Thohahente yontiats. Kanyen'keh:ka n:'i nok wakenthen.

Tsi Kenhtke
nitiwak:non

The Barrie Examiner participated in the propagation of white supremacy when it

published the letter by Joffre McCleary dated July 10,2017 entitled: Europeans
brought an administrative structure. The entire piece of discourse ignores facts
and archeological evidence as well as the oral histories of First Nations
communities. White supremacy seeks to dismiss the actual histories of people of
colour. In Canada, Indigenous People are the daily targets of this activity.
Critical reading of any mainstream media source on any given day will publish
similar material that perpetuates stereotypes, demeans the targeted group
(Indigenous People within Canada), and seeks to establish they are lesser beings.

I will analyze McClearys discourse to prove my point.

Our European forefathers introduced woolen blankets, copper kettles and metal
implements to the Indigenous people they met.

Im not sure of the point of his opening statement although the tone and
intention is to demean by making it sound like Indigenous People were
languishing in want until the white man turned up with his stuff. He forgot to
mention the alcohol and the venereal diseases his forefathers also brought. Oh
and check those blankets they probably are impregnated with smallpox and
measles. His statement about copper is simply not true as proven in the
following references.

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6f0c/3c30caf433711a22553f765f1f1f089cfb35.
pdf

https://eos.org/articles/miners-left-pollution-trail-great-lakes-6000-years-ago

No longer would the women of the tribe have to chew pelts to make them
supple.

This point is untrue. Brain tanning was the normal process for tanning hides to
make them supple. My grade 5 social studies classes on Inuit (then called
Eskimos) mentioned something about chewing hides but that was in 1957 and as
we all know, Indigenous studies was mainly a process of propagating false
information dreamed up in academia and not through actual study. My brothers
first hand observation was a combination of human urine and wood ash from
fires was used when he was in the Arctic.

http://peopleof.oureverydaylife.com/did-indians-tan-deer-hides-8254.html
Nor would they heat rocks to place in birch bark containers to make a tepid
stew.

The statement again is false and is obviously intended to create a derogatory

picture of backward people. Birch pails where used for specific purposes like
collecting maple syrup. Tea made for various medicines was a constant across
Turtle Island. It stewed for hours to achieve the right consistency and ratios in
clay pots..

http://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-americas/ancient-earthworks-
north-america-suggest-pre-columbian-european-contact-020417

http://www.ontarioarchaeology.on.ca/Resources/Publications/oa25-7-
mitchell.pdf

And the hatchets, saws and needles that the Europeans brought with them, these
in themselves were worth the price of admission.

Again a statement that is derogatory implying we had nothing when in fact the
use of bone, wood, and metal implements is well documented across
archeological site in Ontario

https://books.google.ca/books?id=-Jb8MF-
Ib6oC&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=Papers+on+pre+contact+iroquois+tools&so
urce=bl&ots=0rnDwQxwPI&sig=NyZ1VTjHTO9IXFkKDFCSGqpCSLg&hl=en&sa
=X&ved=0ahUKEwir4u7z64nVAhVG74MKHeXCB604ChDoAQgvMAI#v=onepa
ge&q=Papers%20on%20pre%20contact%20iroquois%20tools&f=false

Ask your wife to chew on a hide for a week and see how long your marriage
lasts.

This is just derogatory and not worthy of a response because it is not supported
by facts and it seeks to demean.

Only by cultivating crops and domesticating animals can a growing population

avoid starvation.

This implies that Indigenous People of Turtle Island did not do these things. This
is of course false. Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island were seasoned growers of
crops at the time of contact. They also had highly evolved fish and game
management protocols and practices to ensure healthy and plentiful game to
meet community needs. Our ancestors did not make the same mistake white
people made in domesticating herd animals destroying vegetation, releasing
excess methane in the atmosphere and soil erosion due to over grazing. Cahokia
had vast gardens and crop storage and a population of 10,000 at 1000 AD.
Take your pick from this listing of readings

https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Cahokia

Nature is bountiful, but the resources of any area are finite.

Fifty acres of land are required to sustain one hunter/gatherer.
A small tribe of 200 requires thousands of acres of hunting grounds, while an
Irish family of five thought themselves blessed if they had four acres and a cow.
All of the tribes had established territories, but coveted more land to support
their growing numbers.

Indigenous People knew this. Thats why our ancestors had extensive hunting
and fishing ranges to support the communities. Communities moved in carefully
calculated time patterns based on short term season priorities and in the longer
term tied to the need to maintain soil health and animal populations. This
statement sounds like an argument to justify stealing Indigenous lands because
their way of like was not the same as white people and the Irishman and his cow.

I seriously question how someone so ignorant of Indigenous history could

possibly know we coveted more land. There were always territorial boundary
issues arising and protocols established to resolve these.

The tribes were continuously at war and had been for the past millennium.
These conflicts were savage, unrelenting, terrifying; weaker tribes were
exterminated or forced to flee.

This is incorrect. He establishes no basis for this opinion. The work of

anthropologists and archeologists simply do not support his alt-fact. Post
contact, one of the first impacts of colonialism was fighting between Nations and
communities as the white people pushed for more and more furs in return for
junk and alcohol. The protocols were forgotten and capitalism took hold and
individual wealth became a desirable goal rather than community health.

What he doesnt mention is the Europeans came here because they were
oppressed or they wanted wealth beyond what their own territories could
support. They were continuously at war as evidenced in any history of Europe.

What the Europeans brought with them apart from advanced technology was an
administrative structure, a bureaucracy which enforced governance.

This writer has never heard of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. It was a well-
established form of governance at the time of contact: highly evolved and
consistent in its application for the benefit of the community Similar forms of
matriarchal and patriarchal governance models were in place in other Indigenous
Nations. . At the same time his forbearers were grubbing for chicken bones
under the tables of their feudal lords. What white people brought were sickness,
trauma, slavery, paternalism, and genocide.

Once established, the colonial administration put an end to tribal warfare.

A framework of written laws applied to everyone.

No they didnt. They used warfare as a tool to divide communities, weaken

existing governance models and to subjugate the Indigenous Population/

James Daschuk Clearing the Plains.

Perhaps those protesting should look more closely at the stone-age existence of
their forefathers and be a little more appreciative of what the Europeans brought
with them.

The reference to Stone Age existence is a common theme of the white supremacy
movement. The fledgling government of the United States of America developed
their constitution on the governance model of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
They made a typical white mans error of ignoring the role of women as the key
success ingredient and based it on patriarchy which, as one can see from the
headlines, is a colossal failure.

The Barrie Examiner is fulfilling a role as an enabler of white supremacy by

allowing op/eds and articles like McClearys that spread false news and propagate
ignorance. There is no debate here. How does one debate against deliberate lies?
That is a fools game.

After reading this I hoped that Mr. McClearys cow would kick him. Hard.

Thohahente
Unceded Haudenosaunee Territory