gnu - You said, "We have paid through the nose to bring these people everything they could ever ask for. Free EVERYTHING, from housing through education through you name it. Just lately, they wanted to share in the fishing and the forestry here in New Brunswick."

Maybe you should take it up with your provincial govt. who is doing the negotiating. Its quite a bit different here in B.C.

In the first place there were no treaties in B.C. In the second place the claims are based on territorial hunting and fishing rights which never had anything to do with land ownership. Natives have food fishing rights here in B.C. which riled the non-native fisherman for awhile but now a resolution has been found by many. Non-natives largely own the boats but Natives have the licenses. That means that most of the crew are Native and everyone gets their fair share of the fish (commercial and non-commericial).

If you are going to destroy the hunting grounds by logging, why shouldn't they Natives get a share? Aren't they entitled to feed their families something besides white sugar and bleached flour?

Lets remember that most of the 'housing' was govt. housing provided by the govt. As usual, it was used to relocate Natives who were inhabiting land with valuable mineral resources. Such a deal! A Calif. special doesn't last long in the far North.

I really think you need to think outside the box a bit. In addition to taking their territorial land, we introduced many diseases, alcohol, firearms, and have practically destroyed their culture by taking the children from their families and sending them to residential schools, robbing them of their language and exposing them to sexual and physical abuse. Has any of this ever happened to you?

As far as education goes - have you looked at the high school graduation rate? Any Native who is strong enough to endure cultural genocide and graduate should be given the opportunity to attend post secondary. What is desperately needed is educated leadership.

Just curious, what makes you think you are entitled to take anything from this land? What makes you so entitled?