Born again savage | Chief Clarence Louie | TEDxPenticton

and I always want to thank you for showing that TED talks on Pine Ridge and on we didn't need I go down there every year on a motorcycle right called the Wounded Knee memorial motorcycle ride 100 intertribal riders even even white guys come along which is good because the story of Wounded Knee is not just for the Lakota people or for Native people but that story that you just saw there is in Canada as well I've been chief now for going on my 28th year and I've been on over 100 Indian reserves our reservations as they call them in the United States the reserve system the reservation system on both sides of the border is the same system the United States people in the Canadian people going back to when these when those flags were first created the history of your ancestors come from the same place so I'm going to be going over the issues that we're dealing with here in this country now called Canada but first I have to recognize that we're on the traditional lands of the Okanagan people in the village area here for 10,000 years was occupied by the Penticton people sin peak thing people and it's good to see that more and more when I go across the country when I sit in boardrooms of all major companies they're starting to recognize that the traditional issues of the First Nations people we're not swept whay and cannot be swept away by any Prime Minister our premier are those people that elect them those people that elect the leadership in this country are there non-native people in the conflict that still happens not only in the United States or Australia or New Zealand are in all of the Americas the indigenous movement did not end that Wounded Knee so I'll be going over some of these is one of the speaker mentioned we've got to acknowledge our mistakes I like hearing that talk about mistakes personal mistakes sure we have to acknowledge those and deal with those we should also be acknowledging our national mistakes our provincial errors that we've made now I'm going to go over some of the myths like the myths of the doctrine of discovery the myth of manifest destiny the myth of the melting pot that the United States and Canada has been trying for over 500 years to put the tribal people of all the tribes of North America into this American melting pot or the Canadian melting pot our people have resisted that and will continue to resist that the other myth is that the founding peoples of this land now called Canada is the French in the English what there is no people there's no human beings here when the French and the English got here that they are the founding peoples of this land any historian would say that's a mistake archaeological evidence your own all up evidence your scientific evidence today that the white people use would clearly say that that's a mistake the other mistake is the honor of the crown that at every parliamentary session every time the leadership in this country gathers in Ottawa our Victoria they talk about the honour of the crown so I'm going to quickly go over the biggest injustice in Canada is what happened and continues to happen to the First Nations people of this land that is the biggest injustice the Canada should face and has to face it is appalling to the native people when we sit here and we see the leadership of the United States and Canada point their fingers at leaders overseas and point their fingers at the in justices that are happening in other countries when in their own backyard most First Nations people are sitting on reservations our reserves with unemployment rates that exceed the Great Depression in your history schools in every school they talk they still talk about the Great Depression and how bad it was I run into people in this country old-timers that tell me how bad it was during the Great Depression that they remember what their grandparents told them how bad it was you know at the highest unemployment rate during the Great Depression was was around thirty percent the worst unemployment pr8 that white people have faced in candidate in the u.s. is around thirty percent yet as we stand here today most reserves and reservations unemployment rates exceed fifty percent I was in Ontario a few months ago and they tell me the unemployment rates and some of those reserves are at 80 percent and yet all of a sudden when something happens in the world the leadership it is entry starts pointing their fingers I think the Prime Minister is in the premiers to start looking in their own backyard first and let's start talking about the greatest injustice it has ever happened on this soil and I always go back to one of the leaders of the black people in one of the greatest leaders this soil has ever known it's a black leader when he said injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere in the books that I've read on when I went to university all talk about the injustice of the tribes where a cross-border tribe the Okanagan nation like all of the tribes that sit along the 49th parallel the Americans and Canadians put that border there without our permission our old-timers always tell us that is not our border the Canadians and Americans people cut my people in half we have seven Okanagan barons on this side of the border but we have an Okanagan band not far from here on the US side so every time I pass this border and all the Blackfoot people are mohawk people acree people who jib way people same thing the Canadians and Americans cut our nations in half and when I go past this plaque put here by the Rotary Club international organization highly respected organization I love what this messages that we every person should use this for away tests in everything that you think say or do you should always do this four-way test first question on any issue is is it the truth and then they go on to is it fair will it build good good will is it beneficial to all concerned but I want to stay on the first test if we can't get by the first test we shouldn't even be going to the other tests so the first question isn't it in a creation of Canada in that flag that I see every day on this side of the border and then when I cross my tribe up my tribal lands and I go into the United States and I see that other flag what's the truth how did those flags come about what's the truth the truth is is that Indian people were always looked at is an inconvenience to manifest destiny Indian people were always looked at is being in the way of progress Native Americans were always talked about George Washington talked about the Indian problem in his documents in every president since George Washington the first Prime Minister here Johnny McDonald talked about the Indian problem when I went to university Native