Crab-Pot Mentality

Hi Friends
The investigative reporting via the Toronto Star goes on. Today the reporter has chosen to highlight the successful Nations with their casinos and casino royalties, which they have shared amongst themselves. Oh wait a minute thats not really the story is it?

This is the story of how after months of bidding on the site for a casino, that would be bringing a much need economy to the communities, it was awarded to NOT the highest bidder, but to the community who would give away the highest share of the profits to other First Nations communities. Rama offered a high 20% share of the profits and was awarded the casino.

Now for a little back story to all of this. The nineteen nineties were heady times for Indigenous peoples here in Canada. The Oka Crisis had just happened and the government of the day had just set up the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples...it seemed at last that the Nations were united, and not just that, but the government of Canada recognized it and would be looking into ways to bring the Native populations into the fold.
The AFN asked the various Aboriginal communities, to solidify these good feelings of solidarity, by choosing a word in each of their own languages that best described their communities and incorporate these monikers into their community identities. Rama became Mnjikaning (in honour of the fish fence that defines the community). It was during these feel good times that the casino deal was made.

Then as the saying goes, money changes everything. The various ins and outs of this deal, and ultimately what has been perceived as to what went wrong can all be found on the internet, and, the comments sections of any Aboriginal blog sites, and so on. To say that things soured would be an understatement. Rama was sued, by their 133 other First Nations partners, and in retaliation pulled out of the Union of Ontario Indians (of which they were members) and opted to drop the AFN directive of the community name, in favor of Chippewas of Rama.

I'll ask here, are we incapable of alliances? The answer, hell no! We are the members of one of the oldest confederacies on this continent. We are known as the Council of the Three Fires. The union of the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi confederacy. What could have, should have and would have been done with intelligent experienced leadership, can only be speculated on now.

There is a story in First Nation communities that goes like this. There is a pot full of crabs. Singly the crabs could easily escape the pot, but instead they grab at each other to keep them from escaping, which ensures their collective demise.
So now I'll leave it to you to decide...was this INAC meddling, or Indian Act interference or was it crab pot thinking that brought about this shameful state of affairs?

regards Debra