[Indigsol] in response to Margaret Wente's column defending Dick Pound

[kim mackrael]

Here is another response to Margaret Wente's article: Margaret Wente:
What Dick Pound said was really dumb – and also true.
(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081024.wcowent25/BNStory/specialComment/home)


HAYDEN KING

>From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

October 29, 2008 at 3:26 AM EDT

Thomas Jefferson once remarked that those who don't read newspapers
are better informed than those who do, even as the former may know
nothing, the latter only know falsehood and error. This brings to mind
Margaret Wente's recent column about Olympic official Dick Pound, who
said, "400 years ago, Canada was a land of savages." Ms. Wente's
Saturday column has likely set back the first nations' campaign for an
accurate representation of native peoples in the mainstream media by
10 years.

In fact, a brief survey of the original peoples of this continent
illustrates an array of accomplishments that rival civilizations
around the globe, including those in Western Europe. Yet today, in
North America, the ancestors of those from both continents live side
by side, separated by a canyon of misunderstanding. To gain insight,
we need only turn to indigenous oral traditions, wampum belts,
birchbark scrolls and Tsalagi and Aztec texts. In addition, scholars
of all stripes from all corners of the globe have contributed to a
greater knowledge of indigenous cultures.

Perhaps most impressive among their findings is that indigenous
peoples were adept farmers, originally cultivating and harvesting
two-thirds of the foodstuffs the world consumes today. These include
the tomato, peanut, potato, chili peppers and corn. In fact, at the
time of contact, and long before Gregor Mendel's experiments with pea
plants, the Huron in Ontario had genetically engineered 17 different
varieties of corn. Not quite the Stone Age hunter-gatherers of Ms.
Wente's column.

But the achievements don't end there. And because Ms. Wente uses
European-inspired standards of success when measuring first nations
"savagery," a comparison is in order. At a time when the Anishinabek
had societal codes forbidding incest, the crowned heads of France and
England were as inbred as poodles. While Christians were burning
"heretics" at the stake for suggesting the Earth wasn't the centre of
the universe, the Mayans were charting the movement of the stars,
creating a calendar within seconds of modern-day atomic clocks. The
Wet'suwet'en practised a matriarchal society, while on the other side
of the Atlantic, women were the property of men.

In addition, and contrary to Ms. Wente's assertion, the Haudenosaunee
did influence the U.S. Constitution. American "founding fathers,"
including Benjamin Franklin and Jefferson, explicitly recorded the
first nation contribution. John Rutledge even articulated the
structure of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and their "Great Law of
Peace" to the drafting committee. (He spoke of a complex federalism
whose leaders included executive, legislative and judicial branches —
the latter of which were generally a group of elder women). The
Haudenosaunee actually practise a 900-year-old democracy and the
longest lasting peace between nations in recorded history.

Yet another disturbing aspect of Ms. Wente's column was the dismissal
of traditional ecological knowledge — this is the sum knowledge of a
given first nation or Inuit community that has been accumulated and
amended for thousands of years. Dismissing it reduces us to conclude,
for instance, that the Inuit have survived in the world's harshest
climate by sheer luck. Of course, this is nonsensical. Sophisticated
knowledge of ice flows, animal migrations, wind patterns and
temperature fluctuations ensured their success in the past and
educates scientists, the military and resource companies in the
present.

In fact, such traditional ecological knowledge also significantly
contributes to Western medicine: essiac is a cancer treatment, evanta
cures leprosy, foxglove aids heart care, kava kava reduces stress, and
quinine treats malaria. All of the above are indigenous inventions.
Not only can such ecological knowledge save lives, it may also help
save the world. First nations peoples have lived sustainably in North
America for tens of thousands of years, respecting all life, however
small, putting an emphasis on reciprocity and understanding that their
relationship with ecosystems is one of life and death. At a time when
first nations peoples can teach us so much, Ms. Wente would have us
ignore them.

