Nothin' to correct, Liz. The problem all along has been one of compensation. That's what shot the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline in the foot. I was in Good Hope (it's really Fort Good Hope, but everyone there called it Good Hope and I expect soon it will be renamed on maps as K'asho Got'ine) and heard the stories from some elders and a few of the political guys. What isn't understood by 'southerners' in Canada or Europe is the 'romanticization' of First Nations people that has taken place. Germany for example has a whole bloody industry based on 'native culture' derived from the books of Karl May. May knew squat about native North Americans, and certainly nothing about the Apache (in the US).

Here's the romantic version.

Lozen, Victorio's younger sister and respected war chief of the Apache.

The reality at the time of the Apache Wars.

As guerrilla fighters they were as good as any the world ever produced, but as was inevitable they lost and were forced onto reservations.

I lived on a reserve for three years and in a settlement for two (back when I was teaching). Trust me, there ain't nothing romantic about it--except maybe through the eyes of people who don't know what the hell they're talking about.

Read the Number Treaties from western Canada. The history is there. But people choose not to acknowledge it.

My four nephew's are half Ojibwa and half White. My grandchild is half Cree and half White. Two of the boys--men now, but boys to me--have bush skills and two don't. My grandchild's father will teach her the skills. They all presently live and work in White society, White I say because they are reminded of their 'Indian-ness' when it's convenient for some racist sonuvabitch to make a remark--usually when they outnumbered them as kids or outnumber them now.

The whole nobility issue is bullsh#t. They're just people like you and and me trying to live their lives in relative peace and security. But there is the difficulty for so many indigenous people. All they have been left with is their land, somewhat less than they had before Europeans came over, and when what they have is expropriated and nothing equal is provided in its place, people get POed, and rightfully so. As it is today, most First Nations people in Canada would starve to death in the bush or on the land because the skills just aren't there anymore. So, really, all that is left is compensation.

The story has already been told here in North America. It's been told in Central America, and I suppose it will be told once more in South America.

However, that's no reason to give up trying to fight it.

'"Only to the white man was nature a "wilderness" and only to him was the land "infested" with "wild" animals and "savage" people. To us, it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery. Not until the hairy man from the east came and with brutal frenzy heaped injustices upon us and the families we loved was it "wild" for us. When the very animals of the forest began fleeing from his approach, then it was for us that the "wild west" began."

Luther Standing Bear,
Chief of the Oglala Sioux Tribe (1868-1939)
Land of the Spotted Eagle, 1933'

LSB was from the same tribe as Crazy Horse of Little Big Horn renown--another tough sob.

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The Yanomami will feel the impact because Brazil is where they live, but few outsiders will care. Interesting people. Worth reading about.

It's rich against poor the world over. Some things don't change.