Typical

"They need more money."  That's what a young Indigenous server told me when we were eating lunch at a Calgary restaurant.  

This is typical of the ignorance of natives everywhere.  "Have you been to Morley lately?" I asked this young lady.  Morley is a reserve on the Trans Canada between Calgary and Banff about 50 kms from here and it's a complete dump.  

Part of the Stoney Nakoda "Nation", its elected leaders gave themselves hefty 20 percent raises of $3.3 million in salaries alone -- twice what they billed last year.  However, figures are unclear because the overall total of $34 million appears in a handy, undefined line item called “other expenses.”

That's a lot of "other expenses".  According to Wikipedia, "...Revenues for the band west of Calgary were significantly larger than expected in the fiscal year ending March 31 at $108 million, but Morley still posted a larger-than-forecast deficit of nearly $17 million, according to numbers released under the 'First Nations Financial Transparency Act'.

So, they don't need more money.  What Indigenous people like our server need to ask themselves is, "What are our leaders doing with the money?"  As I said, they don't need more of it, but that's the ubiquitous default narrative.

This is Morley, just down the road.  The leaders gave themselves hefty raises, but no one knows where the $34 million went??

Every chance I get, I try to point out the facts.  Sadly, no one wants to hear them.