- (Offers Indian youth calls for Native colleges On February 19-21 a North ancouver Island Indian Education Conference was held in Campbell River. The following presentation was .™ade at that conference by a 20- year old native Indian youth born in Chase, B.C. and now living in: Victoria, By TOM DENNIS The people here at this Convention represent many Walks of life and many forms and Ideas of changing our situation. ia Indian situation has coped through an educa- lonai system which is irrele- Vant to the total environment of evan people. Indian youth want 0 live meaningful lives. do not attribute my awareness of my people and our ndian situation to the present Educational system. I attribute my awareness of and involve- aw in our people’s problem to di 8roup learning, sharing and 1Scussion of alternatives: AS a Participant of a learning group: Sh a future concerned parent, I fer this recommendation: Oday’s education system | little relevance to pean Indians. The education ‘" have received and are Celving only serves to speed ry S0vernment’s ultimate goal Ssimilation through education. To become a part of the ahaa mosaic (society) we “Tha; have to give up our ess and culture and S me brown-little-white-men. see our culture up it would = me a ghost to haunt us in €mory. a tate of Indian drop-outs, eonditi, and continuing living —_ ons of Indians PROVES that the present education system is inadequate and is not pragmatic to our environment. The need for specialized Indian education is recognized by many Indian youth. We now want the knowledge, the training and leadership skills that shall equip us to return home to our reserves and make progressive changes to improve our community living conditions. Until we implement institutions or Indian Colleges, these conditions shall remain very much the same. These colleges have to be run by Indian resource people and taught by Indians. and non-Indians who specialize in leadership training, and in specialized subjects. These subjects should be taught according to the area from which the Indian students come from. Administration must be run by an Indian School Board with advisory boards if necessary. Teachers must. be qualified specialists in Indian background to help the Indian students learn effectively. Teachers must be aware of the less obvious aspects of Indian values. Presently there is no choice, only a forced decision of either live on a reserve community in partial acceptance of the larger society in order to survive or accept the total value system of that society — and be alienated from your own people with no real identity. One alternative which would bring about effective changes 1s through Indian Colleges which offer a choice to this generation of youth and to our upcoming younger brothers and sisters. Women’s Day celebration Set for Sun. March 15 on The 60th Anniversary of International Women’s Day will be held Sunday, March 15, 1:30 p.m. at the Fishermen’s Hall, 138 East ordova Street. Tace Stevens will report on the Wo rld Congress of Women held in beak, and the meeting on peace held in Berlin, both of which she tended as a delegate, She will also show a film given to her by ; ) Tamese women. U ee Will be served and there will be home b “Tainian women’s choir will perform, and th aking for sale. The ere will be a book i : : ‘Play of particular interest to women and children. Veryone j ; : SW en. Se elcome, including the m ‘Tenants are people...” be ? says this Victoria woman who took part in the recent tenants lobby By ANN TARASOFF On the surface it appears that with the growing population and coming shortage and high cost of land and home building, housing is one of our biggest problems. It seems that everyone agrees that apartment living is the thing to come. Yet after this acknow- ledgement they still refuse to look at the problem in the face and deal with it accordingly. It amazes me no end what out- dated thinking still persists. I was a participant of the “delegation of tenants to Victoria on Tuesday, February 17. At an interview with, Mr. Skillings, Social Credit M.L.A., he stated: (1) that the present Bill of Rights is based on the premise, “property ownership makes for good citizenship,” and; (2) the reason why tenants have not a vote unless they register is due to the fact that ‘‘tenants tend to move around. Here today and in Ottawa tomorrow.”’ It would be too costly to enumerate tenants. “But the tenants have the right to register and vote. The only thing they can’t vote for is money by-laws,” he stated with a smile. What a callous dehumanized way to look at tenants problems. The fact they they are tenants does not exempt them from paying taxes. Indirectly, as soon as an apartment owner gets a tax increase he immediately passes it on to.the tenant in the form of a rent increase. To make tenants register if they want to vote is an inconvenience and an imposition, as Mr. Bruce Yorke, of the Tenants Association pointed out to the gentlemen of - the House at a later interview. Why should they have to do this and not the home owner? Many home owners also move around, speculate, etc, Yet the government manages to keep track of them without any problem. Are tenants not interested and concerned about money by-laws? Later the Liberal Caucus tried to pass the buck by saying that they were only the opposition; and that apparently the people and in particular the tenants were quite happy with the present government because they voted for them. They stated that in the next election we can replace the Social Credit govern- ment with the Liberals and then have pie in the sky so to speak. They said that they did not differ much with the Tenants Bill of Rights. When asked by one of the women whether he knew that the war in Vietnam was one of the biggest contributors to the high cost of living, one Liberal member had to concede that it was. It never occurred to the Liberal members who are in power federally that they could do something about the people’s problems. Trudeau has proposed that six to eight percent unemployment might be good for the country to curb inflation. The fact that this puts thousands of workers into a reserve army of unemployed does not bother or perturb him as he continues to swing with beautiful girls. The Social Credit Caucus had no end of reason why the Tenants Act should be in favour of the owner. They stated that children are boisterous, noisy, destruc- tive, and that other tenants would complain. These are the antiquated attitudes of the gentlemen of the Social Credit government— the planners of tomorrow. What is available for tenants with children are cheaply constructed frame _ buildings with no sound proofing of any sort. They are constructed out of plywood,, both walls and floors with cheap carpeting over the plywood — short changed in both space and material. When one whispers it is heard in the next room. This is the kind of housing that is available for tenants with boisterous, noisy, sometimes destructive and very much alive, healthy children. Can we really look the matter in the face and repeat again our objection to children? If these buildings are left alone for a few years they will fall apart on their own through the natural process of stress and strain. I somtimes think it’s the people’s sweat and tears that preserves these buildings. Tenants are People! The Tenants Association is very moderate in its proposals. If we really were the builders and planners of tomorrow there would be a law prohibiting the housing of great numbers of people in cheap frame’ buildings which are potential fire traps. ‘“‘Adults only’’ would’ be outlawed, and children allowed in our moderp, spacious skyscrapers. Provisions would be made _ for. children’s playgrounds, etc. In the betier buildings where children are allowed they are no problem. In fact they are an added spice of life when tenants meet them in the hallways. I can say this because I live in one such apartment. Imagine, one high rise apartment in the whole of Victoria allows tenants with children. Apartment block owners must be made to accept at least a third to a half of the tenants with children. Tenants are People! Classified advertising BUSINESS PERSONAL CHUCK McFADDEN, chairman ot the Initiating Committee to organize a Young Communist League in Canada, was in Vancouver March 7-10 to prepare for the founding national convention meeting in Toronto on March 27-29. Conferences were held of Young Communist League members and plans made for a large delegation of young people from B.C. DRY CLEANING & LAUNDRY Also Coin-op LAUNDRETTE 2633 Commercial Dr. 879-9956 REGENT TAILORS LTD. — Custom Tailors and Ready- to-Wear, 324 W. Hastings St. MU 1-8456 or 4441 E. Hastings — CY 8-2030. See Henry Ran- kin for personal service. NEED CAR OR HOUSE IN- SURANCE? Call Ben Swan-' key, 433-8323. FOR SALE. RHODESIAN RIDGEBACK PUPS. Sire and Dam import- ed. Temperament guaranteed.. SHOW QUALITY - $150. Phone 856-8781. COMING EVENTS The North Shore Club invites you to A BIRTHDAY PARTY in honour of LIL STONE- MAN on SATURDAY, MARCH 7th at.8 p.m. at 832 CALVERHALL _ North Van. Good Food - Refresh- ments. SLIDE SHOWING of the German Democratic Re-. — Sunworthy Wallpaper Reg. 45c—Now 19¢ a Roll | Wy ese eee eT ARTE EE CERES EEE E EE CONE EE ES « RACIFIG TRIBUNE MARCH 6; 1970—Page 11 public by E. CRIST. Admis- sion - $1.00. All welcome. Rta Bee Gt ogo CNR 1 MARCH 15 - 60th ANNIVER- SARY of INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY. ANNUAL TEA at the FISHERMEN’S HALL - 138 E. Cordova St. on SUNDAY, MARCH 15th at 1:30 P.M. GRACE STEV- ENS - guest speaker. Tea & Home Baking. Ausp: B.C. Women’s C’ttee. for World Friendship. Everyone wel- come. HALLS FOR RENT 6 AD HA LEE RUSSIAN PEOPLE’S HOME— Available for meetings, ban-' quets and weddings at rea- sonable rates. 600 Campbell Ave. 254-3430. UKRAINIAN CANADIAN CULTURAL CENTRE _ 805 East Pender St., Vancou- ver 4. Available for Banquets, Weddings, Meetings. Phone: 254-3436 or 876-9693. ‘CLINTON HALL, 2605 East’ Pender. Available for ban- quets, “meetings, weddings, etc. Phone 253-7414. [TED HARRIS 757 East Hastings St. -- Vancouver 4. B.C. Painters’ and Poperhangers' Supplies Yay (04