Choices, Political and otherwise...

Hi Friends
Here in Ontario we are now coming up to an election year for most First Nation communities.Like most everything else, these are Indian Act mandated governments. Our electoral process like so many other things in our lives have been crafted for us by the ever present Indian Act.
We have been told, by those in power, ( INAC ) just how we must go about electing the prescribed councilors and chief for our reserves.
We were not allowed to elect off reserve members for council, (until very recently...and it took a court challenge) yet the position for chief could be from off reserve, and did not necessarily have to be a member of the community. This meant any non Indigenous person who felt like they could get voted in was welcome to run for that office... Indian Act rules. It was thought by the Canadian Government that the First Nations citizens were too ill prepared or uneducated to lead their own communities.
Sadly they may have been right. What could make me possibly think this? The myriad of stories coming to light from various community members, in various communities, from all over Indian Country. Stories of greed, and nepotism, and those caught in the middle.
Chiefs and councilors getting wealthy on the backs of the impoverished members of their own electorate.
First Nations people are for ever being admonished to stop being victims and move on...this is the message from the Canadian Government the educational institutes and Joe Public, (mostly anonymously through the comments sections of the daily papers, either on line or in print) but still the same.
Naturally when I hear of abuses within the communities, abuses meted out to the already put upon and victimized members, by their own Indian Act approved (and this may very well be the problem) elected officials, well then I feel a burning rage.
Most reserves have the ever present (as in all communities, native and non-native alike)"haves and have nots" within their ranks, and these "have not" individuals are the victims of all sides. Over the years many have learned the easiest existence is to not make waves, and they may even one day build up enough good will that they too could crack the "buckskin" ceiling and run for council.
The other option is to leave the reserve and their extended family and try their luck outside the reserve, and possibly face even worse discrimination.
What's to be done about this sorry state of affairs? We who have already lost so much, through the residential school system, stand to lose so much more should this oppressive sort of band politics be allowed to continue. We are not able to reach back and retrieve our old, and from all accounts more "noble" ways, no matter the wishes of the romantics among us, these are gone, lost to time and prejudices of the dominate society, beaten out of the stolen children forever for the most part, and anything else put in place feels disingenuous, to say the least. You definitely get the feeling of ceremony being made up as we go along. Leaving newer members, with a feeling of having missed the secret meeting where all these supposedly time honored rituals were explained.
This serves to further divide the communities between the two factions of on and off reserve, and even down to the watered down (61)-(62) designations prescribed by the Indian Act, and the Canadian Government.
The news doesn't have to be all negative though. We can, and have, moved out of our collective doubt, and put away the inter-Nation prejudices and stood side by side and have had our voices heard, collectively. Uniting over the attempt at taxation, the various Nations became allies and overcame the Canadian Government's best efforts to keep us divided by Nation and address, and ultimately relegate our concerns to the back burner as usual. We saw exemplary leadership and real union of all the people. Not an easy thing to achieve, given past grievances, and the general disconnect of rural and urban populations.
Could this herald a new co-operation within the Nations? God I hope so! The only way forward as I see it is through our connectedness wether Haudenasaunee (Mohawk), Anishnabee (Chippewa), Cree,... all nations , and, on, as well as off reserve populations. Maybe after having seen what a united effort can do, maybe just maybe, our less than honorable leaders, will abandon the victimization of their people who have entrusted them with elected office, and put away the pseudo spiritualism, adopt an honest political strategy and get things on track to a brighter future for all. That is my hope and should be the hope for all Indigenous people. I have a feeling that our survival as First Nations may depend on it.

regards Debra