American stories I always read about the Indian problem that's what the leadership of this country talked about the fact is there is still an Indian problem in Canada in the United States one of our chief said this is not this true you cannot discover an inhabited land otherwise I could cross the Atlantic and discover England if white people can come over here and discover America and Canada soil then why can't we go over to the French in the English land and discover their land and claim it that's what was done to us but maybe these rules only go one way the fact is in the Americas we recall savage people you read the old newspapers the old documents by the leadership of the country of Canada in the USA called us savages that's what they call us and they believed the third people had a civilized right to possess our tribal territories but who really are the savages I love this this book is written by an Indian in the fact is Canada in the United States when they created those flakes those flags are tainted with millions upon millions of tribal peoples blood even your Prime Minister here the the founding father of Canada when he wanted to put the Canadian dream that rail way through tribal lands he starved our people into signing those treaties this book that just came out called clearing the plains historically documents the starvation methods used by the Department of Indian Affairs and when the Prime Minister was mentioned to him about the natives are starving on the prairies he called us beggars he called the Indian people beggars and that Baker should not be choosy and withheld rations so there are people to creep people or ghibli people Blackfoot people would be starved in a sign in those numbered treaties now our people can read and write we write in our own books now Harold Cardinal wrote this book called the unjust society that is Canada and how the Queen's representatives fooled our people the Queen we heard stories about the honor the Queen and the Queen Mother will look after us the Queen Mother has never looked after us the last meeting of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission just happened in Edmonton this past week can you believe that it in Canada in the United States they had boarding schools in the US same thing they had residential schools in Canada the most educated people in this country at the time and prime minister after prime minister president after president authorized boarding schools in the States and residential schools in Canada in people got paid big bucks to run these schools people younger than me went to residential school on Osoyoos Indian banned in the Okanagan our people were either shipped to Kamloops are shipped to Cranbrook people younger than me so this is not something from a hundred years ago and to see modern-day leaders say that we don't care about the facts I'm not going to apologize and it took how long for the Canadian people a Canadian government to apologize about the residential school system that the Canadian government implemented put in place for a hundred years Canada can't ignore the First Nation issues in this country there's still a widespread gap the youngest and fastest-growing population in this country are the Aboriginal people an arm going towards self-sufficiency I don't want this dependency model that has been created by the provinces in the federal government and we need a shift in focus from Indian Affairs towards business development on the reserves because the government has never in all never properly looked after Indian people I want my people to have it what you what most people have and that's a job simple equation better job equals a better life I'm going to push for that and still maintain my Indian Asst it's great to see that the first non-white president is talking about better relations with the tribes and also at the foundation of this is to recognize that the founding nations are the Indian people maybe we need some karma and all this stuff to happen maybe that's what we need but this Jesse Jackson quote reminds me of what has to happen here in Canada if you want peace with these pipelines with these mining companies and so all this natural resource development in this country then there better be justice Canadian people better be hollering for justice and our Chiefs have been talking about that for a long long time nobody gave us any rights that's another myth out there nobody gives native people rights these are inherited rights no government gives us rights so our people will not be idle anymore the sound of the drum is going to come back to all of these areas whether it's the United States our Canada and we're going to work through these issues this unfinished business these unfinished treaty issues that need to be worked through and I ask the Canadian people to uphold the honor that your ancestors talked about in the honor of the crown that I keep that our Chiefs keep on hearing about every time when we meet with provincial officials our federal officials they bring out the honor of the crown and I tell my people we need a different kind of hunter today a hunter for business hunters for jobs we need the modern education to help us get to the same standard of living that most Canadians and Americans take for granted that we need our young people to dream about jobs they have a dream job but never to forget is this Lakota wrote in his book Custer died for your sins that this country has been sick ever since the first treaty was broken now I'll close off to my TEDx wish in this whole complicated mess of native non Navy non-native relations in the big complicated problems between the provinces in the states in the federal government when it comes to native issues the youngest and fastest growing population in Canada is the Aboriginal people as we stand here today over 150 Indian reserves don't even have internet power is the youngest and fastest growing population going to participate in the Canadian dream so my wish is that we get those reservations broadband and that the kids have a chance to participate with all of our kids here have any Okanagan and that's a laptop and that's being on the internet and going back to the what I call the one of the greatest leaders this country has ever ad the time is always right to do the right thing so I say let's do the right thing the time is now to do the right thing limb limped in my language thank you you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 30,056

Rating: 4.9193954 out of 5

Keywords: Politics, ted talks, ted talk, ted, English, Social Science, History, TEDxTalks, Culture, Canada, tedx talk, ted x, tedx talks, tedx

Id: TlTv3Rd--Kc

Length: 20min 7sec (1207 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 08 2014