Reader asks: What road do you choose?

Page 5

Dear Editor:

This is an open letter to all the Native peoples of Turtle Island. I am writing this letter in the hopes that we can free ourselves from oppression.

I constantly hear that we should take control of our own lives and the lives of our children, so that we can all have a better life. This noble talk being said. It is sadly apparent that most of us still do not realize that we must act on this talk and carry it through to its logical conclusion-freedom.

For the last 120 years, we have chosen to work within a foreign system whose goal is to eliminate the Native peoples of this land. We must cut those ties if we are to survive. If not, then there will be no more generations to come.

Some of our brothers and sisters from what they call Mexico have chosen to do this. How you ask? By determining for themselves how they live, work, learn, and build their lives and communities.

By coming together and doing what has to be done, they have given themselves freedom. I have great hopes and great sorrows for our people and myself. I have great hope that we will do the same as our relatives down south and get our freedom. I also have great sorrow at what will happen if we do not-death.

Together we can do it. If we accept our differences and use them to our benefit then we can create the home that was taken away from our children and us. We must work together by sharing resources, information and each other's strength. We have the abilities, the skills and the people to make this happen. It is up to us as individuals, communities, nations to act upon this, regardless of what the foreign governments tell us what we can do.

All of us are all too familiar with the problems that face us today-Drugs, alcohol, corruption, loss of identity, loss of freedom and so on. The system in which we currently live has no interest in changing this situation. It does not serve their interests to do so. Then it is up to us to change it, together.

And change it we must, if not for ourselves, then for those who come afterwards so that they may live better lives than we have.

To do this will require action as well as words. It can be done as shown by our brothers and sisters south of us. We must take control of our nations and do what has to be done for all. I am not speaking as an American, Canadian or Mexican; I am speaking as a citizen of the Anishinabek Three Fires Confederacy that is also part of the Greater Nation of Turtle Island.

As Nations, we have responsibilities and rights. We have the responsibility to provide safety, security, health and true freedom for every citizen, as with this is our responsibility to Mother Earth, which in turn allows us to fulfill our responsibilities.

We have the right to determine our own fate, to speak and practice our languages and culture freely, to choose who are our citizens, to live our lives freely without foreign interference. This will require us to work together towards this goal, to make it a reality. The other road is obvious, eventual destruction of our lives, our communities, our nations and the future. I choose the first road. What will you choose?

Tante Hokslina

Anishinabek Three Fires Confederacy

Baawaating Territory