Quick, Somebody Phone the Queen!

Queen Victoria (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We don't see the Queen as having any say in how we conduct our business

today in Canada, but since 1793 it has been the Crown with whom the

Indians have signed binding treaties that affect them to this day.

 

This is why Chief Spence is continuing her hunger strike until the

Governor General agrees to attend the current discussions.

He represents the Queen.

 

There were 31 treaties signed before Confederation.

When you hear talk of the numbered treaties, the speakers are referring to

treaties that came after 1867.

 

It seems that the Indians approached this business at first with a willingness

to share what they had. 

Then as diseases like small pox and alcoholism raged at the same

time that  their traditional food sources were drying up, they seem

to have signed treaties in order to get help.

 

As I write this I know that tomorrow the First Nations are planning blockades

of the various main arteries that bring goods and services into the country.

They are pissed.

I would be too. 

They have been treated abdominally.

 

But the truth is we can't afford to pay them the money that is owed

and we can't give them back all that they lost.

 

I'm worried.

 

 

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