, CBC and Radio Canada journalists had a meeting with elders at Fort George which was a historic Cree community and Hudson's Bay trading post located on an island at the mouth of the La Grande River in James Bay, Quebec. Due to severe erosion and shifting river flows caused by the James Bay hydroelectric project, the entire population relocated to the mainland in 1981, establishing the new community of Chisasibi.
Importantly, elders at the meeting were asked about the impacts of the planned hydro electric dams. They had no knowledge of the project nor had any of them ever seen a hydro dam. One of the reporters, becoming impatient when no one replied to their questions, asked why did the Americans go to the moon? In the silence of the room which seemed like an eternity to the rapid fire journalists, one of the elders calmly replied, "maybe they should see where they are walking first." Approximately 9,600 to 10,000 caribou (with estimates ranging up to 22,000) drowned in late September 1984 on the Caniapiscau River—part of the broader James Bay / La Grande hydroelectric complex in northern Quebec—when migrating animals were swept over Limestone Falls by high, fast-moving water.
Now we find out, eider ducks that were traditionally used to insulate clothes and sleeping bags against the severe cold of the north and as a reliable source of food are being frozen by freshwater drawdown from these hydro electric dams to provide power for Quebecers and Americans to the south. All requests to conduct impact studies before the James Bay Project were dismissed as being unnecessary. Sound familiar
"Our survival as a species may depend on Rabbit’s wisdom." And also Lynx's ability to listen without condescension and learn something.
Many years ago, probably in late '80s or early '90s my employer offered me the chance to take a seminar on the Indian Act. I jumped at it. But I have NEVER seen such a "heads we win, tails you lose" piece of legislation in my life. It was so skewed to destroying the Native families and communities that it made me physically ill. You couldn't win no matter what you did. The chap who gave the seminar was wonderful, but I don't know how he managed to keep his composure with a bunch of white people while going over that legalized hate.
The white settlers and squatters claims that our Indigenous peoples were a vanishing race was something they tried their best to help fulfill.
You may enjoy the Canadian book called "The Inconvenient Indian".
There is also a very good primer on what I view as the intricate atrocities of the Indian Act in another Canadian book called "Twenty-One Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act" by Bob Joseph.
After reading Peter C. Newman's "Caesars of the Wilderness" and being overwhelmed by his relentless recounting of the exploitation of the beavers for their fur to paying Indigenous trappers with alcohol and the prejudice against them, beyond to the 1867 enactment of the British North American Act, the maneuvering of the new Canadian Government, the begining of the end of the Hudson Bay Company, and the overseas money dictating things from London . . . . in the end, the building of the cross-country railroad to prevent takeover of Canada by the United States of America! It was almost like listening to the CBC Evening News in August 2026!!
Ford and Carney talk about all the minerals available for trade, but they are on Native land. How can they sell the mineral rights to American companies, but say they are only buying Canadian.?
The Americans did the same to the Cherokees in the early 1800s - the moved them west when gold was found on their land. Also, the Sioux were moved from the Black Hills of Dakota when gold was found on the Sioux land after first being made to settle there after the "Indian /wars".
You bring us much wisdom and insight into the indigenous experience in your excellent writing.
I was having a conversation with someone just today about the likelihood of an American invasion and occupation of Canada as they increasingly lust after more resources - everything from water, timber, metals, potash and fuels. Are today's Canadians the next to relive the indigenous experience?
If only it was the century of the Rabbit. In reality, the first 25 years of the century have come and gone with very little increase in the attention and respect paid to Indigenous knowledge of how to manage our resources.
We have land acknowledgments by many cultural and government organizations but even that no-effort action makes some people angry. Almost every government in Canada has chosen to use the trump emergency as an excuse to shove extractive projects through, right past the legal guardrails.
Indigenous requirements for the preservation of critical resources are overridden as more pipelines are offered as costly sacrifices to the greed of rich exploiters. Billions spent subsidizing extremely wealthy fossil fuel corporations, the industry of the past, are billions not spent adapting to the global heating reality we are experiencing as multiple crises across the country and the planet. Towns destroyed by fire and floods are rebuilt in the same place with the same materials. We don’t build renewable energy projects. We’re busy pretending that there’s no pattern, no predictability, no explanation for these recurring disasters
We’re not even letting Indigenous wildfire management knowledge lead the way in trying to prevent such large scale burns every year.
Most of us will be killed by Lynx, ignorantly siding with the predator instead of listening to our natural ally, wise Rabbit.
Brilliant piece of writing. Thank you so much for this.
Charlie is a great teacher and statesman.
I had no idea, thank you Charlie for this information.
The Settlers have so much to answer for, how could it have gone so wrong?
When confronted with this history and the evidence examined, there is but one prime factor that leaps off the page, religion.
Merci Charlie de m'enrichir autant intellectuellement. J'ai tant à apprendre encore...
Thanks for this Charlie. I've included a link to this in the materials I send to schools in advance of a Six String Nation presentation. Puts the silver from Cobalt on the first fret in clearer perspective.
Thank you for this Charlie !
💙💙💙
Yes. Our survival depends on Rabbit.
When speaking with native elders, non natives (or settlers) such as myself can be very impatient. Our sense of time is military and industrial and regimented in us all since childhood and in our school systems.
Time and motion studies in industry were first pioneered by Frederick Winslow Taylor, who focused on systematic time studies using stopwatches in the late 19th century, and further expanded by Frank Gilbreth and Lillian Gilbreth, who developed detailed motion-tracking methods. We are indoctrinated since childhood to be on time, never be late, constantly checking our watches.
