Kinja reply list

Read More
deerlady83Stassa Edwards
4/11/16 6:42pm
Almost twenty years ago, there was a rash of suicides and suicide attempts among the teenagers on my reservation. It was a scary time because it seemed suicide was almost like a virus going from child to child.
Reply
- Read More
  pygmypossumdeerlady83
  4/11/16 6:48pm
  It is definitely a contagious thing, especially among teenagers and young adults. Very scary.
  Reply
- Read More
  nightvaledeerlady83
  4/11/16 6:50pm
  What a horrid nightmare. So sorry. Haven’t there been studies showing that suicide in some ways has a contagious component? I am so glad they are addressing this head on.
  Reply
Read More
lillie, warrior queenStassa Edwards
4/11/16 6:36pm
This breaks my heart on so many levels. Why do so many people consider aid to the poor a bad thing? I think people killing themselves is far worse.
Reply
- Read More
  deerlady83lillie, warrior queen
  4/11/16 6:45pm
  Especially since there were more than likely government policies put in place to keep them poor.
  Reply
- Read More
  Jessaminalillie, warrior queen
  4/11/16 7:04pm
  It’s not about giving aid to the poor. No one wants to talk about it, but Canada is not a bastion of progressive liberalism. Canada is good to everyone except for its First Nations peoples. Every level of society, law enforcement, and government is nothing short of racist and cruel in its treatment of them. Our last residential school closed in 1996!!!
  Reply
Read More
HaHaYouFoolStassa Edwards
4/11/16 6:33pm
Oh, my god.

*Sending all love northward*
Reply
- Read More
  deerlady83HaHaYouFool
  4/11/16 6:43pm
  They have it really rough up there. I know my reservation doesn't have a lot of resources but they have even less.
  Reply
- Read More
  VeryVickydeerlady83
  4/11/16 7:22pm
  There was a recent news report on living conditions on many reserves. Many have no running water or indoor plumbing. One place that stands out had no reliable electricity even though it overlooked the electrical dam that was built when they were displaced. Can you imagine the nerve of the utility in not connecting them to the grid after moving them to give the rest of the population more electricity than they already had!?!
  Reply
Read More
JessaminaStassa Edwards
4/11/16 7:00pm
11 suicide attempts in one night. When it comes to politics and public policy, Canada gets a lot of love (especially from liberal progressive people from the United States), but our First Nations are treated atrociously. Women and young girls are raped, beaten, kidnapped, and murdered and the crimes aren’t investigated (and now it’s clear that they are victimized by the RCMP and police), an unusually high number of First Nations men and women are in prison, and an unusually high number of First Nations children are under the ‘protection’ of child services. Many communities have no running water, no healthcare, community buildings that should be condemned for mold and toxicity and would be in any city, and no schools beyond elementary/middle school (so children are flown hours away to the nearest big city, like Timmins, to live with strangers to get a highschool education. They are often depressed, have trouble adjusting to city life, and miss their cultural practices and ofcourse their tight-knit families. They’re violently targeted by white residents (a murder investigation involving four kids in Timmins is hopefully pending) but their deaths are usually dismissed as suicides or accidents after getting drunk or high (which doesn’t even make sense in a lot of the cases, i.e. in Timmins an unusal amount of kids were found dead in the river late at night) and the kids’ families don’t get an explanation because there is no investigation. Canada’s mistreatment/abuse of First Nations Peoples is the worst thing about this country, it’s a denial of human rights, it’s the continued slow genocide of this country’s original populations, and it’s nothing less than shameful. Prime Minister Harper completely ignored their plight, and even withheld spending money THAT WAS IN THE BUDGET on First Nations children. Thank goodness that is now being investigated and I believe a Charter challenge is being brought in the courts. Hopefully PM Trudeau will accomplish what’s in his mandate.
Reply
- Read More
  JessaminaJessamina
  4/11/16 7:46pm
  I should make this correction: the students who were found dead in/by the river were in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
  Reply
- Read More
  anathemadevicetwopointohJessamina
  4/11/16 8:03pm
  First Nations women are targets in the US because, thanks to a legislative loophole, there are NO repercussions - white men for the most part (there are a few exceptions) can’t be tried by tribal courts, and the Feds don’t bother to prosecute on the basis that the crime happened on tribal land.
  Reply
Read More
DonnieReynoldsStassa Edwards
4/11/16 6:38pm
1) holy fuck that’s tragic

