Potters to the

Solutions start
at home

Letter to the editor,

As the Indian land
claims issue heats up, |
keep hearing of the
wonderful life in this
region before the white
man arrived to spoil it
all.

No doubt after 100
years or so it is easy for
memories to become a
little selective. To
romanticize the good old
days and conveniently
leave out the unpleasant,
if it fits the argument.

We now hear a lot
about a land, orderly
divided between tribes,
and of a well regulated
system of government
and land management,
with peace and prosperi-
ty reigning throughout.
We don’t hear about in-
tertribal wars and slave
raids any more, or about
starvation and
massacres.

From what I have
heard, West Coast In-
dians tended to settle
somewhere where there
was a plentiful supply of
fish, and some means of
warning of protection
from sudden death at the
hands of hostile
neighbors. The largely
peaceful invasion by our
white forefathers was —
with few exceptions —
not opposed, and it did
tend to put a stop to the
intertribal wars.

Aboriginal
Lifestyle

For over 100 years
now, Indian people have
generally accepted the
white man’s ways as an
improvement, in some
ways, over their
aboriginal lifestyle.
Together we have, over
the course of four
generations, lived
through the transition
from dogsleds and
canoes, to pickups and

jet boats.
Indian -people have
acknowledged the

government and laws
established by the in-
vaders, and seem to have
had few qualms about
accepting an ever grow-
ing array of benefits and
gifts. Claims of exploita-
tion, and oppression are
long outdated, and I
believe, are neither fair
nor true any more.

The Canadian govern-
ment spends far more
money on native people
through social programs,
health, education, hous-
ing and other subsidies
than it does on any other
group of Canadians. As
far as ‘‘apartheid’’ a
cusations some Native
leaders are throwing
around, I think they may

tend to use the word
because it sounds good,
and they may be
somehow trying to milk
sympathy for their cause
from the South African
situation.

Apartheid
becoming
an issue

Certainly, apartheid is
becoming an issue. It is
being planned and
premeditated by some
native leaders, when they
speak of Indian self-
government, Indian
education, Indian justice
and policing, not by
geographical units, but
by racial units. We even
have widely advertised
‘all native’? sporting
events. If anyone pro-
posed an ‘‘all white’
tournament, they would
probably be run out of
the country for racism.
What makes it ail right
the other way around?

1 know there are
frustrations in native
communities in spite of
government help, but I
don’t believe a lot of
these problems are going
to be solved by land
claims settlement or self-
government schemes.

Now I know I am
treading on thin ice when
I speak of problems in
the native society. Mr.
Bannerman, a radio an-
nouncer in the lower
mainland, got into
serious difficulty recent-

ly, when he made some |.

statements about native
people. The things he
said about native people
could be said about
many ethnic or other
groups of people to a
greater or lesser degree,
and some of the pro-
blems he mentioned were
certainly not confined to
Indian people.

Statistics

However,
that there are no collec-
tive problems in the
native society is not very

to pretend .

productive either.
Statistics show that as a
group, Indian people ap-
pear to have a much
lower life expectancy
than any other iden-
tifiable group of Cana-
dians. Research seems to

_ indicate there is a much

higher incidence of
unemployment, of
brushes with the law, of
alcohol problems, of
poverty, poor education,
health problems and ac-
cidental death. To pre-
tend this is not so, is to
preclude efforts to im-
prove those statistics.
Now, there are many
native people who do not
contribute to those
statistics. These seem to
be the people who have
made the successful tran-
sition from an obsolete
‘living off the Jand’”’
lifestyle to a lifestyle that
is more in tune with our
modern: computer age.

IN MEMORIUM

T.C. Douglas
1904-1986

«Scottish immigrant
e Baptist minister
CCF politician
e Saskatchewan premier
eNDP leader federally
“Man has always needed a
devil with which to do battle. It
doesn’t have to be other people
-and it doesn’t have to be con-
quest and war, it can be a strug-

gle to eradicate poverty, ig:
norance and disease...

Tommy Douglas

An exemplary person
An inspiration to all
New Democrats

We will remember you.

The Skeena NDP
Constituency Association

Open letter to Mayor
and Council;

I am writing to express
my concerns on the Sun-
day shopping issue. |
strongly object to the
major stores being allow-
ed to open on Sundays.

_My objection is not on

religious, but on
humanitarian grounds.
With the everday

pressures exerted on all
of us by today’s society,
every hour we can spend
with our families is of
great value. By forcing a
large segment of the
workforce to give up
Sunday, a traditional
day of leisure, is to
deprive them of a large
percentage of this time

All of us have to
somehow keep up with a
fast changing world.
This spells the difference
between being a produc-
tive participant, or a
disgruntled onlooker.

Successful
participant

I would defy anyone
to be a successful partici-
pant in our modern
society if they stubbornly

cling to customs and |

traditions of a hundred
continued on page 10

Terrace Review — Wednesday, March 5, 1986 5

Piiior Resident objects to
Sunday shopping

with their families.

There is no need to ex-
tend shopping hours
beyond what they are
now, The main grocery
stores are open 9 a.m. to
6 p.m., four days per
week, and 9 a.m. to 9
p.m. two days per week,
This amounts to a total
of 60 shopping hours per
week.

Those of us fortunate
enough to be working
these days are on the job
between 371% and 40
hours per week. This
gives us aminimum of 20
hours per week to shop.
in actuality, for most of
us, it is much more.

is important to
allow the few small con-
venience stores that re-
main open for extended
hours to stay in business.
I fear this will not be
possible if we allow the
large stores to continue
to choose their own
hours of operation.

I urge you to use
whatever means necessay
to force the large stores
to abide by existing by-
laws and, if you feel
there is enough support
for a change to this by-
law, to put the matter to
referendum.,

Croft Randle
Terrace, B.C.

4

Grocery pickup irom
Safeway:
1:30 & 5 p.m. dally
Plus: 8:30 p.m. Thurs. & Fri

Only $4

. No charge to
Old-age Pensioners

Compliments of
Chimo and Safeway

No vehicle?

Do you have problems with picking up prescrip-
tions, grocerlas, appliances or anything alse? For
all your moving and delivery needs, phone for ex-
perienced and speedy

service.

_Chimo Deli ivery.

638-8530

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Call Ted Garner: 635-3680