Finally, a "graduate"

David Parkinson, writing in today's 'Globe and Mail' actually used the word "graduate" when referring to a native who attended a residential boarding school.  So, we know at least one person was not only a "survivor", but also a "graduate".  I was relieved.   

He also pointed out that those who integrated into main-stream society after graduating did much better than those who returned to their reserves.  He claimed this was the reason reserves are in such dire, economic straits.  Well, no kidding.  Why would someone who aspired to a better life off-reserve and who wanted to attend university -- like all the successful native leaders did -- even consider throwing it all away by moving back to a desolate reserve? 

Looking at leaders such as Phil Fontaine, Ovide Mercury, James Bartleman and Murray Sinclair we see that they were all born on reserves, but went to residential schools and on to university, where they obtained law degrees, enabling them to become the leaders they are today.  Had they moved back to their reserves, they would have vanished into nowhere.  The two successful natives who spoil an otherwise civilized narrative are the strident and hysterical Pam Palmeter and Tanya Talaga -- both women (unfortunately) I do wish would settle down and be quiet.     

Learned something else, reading 'The New Yorker' the other day.  I was not aware that natives kept slaves themselves, but apparently they did.  The Muscogee, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole tribes kept Blacks as slaves after the latter had been "emancipated".  They even had a thriving intertribal raid-and-trade slave economy.

Often, to escape capture, Black fugitives sought to go native, with varying results:  Some tribes incorporated them, others killed them and others returned them to slavery.  "We owned some, we were some and we slept with some," said one descendent of a native tribe that engaged in slavery.  

Other than publications most people don't read -- like 'The New Yorker' -- you neither hear nor read about this inconvenient truth because it spoils the downtrodden narrative the "wokes" fan to prove a point.  God forbid anyone should mention this tidbit!

The more you read, the more you learn.