Ottawa Report

Page 4

Despite popular demand, I'm back this week to continue giving special recognition to a few people in the world of Native affairs. You may remember that this sometimes takes the form of a pat-on-the-back or a kick-in-the-pants.

Picking up where I left off last week, my first hurrah goes out to the people organizing the Calgary Winter Olympics. They torpedoed a plan to include an old fashioned cowboy-and-Indian wagon-burning as part of the opening ceremonies. An estimated one and one half billion people will se the opening ceremonies on television. The organizing committee asked officials from the Calgary Stampede to plan the grand finale. The Olympics wanted something western, something exciting and the Stampede people came up with a dandy of an idea. The Stampede people wanted a horde of Indians to swoop down on a wagon train. The Indians, complete with war paint, would torch the wagons and finish the scene with a war dance.

When Indian leaders head about the idea, they were livid. One said he would agree to the plan only if the white guys in the burning wagons were the guys who thought it up. Thank goodness the Olympics people can recognize a public relations disaster when they hear one. Because of the Lubicon boycott, the Olympics people are extremely sensitive about bad publicity involving Indians so when the plan for a wagon-burning hit the news, they killed it ? fast.

So, here's a cheer for the people organizing the Calgary Olympics.

Next, a little boo goes out to Ethel Stewart. She knows, as well as anyone, that we ended up being called Indians because Columbus got lost on his way to India. Most Indians also know it's a darn good thing he wasn't looking for Turkey.

Just think about it, if you thought being called an Injun or an itchy-bum was bad, how would you like to be called a turkey all your life? And if you thought some bozo putting their hand over their mouth and going "whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo" was bad, just imagine a lifetime of people taking one look at you, tucking their hands up under their armpits and then going "gobble-gobble-gobble."

That little nightmare could become a reality, though, if Ethel Stewart has her way. She has studied the language patterns of some Indian tribes in North America and Turkish people of Asia and she says there are many similarities in language and culture. Ethel Stewart wants us to believe that we and they are kissin' cousins. She already has the Turkish-Canadian Cultural Association on her side and if her idea catches on, the joke about Columbus looking for Turkey won't be funny anymore. And so, Ethel Stewart, I have one small but good-natured message for you and your idea ? "gobble-gobble."

The next two names on my list are Dr. David Roy and Dr. Christopher Tsoukas. At a recent Ottawa conference on AIDS, they told the story of an Inuit man who became a carrier of the AIDS virus after he had a blood transfusion in Montreal. The man and his community were not blamed. The doctors told the man to practise safe sex when he returned to the North. He didn't and he ended up giving the virus to three women.

The story quickly became front page news. Until then, Northerners had felt secure because AIDS had not yet touched the North but the media coverage created an uproar. People became fearful that their community was no longer safe from the deadly disease. They were worried and they wanted answers. That's when the doctors made their incredible confession. They said the story they told at the conference wasn't entirely true ? but they wouldn't say which parts were true and which were false. They wouldn't say which community was involved and they wouldn't even say whether the man was an Inuk after all. And so, Dr. Roy and Dr. Tsoukas, you deserve a kick-in-the-pants for scaring the hell out of northerners and then refusing to clean up the mess you created.

He said he was against self-government for Native people. Indians can't manage their reserves and in some cases, he said,they can't even manage their personal lives. Native people will misuse their money and abuse their power if they ever get self-government, he said. He topped it all off by saying that if it weren't for their white man he would still probably be using bows and arrows and our kids would be dying of diseases we couldn't cure.

So, Barry Marchand, you get a little hurrah for having the courage to swim against the tide of popular opinion. But you also get a big boo for exposing your ignorance and the bad feelings you obviously have against Native people. And one more thing-remember that it's better to be considered a fool than to write a letter to a newspaper and remove all doubts.