From: Peshewegunzh <beaver.cs.washington.edu!gnosys!mthvax.cs.miami.edu!mamia!peshe>
Subject: Native Alaskans "Poachers"?
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 04:15:49 GMT

Original-Sender: Peshewegunzh <mthvax.cs.miami.edu!mamia!peshe>

I honestly find it difficult to accept Floyd Davidson's version of the
"poaching" case:

> I don't think "appeal" is quite the right term either.  It was more
> like they demanded enforcement...

>From some other sources I've recently heard from, it appears this is
at least an uninformed statement.

> >I think it is somewhat self-serving that Europeans are being cast as the
> >last best hope of "saving" the Eskimo villages, when they have been
> >the primary cause of the destruction of native self determination.
>
> It is more than somewhat self-serving that anyone should claim
> that their culture or cultural needs should be imposed on another
> culture.  That is what you are doing, Peshe.

Nonsense. I did not advocate the use of white men's bureaucratic laws, white
men's police, white men's lawyers, white men's courts and white men's jails
being imposed on Alaskan natives. 80% of male natives end up in those white
men's jails. Moreover, the imposition of such laws are the result of a
scandalous conceit in which such natives were treated as chattels for sale
by European powers (including the United States) last century.

> Europeans are responsible only to the extent that they must stop
> their destructive interference.  But so must other, non-Europeans.

Which non-Europeans have established an economic, political and military
regime in Alaska? That's nonsense. And Europeans are responsible for more
than simply ceasing interference (which they will never willingly do, by
allowing Eskimo independence, for instance). Although natives may
magnaminously request only repentance rather than full restoration.

> You claim that as a non-European derived American your prejudices
> are somehow more "correct"?  Gimme a break.

The question is not one of prejudices which are all equivalent, but of
truth and justice, however uncomfortable those considerations might make
guilty consciences. It's convenient for those who don't want to
remember how they achieved their preeminent position to ignore the
historical realities.

> The respect that each culture chooses to give to
> the law is what will make it work or fail.

Those laws are the products of the American legal bureaucracy, which is
about as alienated from any sort of native sensibility, as is humanly
possible. Whatever the good intentions, that spells trouble.

> But I don't
> know where I could find the facts to post here if you insist on
> documentation.

Difficult to accept your points without it.

I do believe Floyd is expressing, in somewhat couched terms, views
similar to those of non-native protestors of Ojibwa spearfishing in
Wisconsin and elsewhere. We know that those protestors often try to
portray natives exercising traditional and treaty rights as violators
of environmental and game laws.


--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peshewegunzh

peshe%mamia.UUCP@mthvax.cs.miami.edu
mthvax.cs.miami.edu!mamia.UUCP!peshe
peshe@mamia.UUCP
mthvax!mamia!peshe

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~