THE URBANE INDIAN - The Stony people have a home again ­65 years later

I know Christmas is over but I think the sentiment remains. I am referring to the people of Stony and Kettle Point. What a great Christmas present they got this year ­ their own provincial park. I bet you Santa just about had a coronary when he saw that on his list. But, as the yuletide story goes, he knew who had been naughty, and who had been nice. He, just like Justice Sidney Linden, commissioner of the inquiry into the 1995 death of Native protester Dudley George, knew that the government of former Ontario Premier Mike Harris and the Federal Government had been on the naughty side. So, after sixty five years, a week before Christmas, the status quo had been reinstated. The Stony people have a home again.
Sixty five years. That's a long time, even by government standards. It was in 1942 when the federal government expropriated the land belonging to the Stony Point Band which contained a burial ground, to build a military camp.
White people wanted Native land to train White people to fight other White people on far away White people's land. Somewhere, I'm sure, that makes sense. At one point, the Department of National Defense did say it was willing to return most of the land, but like many other promises to Native people, something was lost in the translation.
Sixty five years. You know, if the Federal Government was smart, it would take a page from the book on how Native people operate to explain the delay. They should just pay attention to the Iroquois People, who have proudly claimed for two hundred years that the American Constitution was based on their Great Law, the basis of their government and spiritual beliefs. Well, the Stony Point People don't have a Great Law the Canadian and Ontario government can copy, but it seems they have appropriated something else indicative of Canada's Native people: The concept of Indian Time.
It's an enigmatic and philosophical idea based around a uniquely cultural relationship with time. Simply put, things happen when they happen. There are not 24 hours in a day. Time is unlimited and impossible to be cut up into chunks. If something is to happen at 11:00, it might happen at 11:01 or 12:26 or 1:11, a.m. or p.m.. It will happen when it will happen.
The universe has its own heartbeat and who are we to speed it up or slow it down. To some, its an excuse to be late. To others, it's a way to avoid ulcers.
Sixty five years. Or on a different scale, thirty five years since the Minister of Indian Affairs at the time ­ Jean Chretien ­ noted that the Stony Point Band was beginning to get annoyed at yet another broken promise, and perhaps the Minister of Defense should return the land or offer up another piece of land as compensation.
It's been seventeen years since Oka ­ more accurately Kahnasatake ­ happened, proving once and for all that dangerous things can happen when Native people, burial grounds, provincial police, and indifferent levels of government are all poured into the same mixing bowl.
Fourteen years (1993) since the pissed off, even for people who practice Indian Time, Stony Point Band members began moving back onto the land. In 1995, the Military thought "the hell with this" and withdrew.
Evidently after 53 years, World War II was finally over and the need for the land had ended. That was also just about the time an unknown Stony Point dude named Dudley George clumsily got in the way of a speeding OPP bullet and Indian time ended for him.
Unfortunately, the Ipperwash land is soaked in blood and death. First of all, it was a burial ground. Secondly, people were trained there to kill other people. I'm sure that left some sort of psychic imprint. And thirdly, Dudley George, an unarmed man just trying to return home with his family, was shot there.
Borrowing from an ancient Indian philosophy (the dot Indian, not the feather kind), it doesn't exactly make for good karma.
The land remembers what has happened on it. Still, all is not calm in this province about Dalton McGuinty's decision.
A casual glance at major news network's Web site showed a bewildering amount of disagreement over the return of the 109 acres. "We are all going to pay for this lack of thought on the governments behalf. I know- lets just hand over the whole province. Welcome to the Province of Ontario Indian Reserve." "They lost the land that's too bad I say that the Reserves should be removed completely and that they should become normal Canadians like the rest of us, and pay taxes."
I think these people need an "Indian time" out.