Having read some history of North America and the early settlers from Europe, I find that the problems arose from the religions that came with the settlers. This made the settlers feel supreme over the natives -- we are Christians and the natives are heathens.
In the U.S., the natives were cheated, suppressed and killed by the military as well as herded into reserves in a manner much the same as the Holocaust --systemic killing. If this did not kill them the diseases that came with the settlers also took their toll. This gives a whole new meaning to the Christian beliefs.
In Canada, we were no better. We fought the natives, killed when we could, cheated them in fur trade, used their women, took the land we wanted, trained them to use alcohol and later herded their children into religious schools for abuse and segregation from their families -- we will make the heathens into good little Christians, period.
This is the truth about our early settlers. The natives have now found lawyers and want some recognition of the faults laid upon them in the past. How can today's society make amends for the past? It is time for closure and letting people get on with their lives. It is a real mess to clean up.
I attempt to think of the children removed from their families to be indoctrinated, abused and forced into this Christian society which would have been very foreign to them. These children were very young and fragile. Hope for them lies in their future.
Canadian history: there was a bounty on some natives in Newfoundland (endorsed by the church) -- you could go out and shoot natives until 1922 -- try to get this into your religious thinking -- in Canada, only in Canada you say. There are no one left of this tribe. It is OK to shoot them, they are heathens, not Christians.
If we are to teach history in our schools, we need to tell the truth and not make the new settlers into heroes. Will any amount of money make the hurt of the past go away? I wonder if it will because it hasn't as of today.
Take a good look at your children and ask yourself how you would feel if the police came and took them to a religious school for indoctrination into a new language and some strange religion.
Sleep well, Christians, it is your past.
Jorgen Hansen
Kelowna, B.C.