2) how do 101 people try to kill themselves and only 1 die? I mean, how hard are we trying? Is this like when my friend jumped out of a second story window to make her bf feel guilty for cheating?
Reply
- Read More
  Mental IcebergDonnieReynolds
  4/11/16 6:46pm
  I don’t know.
  
  From the article (posted Sunday 4/10) “On Saturday night alone, 11 people attempted to take their own lives, Chief Bruce Shisheesh said.
  
  Shisheesh and the council met Saturday night and unanimously voted to declare the state of emergency. That compels such agencies as the Weeneebayko Health Authority in Moose Factory, Ont., and Health Canada to bring in additional resources.
  
  Including Saturday’s spate of suicide attempts, a total of 101 people of all ages have tried to kill themselves since September, Shisheesh said, with one person dying. The youngest was 11, the oldest 71.
  
  The Cree community — home to about 2,000 residents — saw 28 attempts in March alone.
  
  Last September, a group of five girls overdosed and had to be medevaced out of the community, Shisheesh said.”
  Reply
- Read More
  china-in-a-bull-shopDonnieReynolds
  4/11/16 6:47pm
  many people change their mind partway through an attempt. its a cry for help nonetheless.
  Reply
Read More
HappyHighwaymanStassa Edwards
4/11/16 6:38pm
Canadian here. STOP LIVING THERE. Sorry, but your traditional way of life is dead. The government should not subsidize a “useless” lifestyle, even if it’s in a traditional area. Give them a date where we’ll pay to move them to civilization and then end support. “Economic and employment opportunities are limited to work within the community, mainly service sector or for the local band council. There are only a handful of businesses in the town.” It is useless to try and live there. Unless they want to die, which is appears they do. Sorry, but it’s over.
Reply
- Read More
  AnemoneHappyHighwayman
  4/11/16 6:56pm
  So what are they supposed to do? Move to the big city and become prostitutes? There are people there who are going to be unable to adapt to the big city, especially older people. There are people who could adapt to urban life if they had adequate resources, but they probably don’t. You don’t just change an entire way of life like that. You have to learn how. (And that’s excluding the racism they’ll face if they do move. I’m continually surprised about how racist some Canadians are about Natives.)
  Reply
- Read More
  VeryVickyHappyHighwayman
  4/11/16 6:57pm
  You act as if we gave them a choice as to what to do when we stole the best lands they were using. If our government had respected the treaties it signed those reserves would be villages like any other, with decent living conditions.
  
  Making them leave all the people they know when we know they’re usually treated like crap by whites in regular communities would be again moving them for our convenience instead of doing right by them. In a few generations we’d be whining about all the Natives living in poverty in our inner cities even more than we do for those already left to their own devices in our big cities.
  
  They’re asking for services, the least we can do is finally give what they ask since we sure aren’t going to give them the hundreds of billions we owe them.
  Reply
Read More
JujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes hereStassa Edwards
4/11/16 6:47pm
Please note that DeBeers continues to be a garbage company who are totally indifferent to the misery that their product brings to everyone involved in harvesting their overpriced baubles.
Reply
- Read More
  yog-shoggothJujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes here
  4/11/16 6:56pm
  DeBeers was founded by notorious imperialist and white supremacist Cecil Rhodes, whose greatest hit was probably almost single-handedly stripping the African population of the Cape of Good Hope of land ownership rights because he needed more menial laborers for the diamond mines and other British-owned industries.
  
