I saw that you said in a later post you grew up in Saskatchewan, perhaps my personal experiences have differed to yours in regards to outward indigenous racism as I grew up in BC. My tribe however is in Saskatchewan and that's where my parents were born and raised. I'm in no way saying that indiginous racism in BC doesnt exist, the Highway of Tears is a dark stain on the province for example.
Make no mistake, I'm a white man (often call myself "the most well-read and sophisticated kind of white trash", in fact). But in this province, you'd either have to have both blackout blinders on and wax impacted into your eardrum not to see or hear the racism on a daily basis, or you'd have to be directly contributing to it. I know where most white people here fall on that spectrum. I do what I can, where I can.
It's incredibly hard to say how to fix the issue with regards to the reserves. For instance I remember a little over 5 years ago that it was revealed a local chief made over $900,000 in a year when his band had less than 100 people in it. You're also correct in that Bands aren't able to do whatever they want with the reserve land, so it's incredibly difficult to for reserves to grow economically. Some bands are able to build and grow economically, Tsawwassen Mills Shopping Centre is a pretty recent example nearby for me.
I look at that example, and I see something that also benefits white people, so it's an easy puzzle to solve regarding why it got approved to be built. Perhaps that's the cynic in me, but on this topic, it's damn tough not to be.
To be honest I'm not sure on why some bands prosper and some don't, but you are right that it seems it's mostly a lose-lose situation for most indiginous people. Which really bums me out as there are hundreds of bands all across Canada that are struggling to keep their culture alive. I'm also not the most informed on how indiginous people are treated in Eastern Canada.
I can't speak to that personally, but considering what they've been doing to the French-speaking minority there, I can't imagine the Indigenous have it any better when they'll go after other white people for the language they speak.
Indigenous people all over the country have debated what to do extensively, but a lot of it seems to come down to self-determination first and foremost. They want out from under the federal government's thumb, and I certainly can't blame them. I'm a firm supporter of decolonization movements and hope they see some justice and a return to some semblance of Indigenous sovereignty in my lifetime.
I don't know if you're indiginous or not but it's nice to see somebody know the situation a lot of bands face in Canada right now.
My Grandma was in a residential school in her youth and I've had the privilege through school in my youth to go and see customs/traditions of multiple different bands be celebrated. I'd say that's progress, but there is still more to be done.
Ignorance is poison, after all. I had no reason NOT to be informed on the subject and their situation is as much a part of Canadian politics as any other. I figured it'd be wrong not to hear about how politics intersects with them and I learned a lot from all those conversations. How could I know whether or not I'm inadvertently doing them harm with my political choices if I didn't even care enough to hear them out instead of just assuming I was doing what was best, right?
