this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2024
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It's far weirder than you think .... being Indigenous is more often just glorified, fantasized or placed on some strange pedestal that doesn't mean much to actual Native people.
I left my home community years ago and I've lived most of my life now in the city. Although I was born 100% Indigenous on both sides of my family, people from my home community look down on me as being less than Native because I don't live there any more or practice the culture like they do. Meanwhile, I'm obviously a big brown long haired Native guy living in the south and I'm never treated as a normal member of society ... everyone just automatically thinks of me as a drunken uneducated Indian from the north that doesn't know anything about living in the south. Although I have full status, I don't get the benefits because I live off reserve ... I get some tax off on things but doing my taxes at the end of the year is a nightmare. I have to fight for any kind of basic benefits and if I talk to my home community, I'm placed at the bottom of the list because I don't live there. It's messed up.
Meanwhile I keep running into people working at big organization making a ton of money who only have 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 ... even 1/16 or 1/32 blood ancestry and get full Native benefits and live in the city. I actually know a few blonde haired blue eyed full status Native people that live with more help than me. It's so weird because I've also known people with full ancestry like me but for all kinds of historical reasons either lost or couldn't get their full status recognition.
At this point ... the identity or identifying is more important than the actual people who have majority Indigenous ancestry. I also don't enjoy discussing it with people because then it starts sounding like advocating for Eugenics or racist ideas of who should or shouldn't be Indigenous or identify as Indigenous.
But whatever the conversation or debate is ... it always feels like actual indigenous people, especially those living on their territories in their own communities on their own lands are the ones who get the short end of the stick.
I have no idea what you have gone though. From your words here you perfectly describe being caught between two mutually opposing worlds - which you fit into neither. THAT I think many of us here on Lemmy get, which is probably why you fit in so well here:-). But of course that helps with neither your taxes nor reservation priorities so... the benefits to belonging here are purely intangible.
Why do they get full Native benefits? Do they live on the reservation for some period of the year? Can you do that - like if you lived 11 months in the city vs. 1 on the reservation, would that help? Well, it's your life and I've no call to speak to it, just wondering if you can do anything to improve your situation. Surely the details here must be excruciating to have to work through - varying per area of the country and possibly by tribe, etc. I will add that it is good to see that while you are not standing on top of the world looking down on everyone else around you, neither are you at the very bottom looking at everyone else who always gets more than you - that is the best place to be, imho, somewhere in the middle.
Though absolutely agreed that the reservations get the absolute shortest end of the stick. In the USA the highest murder rate (not absolute numbers, b/c the population is quite small) is not black people as I had thought most of my life, but rather among native peoples.
And now you are "cool", which totally makes up for all of the past deeds - and especially the current, ongoing murders - r-r-right?! /s
Life will never, ever be fair, but I am glad that for people in the future it is at least improving:-). At the same time, it royally sucks that you had to go through all that pain just to get to here.:-(
I'm a middle aged man and more and more, I'm starting to act or speak like some wise old sage like the Elders I remembered as a kid. The funny part is that I am starting to realize that those wise old sages I remembered were probably just as confused, unaware and dumbfounded by the world as I am now.
I used to get mad about it all, shake my hands in the air and get frustrated ... but now I really don't care. I live my life, treat others nicely and with respect, hold my ground against those that want to spread hate or fear and generally try not to disturb the waters too much - they are already disturbed enough as it is .. lol
It's good to just talk about these things and to have a caring, respectful, kind and sympathetic person such as yourself to listen to it all. That makes me feel far better than any kind of magic solution to these complex problems.
Kitchi-Meegwetch doodem ... naspeeteh neeseekeenehsin ... ehkooteh
It means 'Thanks very much my friend .... I am very grateful for your kindness ... that is all' in northern Ojibway or Oji-Cree
I'm not middle aged but I'm increasingly seeing how lost and confused my familial elders were when I was younger. The older I get thr more I see their brave faces as an act they told themselves because I'm putting that same face on too. I think we're all lost and confused, the difference between the wise and the foolish is being able to accept that and navigate around it or denying it or failing to figure out how to handle it.
The older I get (I'm not that old yet tho) ... the more I realize that most people of all ages, including who we see as wise old folk are all just people doing the best they can to try to figure out this strange reality we live in. Those old wise people get it wrong much of the time but get it right enough of the time for younger people to think that older people actually know what they are doing.
I agree