The deep fall is only part of our history

Page 5

Dear Editor:

The residential school system has become an educational paradigm that teaches Aboriginal students that we are victims of a cruel past. As a proud Native man, I despise this notion with a passion. My viewpoint may be controversial to those out there who continue to harbor residual feelings of pain and angst, but the reality is that these are the cards we have been dealt and matters exist that need our immediate attention.

The river of life has been flowing for Native peoples since times long forgotten. This river has seen many curves and bends. Occasionally, other creatures have built dams for their own purposes, but the river has continued to flow, ever replenishing the lands. Only very recently have we experienced violent rapids in our travels along this river with the coming of Europeans.

I see the residential school system as a great waterfall in this river of life that Native peoples have been pushed over. The falling period over these giant waterfalls caused great horror, helplessness, shame, fear and an overbearing sense of loneliness. Of course, not all of the people were forced over the falls; these others escaped and found alternate routes to the bottom, left intact with memories of the life that existed before this time of upheaval. Those who did not take the plunge found a people who did that were not the same, last seen before the falls.

Entire generations of peoples have emerged at the bottom of this great waterfall-soggy, tired and disturbed. Many of our people were lost or drowned and never seen again. Yet others continue to drown under the weight of sorrow and misery of the great waterfall. The weight of this water continues to force these peoples underwater, struggling to breathe.

Contemporary Native peoples live in scattered camps around an immense, deep pool that lies at the foot of the great waterfall. From this point, the river continues to flow calmly into uncharted territory. Many among the older generations have been deceived into believing that the river of life that we once followed is somehow the source of our terrible struggle. Many have vowed never to swim in or eat from this river again. They choose to live away from its banks, raising their families in the dark forest that now envelopes the land.

Amongst the scattered camps at the bottom of the falls a new generation of Natives have been born, raised with a withered knowledge of a life that existed before the great fall. This generation represents the scouts of a re-shaped people who bravely look ahead and explore the river before them, unchallenged by those who sought to destroy them.

There is a reason and a purpose for everything that happens in this life. Sometimes the reasoning is unclear, confusing and very painful. If something happened that was so terrible that we as a people could not overcome it, our Creator would not have allowed it to happen. If you have become "educated" to believe that we as Native people are the victims of a system of assimilation, I believe you are one of those people still standing beneath the great waterfall. Do our peoples and yourself a favor and step out from the weight of the falling water and breathe. You will then realize that the sun continues to shine and that there are people laughing and enjoying this beautiful life on a nearby shore. Others you will see are paddling boldly into the future where it is said a place exists of abundant game and fish, nestled amongst islands of self governance and cultural prosperity.

As the future leaders of tomorrow, we have made progress thought impossible by our forefathers. By challenging those who sought to oppress our ancestors, we have moved beyond the camps at the foot of the waterfalls and can now look back and see how immense the waterfall actually was and how far we as a people have fallen.

We are not victims. We have survived and adapted to countless hardships and changes thousands of years before this land wadiscovered. Sometimes you must firmly grasp the past in order to design a desirable future. We have arrived here today, and our childrens' great grandchildren, and their grandchildren, will always play beside this river of life, because this river flows forever.

-D. Beaverbone