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> Living like it's the 1700s only works if you aren't aware that the rest of the world exists. Put youth in very remote locations and teach them that maintainin

> Living like it's the 1700s only works if you aren't aware that the rest of the world exists. Put youth in very remote locations and teach them that maintaining a lost culture is their most important reason for existing -- but they're aware of a wide world that will embrace them [^1] yet they're told that it reviles them -- and it has to be pretty self-defeating. Add horrendous weather most of the year, harsh conditions, and it just isn't conducive to happiness. You’re describing the outcome of a centuries long, at many points explicitly genocidal, settler-colonialist project and then hand-washing it away as “clinging to the old ways.” These circumstances are literally what was designed for indigenous people in Canada by those who have profited from the dispossession, not those of their choosing. I don’t think indigenous people are backward or inherently inferior. I think Canada lies about its own history and crimes against these people, and then projects its own blame upon them.

endorphone 7y ago
"I don’t think indigenous people are backward or inherently inferior." Weird that you drop this bizarre and incredibly offensive statement. Countless indigenous people are simply Canadians. They live in cities, have jobs, and are enjoying lives as normal Canadians. Many Canadians have often significant aboriginal ancestry in their blood. People just living as a mixed bag of peoples in one of the richer countries on the Earth, enjoying life. What I'm talking about are very remote settlements and reservations. This is situational, not about genetics. The situation of reservations and those far flung settlements just isn't conducive to happiness. No amount of government spending will change that.
- whatshisface 7y ago
  >No amount of government spending will change that. Why not buy them bus tickets to Ontario? There's some value in preserving cultures as a matter of record, but that's not worth unnecessary suffering to make it happen.
  - bryanlarsen 7y ago
    > Why not buy them bus tickets to Ontario? There are no roads to any of the 25 towns in Nunavut.
japhyr 7y ago
You do not deserve to be downvoted. People live in remote villages for a variety of reasons. Nobody "puts" them there any more than I "put" my son in the town I live in. GP may have had a better intention with their comment, but the way it was worded is extremely ignorant of what it's actually like to be born into a remote community that has existed for thousands of years.
- slothtrop 7y ago
  Yes, in some circumstances, they were put there -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Arctic_relocation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Arctic_relocation Reserves did not exist for 1000s of years. The indigenous were nomads, and now are more grounded in territory.
olleromam91 7y ago
From the comment you seek to demote: >The outside people who express the most interest in your welfare seem bent on curating you like an artifact. I think you might have let your bias alter your reception of their comment.

endorphone 7y ago

"I don’t think indigenous people are backward or inherently inferior." Weird that you drop this bizarre and incredibly offensive statement. Countless indigenous people are simply Canadians. They live in cities, have jobs, and are enjoying lives as normal Canadians. Many Canadians have often significant aboriginal ancestry in their blood. People just living as a mixed bag of peoples in one of the richer countries on the Earth, enjoying life. What I'm talking about are very remote settlements and reservations. This is situational, not about genetics. The situation of reservations and those far flung settlements just isn't conducive to happiness. No amount of government spending will change that.

whatshisface 7y ago
>No amount of government spending will change that. Why not buy them bus tickets to Ontario? There's some value in preserving cultures as a matter of record, but that's not worth unnecessary suffering to make it happen.
- bryanlarsen 7y ago
  > Why not buy them bus tickets to Ontario? There are no roads to any of the 25 towns in Nunavut.

japhyr 7y ago

You do not deserve to be downvoted. People live in remote villages for a variety of reasons. Nobody "puts" them there any more than I "put" my son in the town I live in. GP may have had a better intention with their comment, but the way it was worded is extremely ignorant of what it's actually like to be born into a remote community that has existed for thousands of years.

slothtrop 7y ago
Yes, in some circumstances, they were put there -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Arctic_relocation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Arctic_relocation Reserves did not exist for 1000s of years. The indigenous were nomads, and now are more grounded in territory.

olleromam91 7y ago

From the comment you seek to demote: >The outside people who express the most interest in your welfare seem bent on curating you like an artifact. I think you might have let your bias alter your reception of their comment.