2012 ELECTIONS: Tsai sa ys =?iso-2022-jp?Q?=1B$B!F=1B=28B_pseudo_Hakka=1B$B!G=1B=28B_label_is__=1B?= =?iso-2022-jp?Q?$B!F=1B=28Bunacceptable=1B$B!G=1B=28B_?=(fwd link)

Thu Nov 17 07:55:44 UTC 2011

Thanks Jimmy for this article. I had not seen it. I have now forwarded it to
all my contacts many of whom are so called 'First Nations' by the
colonizers. Collectively, we are by (I don't mind it too much...they had to
give us an administrative collective) UN definitions 'indigenous peoples'
and each one of us has our own language or dialect and name for ourselves in
our own language regardless of how we are designated by politics or
anthropologists. Hundreds of our languages have become extinct and all our
cultures have been transgressed by colonizers. We are all struggling to
survive but it is extremely difficult when so many outside experts know how
we should do that.

This article strikes my feelings as I am a member of the 'indigenous
peoples' of the earth. I am a member of the potowatomi peoples living in
Canada. In reality, we are here as political refugees from what is now the
United States. From the Mississippi river west was designated as 'Indian
Territory' by the US government until gold was discovered in the Black Hills
and all the lands in that 'Indian Territory' were opened for allotment to
the 'settlers' and miners. Our people were one of the first contacts in that
western flood of land grabbers and so we had to be moved. The army came and
at rifle point negotiated a peaceful invitation for our withdrawal to Kansas
and Oklahoma. Thousands of our people died on that long and horrible
march...we remember the stories. Some refused to relocate and took refuge at
various places in out lands, resisted and even fought back. The army came
again, in force, and re-issued the invitation for us to move out. Again, we
refused. The army, in full force, attempted to capture and relocate those of
us(of course I wasn't there) who refused to move. There were a large number
of us and many of the Kickapoo had joined us. Our numbers were too
conspicuous and cumbersome and so we divided ourselves. One group agreed to
come up to Canada and the other half agreed they would go to Mexico and the
Kickapoo would go with them. That is what we did and that is why our
relatives are here in Canada. However, in Canada, we fared not much
better...we just didn't have the army chasing us.

Our people were a very large group and this was Ojibway lands so we divided
up and were taken in by many other Ojibway communities. That is where we are
and how we are to this day. Our culture, language and relationships were as
devastated here in Canada by the same colonial systems systematically
imprisoning our peoples and the Ojibway into their residential school
systems and under the same laws that outlawed our language, ceremonies and
human status. We have survived...we are surviving. We may be only a message
in a bottle at the mercies of this huge ocean of global discontent and
destruction of indigenous peoples and the earth, but, we are here and we
know it.

Now a narrative:  Our people, potowatomi, translates loosely as 'fire
makers/keepers' because we carried the sacred fire of the 'council of the
three fires'. We had responsibility for that fire for the council...for
keeping and maintaining it. I was born into all that I am speaking of and
that is how I can speak of it. 'Breast Plate and Buckskin' history books
might tell you differently but they are not potowatomi. Our story is not
theirs or anyone else's to tell. Anyhow, I was raised knowing this.

Some years ago, the potowatomi had a gathering on some of the land we first
occupied when we came to Canada up along the east side of Georgian Bay. I
knew of it but I was not able to make it to that gathering. A very, very
close friend and relative, potowatomi also, knew how important our history
is and how important to me personally. He was able to go to the meeting.
When I returned, he came to visit me with a gift. It was a piece of charcoal
about the size of an acorn. He had mounted it on a piece of wood inside a
square plastic cover. When he gave it to me as a gift, he told me what it
is. At the gathering, the potowatomi who had moved to Mexico, unbeknown to
many of us who came to Canada, had taken the original fire with them to
Mexico. When they heard of our gathering in Canada, they sent up the fire
for out gathering. That small piece of charcoal 'is' everything I am telling
about.

When our people were split up during that part of our our history around the
1840s, the group to Mexico took the fire with them and kept that fire, our
fire, until this day...over 170 years. That small, black, insignificant
piece of charcoal is imbued with the cosmological existence of our
potowatomi people. That is who I am and why I can (perhaps an assumption)
understand many of the survival issues of our indigenous peoples on a global
scale. Our indigenous peoples, globally, are related in so many ways but
that is another story. A short one...lol. I met Huang Chun, Jimmy on this
list a few years ago. We befriended each other and shared many online
conversations with each other. In his traditions and in mine, and there are
common reasons for it, Jimmy writes to me as 'uncle' and I refer to him as
'my nephew'. That is an incredible honor and I do brag about it to my
family. I could tell more about how our connections were interfered with by
Canadian and American authorities but I think Jimmy lives under somewhat
more 'hateful' conditions than I do here in the Americas and so it is much
to risky. All we ever did is to assist each other in sharing our cultures. I
paraphrase how Jimmy put it, ...why would such big organizations be
interested in a couple of insignificant little indigenous people like us....
I couldn't shed any light on his statement since I don't understand either
but it appears to be happening on a global scale. So, my nephew Jimmy' I am
so glad we met...at least cybernetically...perhaps one day in person. I
guess, by the evidence, we are a part of a very important and elite group of
indigenous peoples globally...why else would they not like us and give us
such a difficult time in our surviving.

-------
wahjeh
rolland nadjiwon
___________________________________________
War does not determine who is right - only who is left...

-----Original Message-----
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [
<mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU> mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On
Behalf Of Huang,Chun
Sent: November-16-11 4:50 AM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] 2012 ELECTIONS: Tsai says ‘ pseudo Hakka’ label is
‘unacceptable’ (fwd link)

And Tsai says that if she is elected the president, she would make a formal,
public apology to the indigenous peoples in Taiwan on behalf of the ROC
government.

We could only hope so.

The KMT party, which founded ROC, and its candidate, Ma, who is the current
president, have not made such a promise.

Jimmy

On Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:36:57 -0700, Phillip E Cash Cash wrote:
> Tue, Nov 15, 2011 - Page 3
>
> 2012 ELECTIONS: Tsai says ‘pseudo Hakka’ label is ‘unacceptable’
>
> By Chris Wang  /  Staff Reporter
> Taiwan
>
> Labeling her a “pseudo Hakka” for her inability to speak Hakka
> fluently is unacceptable, since language proficiency should never be
> judged as a “cardinal sin,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
> Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.
>
> She said the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) “crude language
> policies” of the past was the reason her Hakka was not more fluent.
>
> Access full article below:
>  <http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/11/15/2003518359>
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/11/15/2003518359

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