Touchy issue

Dear sir:
This is in response to Allan Kielczewski’s letter to the editor last week. As I read the letter, I felt anger, then common sense set in. I read between the lines and sensed right away that Mr. K. (I can’t even spell his name, much less say it) didn’t like, as he put it, our aboriginal people (like he owned us).
He tells us to stay on our own reserve and mind our own business.
By the way, I am an aboriginal who has been living here (53 years), also my mother and father, their mother and father, and my ancestors for thousands of years.
I believe Mr. K has touched on a very “big touchy issue,” and he should have done his research into the treaties signed between the governments and the first people of this country. Would he feel any different if he was an aboriginal person or if he was married to one? Originally, whose land was this, anyway? Think, Mr. K, think.
Sometimes the only way to get food on our table is to go hunting or fishing. Nowadays, to get food on the table, a person has to have money, and to get money–a person has to have a job! And if Mr. K. would stop, look, listen, and observe, how many aboriginal people would he find working at the OSB mill in Barwick, the paper mill in Fort Frances, or even in the towns of Emo or Fort Frances.
One time a guy asked me, “Where would you be without us [whites]?” Well, let’s see, we wouldn’t have, on a per capita basis, more aboriginal people in jails, on street corners bumming, or more high school dropouts which makes more people on welfare. No sicknesses like diabetes, heart disease, AIDS, alcoholism, etc. Need I go on?
I don’t like to leave on a sour note but Mike Baranowski didn’t miss the big one, it was Allan K. himself, and people who share this biased view point with respect to aboriginal hunting/fishing rights that we have because aboriginal people in Canada are special.
Signed,
Joe Medicine
Rainy River First Nations