It is so easy to be a critic. If you do not like academic prattle,
please send something over the network besides just complaints about
European mindsets. Heaping guilt on Europeans is probably just
as much of a waste of time.
Most of the people who signed up for NativeNet are interested in
North American Indian issues. If you have something to share about
the reservation, sovereignty issues, etc. Please do. We share what
we know about.
The network is only as good as its contributors. More Indian people
would use the network if it fulfilled their needs. Since you have
identified a problem it is up to you to do something about it, I
promise to support your efforts. When I have learned enough to
contribute information about the issues you identify I can help out.
Meanwhile, the prattle will continue and we will all be losers.
Paula
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[ Again, I would like to point out that I think there *is*, as I see
it, a need for a separate network for Indian people to use for their
own needs, which is more practical in its focus. In fact, I would
like to identify people who would be interested in helping construct
such a network. I got a call a few weeks ago from someone in Arizona
who I met at the ONAICS conference last May who wants to do just this
kind of thing (though he has an international focus, and wants to link
up with some people in New Zealand who have formed a Maori-Indian
friendship society). Please - if anyone wants to help with such a
project, please get in touch so we can start figuring out how to go
about it (a lot of what needs doing involves getting equipment into
the hands of the people who need it, and arranging for training and
maintenance and similar matters).
That having all been said, I tend to agree with Paula that the best
kind of criticism is constructive criticism. I'm tempted to write
an article on the subject, but I'll resist right now, saying only that
I think that I would like to see bonds of understanding and trust
being established between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people, and
that networks like this are one good way of starting the process. Yes,
there are ongoing cases of what might almost be termed deliberate
misunderstanding, even in cases of people who see themselves wanting to
"help" (a word that is very loaded in "Indian country" because of the
legacy of efforts to "help" - and quite rightly so). Still, I feel
there is a lot we can share and can work on together, and there *are*
people of European ancestory who are willing to lay aside their own
agendas long enough to really try to see the problems faced by modern
American/Canadian Indian people and who want to do what they can,
either through the political process or in more "direct" ways to be
of service. We have to start somewhere, maybe by just giving one
another the benefit of whatever doubt remains is one place. --Gary ]