__|)_ bein i BV UUL 11 UUM YALU LM OA Ao A EA AU ete FEATURES By PAUL OGRESKO We can’t recognize aboriginal ee because no society can be built M historical ‘might-have-beens’.”’ pire Trudeau, August 8, 1969 le Native doesn’t understand us at i and we don’t understand the Na- ie” | Regina Police Superintendent al The stereotypes are well in- ined. The drunken Indian lying i the gutter or staggering down Street. The knife-fights and ken brawls in run-down tav- 3S. The young prostitutes on * Street corners. The glue-snif- 8 and lysol spray cans that pro- ou 2 Cheap high. 4 problems of the urban Na- have been covered in. the = but that coverage has been ee and sensationalistic. ;Orcing stereotypes is easy, ‘ eit for root causes and, t ly, questioning a system i f he past decade has witnessed hn cr. crease in the Native 4 "tons of Canada’s urban lost 8S. This increase has been Beran 4 in the west where “hy oe Per cent of status Indians Wing eft the reserves and are now Sn.g I Cities. When one includes ‘Th tatus Indians and Metis the 4 ative population is much - By the end of this decade linn Native people will live in "Peg, 40,000 in Edmonton. fv a | It is sometimes easy to forget that there are two sides to the American dream. There is more to the American reality than the so-called tefion president, the tinsel and neon lights of Broadway and Las Vegas, the unlimited potential offered by a “‘land of freedom’’. We hear less about the closed down steel mills, the unemployed Black youth in the inner-cities, the hard- working men and women who have been chewed up ‘and spit out by the American dream. Springsteen is a part of that other reality. The E Street Band plays straight-ahead rock’n roll and this collection, pulled from a decade of live perform- ances, shows the honesty and hard work they character- istically put into each concert. Underlying the beat are Springsteen’s lyrics. q The inner city — another third world In Regina one out of every five will be Native. The growth will continue. The Native birth-rate is currently twice the national average. Those leaving the reserves are primarily young, seeking opportunities that simply do not exist on the re- serves. For the majority it 1s an escape from poverty to another. Similar to the racism facing Blacks in the inner cities of the United States, the Native youth in Canada runs into a wall of frustra- tions: harassment by the police, employers who will not hire Na- tives, stores and restaurants where just by entering you re looked upon with suspicion. Racial tensions are increasingly evident in the inner cities. A po- lice-dog attack on Stacey Wasa- case, a Metis youth, in Regina a fewyears ago showed the extent of police harassment In Regina's city core. An ensuing investiga- tion revealed that out of 64 documented cases of the dogs being used to apprehend suspects over 80 per cent involved Native a (city) core is like another third world.” Louise Chippeway, a Native activist in Winnipeg told the Tribune, ‘It’s a form of apart- heid where opportunities simply do not exist for Native people. Many reserves do not have high schools and Native youth are sent by the Department of Indian Af- fairs to secondary schools in the I've done my best to live the right way I get up every morning and go to work each day But your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode Springsteen rose from the wrong side of the tracks in Jersey, a passionate performer his lyrics reflect the real- ity of those streets where kids learn more of life than they ever do in school. Those gritty, pre-Born in the USA songs are captured in this set as are his latest, multi-media nearest urban centres. The great majority of these high schools have no Native study programs and the Native student is con- fronted with an educational sys- tem that is foreign to their culture and which arbitrarily streamlines Native youth into the lowest echelons of the educational sys- tem. In the core of Winnipeg where the Native population is around the 50,000 mark there are only 20 Native teachers. While the Winnipeg Education Centre has graduated over 50 Native teach- ers since 1975 the majority have not been hired despite the press- ing need. ‘*Where there are Native study programs it is not due to a sys- tematic approach to education,” Chippeway said, “but only be- cause of the efforts of community activists and of the Native stu- dents themselves.” 3 The lack of jobs and housing, landlords who won't rent apart- ments to Natives, police who sin- gle you out for harassment, are all part of the Native reality in the inner city. Yet the response in general has been to blame the vic- tim. A report in the Winnipeg Trib- une in 1978 stated: Racial problems also arise as homeowners react with alarm at a perceived influx of Indians into their neic'’ ourhood. There is a percep- . that following the American experience, an influx of Native per- Runaway American dream — tours. Through it all the sax playing of Clarence Clemons is the gel that holds it together. There is little bull on this record. The songs are about what it’s like to grow up, to sow your oats, to find a job, to fall in love, to discover you ain’t alone in your prob- are trying to scrape by. lems. This is the reality of the other America; those who hold union cards, those who are out of a job, those who This is not the America Reagan represents. Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores more back Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no They’ re closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming Springsteen has stuck to his roots. In the age of Reagan that’s no small feat. There are a lot of ups and downs in this music, in that way it’s much like life. There are good times and there are a lot of bad ones yet there is the message that together we can see it through. We're not in this alone and as Springsteen tells his audience, ‘‘Blind faith in your leaders today will get you killed.” You can do more than just dance to this music, you can learn from it and that ain't bad. — Paul Ogresko wiihon PHOTOS: JOHN PASKIEVICH sons into an area is an indication of the final stages of deterioration of the area. Life in the streets of the city core is very hard. The response of the police to the Native com- munity has been, in the words of Chippeway, “‘very brutal. very racist." The number of Native people in prison underscores this. The ghettoization of Native people in urban centres marks one more chapter in Canada’s his- tory of injustice and genocide. PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 17, 1986 e 23 a q