And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 06:41:49 -0400
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Whitefish Valley youth gathering: Elder, Eddie Benton-Banai
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Natives must recapture their past
to claim their future, native elder says
By Harold Carmichael/THE SUDBURY STAR 9/10/99
It’s not surprising that some native youth today are turning to street gangs, says an
Ojibwa elder from Wisconsin. That’s because such youth, who have little or no
connection to their past, are looking to belong and finding ready acceptance in such
groups and the colours they wear, said Eddie Benton-Banai on Thursday. “The
grandchild comes up today to grandma and asks ‘what is our plan?,” he said. “She can’t
tell him. ‘Grandma: what is our clan song?’ She doesn’t know it. She can’t sing it.
.”We can’t understand why youth are forming up in gangs. We can’t assimilate it. (But)
it is directly connected to what we gave up.
“Generation after generation, the stories were not told. The clans were not kept up.
The stories of 5,000 years ago were not kept up and updated for the ‘90s.”
Benton-Banai, an Ojibwa from the Lac Court Oreilles reservation in Wisconsin, was the
third of three keynote speakers at the Anishinabek Nation’s Taking Care of Those Yet
Unborn -- Gathering Strength conference being hosted by the Whitefish Lake First
Nation in Whitefish Lake, west of Sudbury. More than 150 people listened to
Benton-Banai’s presentation, which had a theme of rediscovering Anishinabek roots,
both at the family and community levels, and through the education system. He said
that the Anishinabek people have to look to the past if they are to be successful in
establishing an Anishinabek nation in the near future. “We have to start building that
new nation on our terms,” he said. “We can no longer tolerate white schools on Indians
lands.
“We have to write our own curriculums not according to Washington’s or Ottawa’s needs
. . . that’s sovereignty.” A fourth-degree Midewin Lodge member and an education
consultant, Benton-Banai has spent more than 30 years fighting assimilation of the
Anishinabek people. Benton-Banai said many Anishinabek people today simply don’t know
about the 3 Fires Confederacy flag, which features three flames in front of four bars
coloured black, purple, green and red, respectively, and represents the Anishinabek
nation. Benton-Banai added that through a return to the Anishinabek language,
Anishinabek spirituality and culture will both re-emerge. “Before we can take
that next step, let’s look back,” he said. “What sustained us for 50,000 years --
50,000 years without bingos, alcohol and drugs? What instilled us? Our society did.”
He challenged the “aunties and uncles” in his audience to rediscover or learn the old
stories and songs in order to help Anishinabek children plug into their heritage. “Go
back and check out our stories,” concluded Benton-Banai. “Grandma: what are our clan
colours? Grandpa: can you sing the creation song.” The Anishinabek Nation, founded in
1949 as the Union of Ontario Indians, is the political arm of 43
member First Nations across Ontario.
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks
www.angelfire.com/mn/mcap/bc.html
FOR K A R E N #01182
who died fighting 4/23/99
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.aches-mc.org
807-622-5407
