In life, there are so many people going through so many difficulties - sometimes we fail to recognize the difficulties of others.
But when we are able to - then that allows us to say for a moment sometimes - wow - I'm so glad I am not going through their problems - then our own problems don't seem so bad - well - at least for a while, anyway.
The day I was born - I was born under the total control of the Department of Indian Affairs - I was part of «Band Number ... » - a status Indian - «property of» and «the responsibility of» an order called the federal government or the forceful governing powers of Indian Affairs over the total control of Indians - and not once were any Indians asked - if the federal government of Canada could really do that - and in reality, Indians in Canada are still wards-of-the-Canadian-state... -
We were then forced under and by the law, right up to 1962, to become someone else - my God - so many people do not know what went on on the reserves and the schools in the back yards of Canadian society - we were put there on purpose -
- to be forgotten -
And today, that victimized, marginalized feeling still haunts the insides of so many Indians - it's kind of like a little ghost that won't go away inside sometimes - and yes - most people do not understand how we were forced and even severely punished, and sometimes beaten to death by nuns and priests into becoming what we did not care to become - why can't we excel and be successful as Indians in Canadian society? - why must we be tricked and forced into becoming - something other than ourselves, in order to make it somehow?
In so many ways, it's a miracle many of us made it this far in life -
I lost a brother to suicide because of a system that had him so confused - he could not bear the voices of his assimilators in his head anymore. To this day I have to live with the thought of - maybe I could of helped him - did he have to take his own life? - but then again - back then - I was barely figuring out what was done to us all - in many ways, my life today is nothing short of a miracle - I can only thank God and good people as yourself for me being here today.
Just think of what the victims had to endure and could not say nothing or they would be severely punished by whatever means their captors delighted in.
- something to think about -
*author unknown*