Many of Canada’s First Nations reservations share much in common with those ghettoes, including crime, drug addiction, drug trafficking, gang activity and general violence. Earlier government social policies broke the traditional extended family relationships that formed the social and cultural basis of traditional native communities. Before the national and provincial governments intruded into native affairs, their communities were self-sufficient and self-reliant. Native communities traded amongst each other, many using river transport as the means by which to move goods and food.
A small percentage of black ghetto residents were able to move out of the ghettoes and pursue an education that went beyond the inferior education offered at inner city ghetto schools. Some of them may have sought help from privately-funded self-help support groups that helped them rebuild their lives. They chose to strive to achieve something worthwhile in their lives. Likewise, a percentage of First Nations citizens were able to make a similiar transition away from life on a reservation, sometimes with the assistance of a self-help group.
Some First Nations people have achieved college and university educations and pursued job opportunities in the larger cities and served as role models and mentors for younger siblings and cousins to make a positive transition from the reservation to a productive life in a large city. The transition often includes active participation in a support group or in a spiritual healing program along with the pursuit of an education.
Despite the apathy and squalor that prevails on many reservations, there are bright spots where private entrepreneurial activity has opened doors of possible opportunity. There is the example of the world’s cleanest fish farm off Canada’s Pacific Coast, where First Nations entrepreneurs raise abalone for Vancouver’s fish markets and restaurant trade. The cigarette factories located on a reservation to the southeast of Ottawa have opened doors of entrepreneurial activity that involves transporting the cigarettes across international borders. If the Idle No More movement is to achieve its goals of improving the lives of First Nations people, it will need to make room in its program for the expansion of private entrepreneurial activity on reservations.
* Harry Valentine is a free-marketeer living in Eastern Ontario.