Indigenous cultures were and are diverse and vibrant.

They lived in cities larger than those in contemporary Europe, had
greater populations, taller buildings, sophisticated governance
structures, varied art forms, tested scientific knowledge and on, and
on. What is truly savage is the perpetuation of a false representation
of first nations, Métis and Inuit peoples, particularly when they've
worked so hard to overcome racism and stereotypes. But perhaps
Jefferson was right all along, we shouldn't expect much from
newspapers anyway.

Hayden King teaches indigenous studies at McMaster University and is a
member of the Beausoleil First Nation on Chimnissing.

On 26/10/2008, Ben Powless <powless at gmail.com> wrote:
>  submitted for op-ed to the globe and mail (unlikely), and to be published
> to rabble.ca and the dominion (dominionpaper.ca)
>
> *What Margaret Wente Wrote was Really Dumb – and also Racist *
> by Ben Powless
>
> Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente went over the line today.
>
> Not normally known for pulling punches, the controversial columnist today
> provided an apology and justification for Olympic Committee member Dick
> Pound's assertions that "Canada was a country of savages" a few hundred
> years ago.
>
> In her article, titled "What Dick Pound said was really dumb – and
> also
> true<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081024.wcowent25/BNStory/specialComment/home>,"
> Wente goes on the offensive against all those who were offended by Pounds
> comments, and makes the case that Natives were indeed savages, and that's
> why Canada should continue its plans to erase their "neolithic culture".
>
> "North American native peoples had a neolithic culture [sic] based on
> subsistence living and small kinship groups... They had not developed
> broader laws or institutions ..., evidence based science ..., or advanced
> technologies... Until about 30 years ago, the anthropological term for this
> developmental stage was 'savagery'," she writes.
>
> Until about 30 years ago, the technical term for this would be ignorance.
> Today, it is just plain racism to argue cultural inferiority and pretend
> that all Native peoples are the same. Apparently Aboriginal problems today
> can be explained by the fact that we have a "relatively simple neolithic
> kinship-based culture" trying to make it in a world too complex for us.
> Broken treaties, residential schools, police discrimination? Not a problem!
>
> She goes through great pains to de-romanticize Indigenous cultures. Arguing
> that modern drugs have no relation to Native medicines? Maybe Wente should
> take an Aspirin, a medicine derived from willow bark, a traditional
> medicine. This is beyond the point. She could do her homework, but she has
> other motives.
>
> She feels it is wrong for Canadian society to feel collective guilt, since
> Native peoples had 'absurd' spiritual beliefs, weren't ecologically
> sensitive, and basically were good-for-nothing. And this guilt is what's
> pushing us to try and protect Aboriginal cultures – effectively dooming
> them.
>
> "[A] neolithic culture cannot possibly give them a future. And it's time for
> us to face that." She's a brave one, concerned for poor little Indians,
> calling for us to accept racist policies like the ones that resulted in
> residential schools and Native leaders in jail. No, Margaret Wente's town
> isn't big enough for more than one culture, unless it's based on White
> values.
>
> This kind of thinking and writing is unacceptable today. Dick Pound may have
> made some unsavoury remarks that he regretted, but this is just appalling.
> Within one day, a Facebook
> group<http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45016000567>has been
> created, with over one hundred members calling for Ms. Wente to be
> fired.
>
> Ms. Wente should not be allowed to keep her position at the Globe and Mail,
> publishing such virulent lies, while Mr. Pound should resign his Olympic
> Committee position and McGill Chancellorship.  The newspaper should distance
> itself from her remarks and work instead to build understanding of different
> cultures. I am urging people everywhere to write letters to the
> editors<Letters at globeandmail.com>,
> to Wente <mwente at globeandmail.com>, and to her
> boss<egreenspon at globeandmail.com>,
> letting them know you're not buying the paper.
>
> We have to stop allowing such racism to go unchallenged in our society. We
> must demand respect and understanding for all.
>