  They really are the worst.
  Reply
- Read More
  EleniRPGJujyMonkey: Clever tagline goes here
  4/11/16 7:08pm
  I don’t know much about diamonds, but I had a sense that diamonds from Canada were some of the “good” ones because they’re not blood diamonds. But this sounds awful.
  Reply
Read More
Kris-the-Needlessly-DefiantStassa Edwards
4/11/16 6:44pm
This is a direct result of the Stephen Harper government pretty much ignoring Native Affairs for years. I know people who have worked in northern communities and the conditions in some of them are not conditions you should see in a developed country, ever. We can do better Canada!
Reply
- Read More
  Carrie MathisonKris-the-Needlessly-Defiant
  4/11/16 6:57pm
  Yeah. After he made promises to them, health markers showed things were getting WORSE. It was truly horrible.
  Reply
- Read More
  CritabKris-the-Needlessly-Defiant
  4/11/16 10:19pm
  The Harper government and pretty much every government before his. I hate Harper for his inaction, but he didn’t create these problems - he simply let them fester.
  Reply
Read More
Helena HandbasketStassa Edwards
4/12/16 12:37pm
I can’t pretend to imagine how it would feel to face this, as indiginous peoples, but maybe its time to cleave less firmly to keeping the tribe together, and give their kids a chance by encouraging them to go out in the world, and not remain limited by what’s available on the average reservation?

Were I a First Nation or Native American, I hope that I would be able to overcome the sadness of facing losing my ancient culture, in favor of a future for my children, and would find a way to send them off to college, out in the world to find better lives, and not limit their futures to the square-footage of the destitute village they were born in.

Easily the best thing that could happen would be for DeBeers Diamond Mine (digging through their ancestral lands for pointless shit to adorn fat, pampered outsiders with), to be compelled to set up a college fund that would send every indiginous kid to college, show them the outside world, and tearfully hope they can find a more fulfilling future in the outside world than they ever will in the cloistered poverty and alcoholism of the reservation.
Reply
- Read More
  digital_ruseHelena Handbasket
  4/12/16 1:06pm
  First Nations People here can get their post secondary paid for, my sister in law did. I’m not sure how this would work to benefit those in the Norther communities though, as there are really big problems with access to education of all kinds on those reserves. My SIL is from the same smallish city area as I am, so not remote.
  Reply
- Read More
  Helena Handbasketdigital_ruse
  4/12/16 3:00pm
  First Nations People here can get their post secondary paid for, my sister in law did. I’m not sure how this would work to benefit those in the Norther communities though, as there are really big problems with access to education of all kinds on those reserves. My SIL is from the same smallish city area as I am, so not remote.
  
  Oh that’s great to hear, that FN people get help with secondary education.
  
  I guess I was just spit-balling with the thought of college in particular as the route, but what I meant was, with financial help, what is preventing most of those kids from the reservations from going off to college somewhere else, and then on to jobs, careers, etc., in some place that isn’t as economically depressed as where all these kids who see no future are from?
  
  My impression is that a desire not to lose the tribal and cultural heritage they maintain by all staying together in an insulated place like that, I can only imagine how that feels.
  
  So if I was a parent there, I can’t help but think of what kind of life my daughter might have there on the reservation, versus what she might if there was a way to send her off to school somewhere else. I went to college 1,000 miles from the poor fishing village on the coast of Maine I was raised in, because my Mom, tearfully, encouraged it due to the lack of many options for me if I’d stayed local...
  Reply
Read More
JacquelineStassa Edwards
4/11/16 7:44pm
This reminds me of a similar event that happened in Wales. In a single county, Brigend, twenty-five teenagers killed themselves in two years (2008 and 2009). There is an excellent documentary about it on Netflix called, “Brigend”. Lack of socio-economic opportunity, poor mental healthcare services and the “contagion” effect that can happen with teen suicides were all examined as contributors to the tragedy. It’s one of the most heart-breaking documentaries I’ve ever seen.
Reply
- Read More
  PumpkinSpiesJacqueline
  4/11/16 8:22pm
  I saw that. It was D:
  Reply