Canada and the US are very similar, except for a few social differences (like medicare, etc). Have the aboriginals been treated better/worse/ or exactly the same as they have been treated in Canada.
Just wondering, because whenever I start thinking about the US, I always assume that it is basically identical to Canada.
I suspect people tend to pay more attention to these issues in Canada than in the United States, at least in part because a significantly larger percentage of that country’s original population wasn’t killed.
It’s my impression, from what I’ve read on the matter, that in respect to their treatment of their aboriginal groups, the English-speaking countries with non-European aboriginal peoples can be ranked as follows:
with 1 being the country that treated them best and 4 being the country that treated them worst.
Depends on where you are, I guess. When I was in L.A., I knew there was a reservation aroud somewhere (like out by Palm Springs, or someplace), but almost no one paid any attention to them. Up here, four miles from the Canadian border, it seems you can’t throw a rock without it landing on Aboriginal land. There are the Lummi, the Nooksack, and I-don’t-know-how-many others. As far as the First Nations people, I’ve met a Cosalish documentary videomaker and I’ve heard some terrible things Canada has done to First Nations tribes on the West Coast. As for the Lummi, et al, there is friction. Fishermen complain about fishing treaties, and there are fights over water rights.
Me? I didn’t grow up around tribes, so I don’t treat them any differently from any other people.
I think New Zealand has since done a great job at reparation, much better than the US has. I have no idea, though, what the situation is like in Canada.
Are you talking historically? Because here in the US we slaughtered and starved out our native people.
The only thing that is currently lifting them out of crushing poverty and disease is legalized reservation gambling for certain tribes.
Which isn’t going so well either, with a few tribal elders booting out the people who have always pissed them off, thus cutting them off from the millions. Several gambling tribes have less than a dozen members.