In 1914, the German army completed its strategic railway mobilization and concentration for the Western Front in 15 days, Germany built a rail system designed to bring anyone , utilizing roughly 20,800 trains to move over 2 million soldiers and hundreds of thousands of horses to the frontier according to precise, rigid timetables.
When in the bush, I occasionally meet native hunters or trappers and ask them questions. I asked Isaac Mathias of the Beaverhouse first nation, "what is the importance Chemainus Mountain"? Shamanus in Ojibway is a large "sleeping giant" like formation quite visible from the ski hill at Mont Kanasuta if one looks south and west. Six months later he dropped by to see me and said, "the locals (from Howard Lake) believe this is where the world started."
In another case, elder Fred Pine from the Garden River First Nation was tapping the rock with his cane. I asked him why he was tapping the rock. He replied, "to hear if there is no hollow rock." (there was a large expanse of cleared rock) I followed this with another question and sometime later he replied that this is where we space travel.
Prior to building of the James Bay (hydro electric) project in Quebec, CBC and Radio Canada journalists had a meeting with elders at Fort George which was a historic Cree community and Hudson's Bay trading post located on an island at the mouth of the La Grande River in James Bay, Quebec. Due to severe erosion and shifting river flows caused by the James Bay hydroelectric project, the entire population relocated to the mainland in 1981, establishing the new community of Chisasibi.
Importantly, elders at the meeting were asked about the impacts of the planned hydro electric dams. They had no knowledge of the project nor had any of them ever seen a hydro dam. One of the reporters, becoming impatient when no one replied to their questions, asked why did the Americans go to the moon? In the silence of the room which seemed like an eternity to the rapid fire journalists, one of the elders calmly replied, "maybe they should see where they are walking first." Approximately 9,600 to 10,000 caribou (with estimates ranging up to 22,000) drowned in late September 1984 on the Caniapiscau River—part of the broader James Bay / La Grande hydroelectric complex in northern Quebec—when migrating animals were swept over Limestone Falls by high, fast-moving water.
Now we find out, eider ducks that were traditionally used to insulate clothes and sleeping bags against the severe cold of the north and as a reliable source of food are being frozen by freshwater drawdown from these hydro electric dams to provide power for Quebecers and Americans to the south. All requests to conduct impact studies before the James Bay Project were dismissed as being unnecessary. Sound familiar
"Our survival as a species may depend on Rabbit’s wisdom." And also Lynx's ability to listen without condescension and learn something.
Many years ago, probably in late '80s or early '90s my employer offered me the chance to take a seminar on the Indian Act. I jumped at it. But I have NEVER seen such a "heads we win, tails you lose" piece of legislation in my life. It was so skewed to destroying the Native families and communities that it made me physically ill. You couldn't win no matter what you did. The chap who gave the seminar was wonderful, but I don't know how he managed to keep his composure with a bunch of white people while going over that legalized hate.
The white settlers and squatters claims that our Indigenous peoples were a vanishing race was something they tried their best to help fulfill.
You may enjoy the Canadian book called "The Inconvenient Indian".
There is also a very good primer on what I view as the intricate atrocities of the Indian Act in another Canadian book called "Twenty-One Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act" by Bob Joseph.
After reading Peter C. Newman's "Caesars of the Wilderness" and being overwhelmed by his relentless recounting of the exploitation of the beavers for their fur to paying Indigenous trappers with alcohol and the prejudice against them, beyond to the 1867 enactment of the British North American Act, the maneuvering of the new Canadian Government, the begining of the end of the Hudson Bay Company, and the overseas money dictating things from London . . . . in the end, the building of the cross-country railroad to prevent takeover of Canada by the United States of America! It was almost like listening to the CBC Evening News in August 2026!!
Ford and Carney talk about all the minerals available for trade, but they are on Native land. How can they sell the mineral rights to American companies, but say they are only buying Canadian.?
The Americans did the same to the Cherokees in the early 1800s - the moved them west when gold was found on their land. Also, the Sioux were moved from the Black Hills of Dakota when gold was found on the Sioux land after first being made to settle there after the "Indian /wars".
Not just the Cherokees!!!
Thank you Charlie. Helps enlighten one about perception and perspective.
You bring us much wisdom and insight into the indigenous experience in your excellent writing.
I was having a conversation with someone just today about the likelihood of an American invasion and occupation of Canada as they increasingly lust after more resources - everything from water, timber, metals, potash and fuels. Are today's Canadians the next to relive the indigenous experience?
If only it was the century of the Rabbit. In reality, the first 25 years of the century have come and gone with very little increase in the attention and respect paid to Indigenous knowledge of how to manage our resources.
We have land acknowledgments by many cultural and government organizations but even that no-effort action makes some people angry. Almost every government in Canada has chosen to use the trump emergency as an excuse to shove extractive projects through, right past the legal guardrails.
Indigenous requirements for the preservation of critical resources are overridden as more pipelines are offered as costly sacrifices to the greed of rich exploiters. Billions spent subsidizing extremely wealthy fossil fuel corporations, the industry of the past, are billions not spent adapting to the global heating reality we are experiencing as multiple crises across the country and the planet. Towns destroyed by fire and floods are rebuilt in the same place with the same materials. We don’t build renewable energy projects. We’re busy pretending that there’s no pattern, no predictability, no explanation for these recurring disasters
We’re not even letting Indigenous wildfire management knowledge lead the way in trying to prevent such large scale burns every year.
Most of us will be killed by Lynx, ignorantly siding with the predator instead of listening to our natural ally, wise Rabbit.
Well said. Thank you.