Gnu,

I can tell you this straight across. I taught on a reserve--where I also lived. I knew the people there very well and I'm quite sure I'd be welcomed back tomorrow if I chose to go. The grandparents--kookums and mushums (phonetic spellings)--hda been taken away to schools and disallowed to speak their language, Cree. The punishment was a beating for saying "Astum a tee (come over here). I learned this from the elders who had no reason to lie to me about it. (They were the same people who taught me how to 'shoot' in the great game of 'PUG ee see' (phonetic spelling), how to snare chickens when they did the mating dance, how to cure a bad throat with rat root.) They spoke the truth to me. And I will speak the truth on their behalf. From their small group of 500 people, over 120 were TAKEN away to a residential school so far from their reserve that getting home at Christmas was impossible. And today, the grandkids have no way to speak with their elders because they no longer share a common language. That was taken away from them by OUR government.

In my own family (I have four nephews who are half/half from my sister and their father who was 100% Ojibwa) I have seen the crap done by Indian Affairs. I have also seen the harm done by crooked Indian politicos. They will have to live with that and answer to their people. BUT, this fu#king government answers to me as a tax payer and citizen, and I think the apology is a start.