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<p>Thank you for your kind words, Uncle Rolland :) I FEEL them strongly.</p>
<p>oh but I have to point out that it was Phil who shared the news in this thread. So thanks Phil!</p>
<p>And, Rolland, I'll forward your message to my folks in Taiwan, who are actually preparing for a large rally/demonstration - for official recognition and for land rights - that will take place in Taipei City tomorrow (Nov 19). Your words will definitely cheer up their spirit, especially an older man, whom I also call uncle. This uncle, Uncle Talavan, left the village yesterday early morning for Taipei (about 7 hours of traveling time), discreetly, without alerting anybody except for his own children. He has been sitting-protesting in front of the Council for Indigenous Peoples (controlled by govt) since he reached there, and it's been 24 hours... still 24 more hours to go until the scheduled time for group protest. He wasn't trying to be heroic. If he was, he would be loud and the media would have already noticed him. But no, no media coverage (I got the news only from his daughter). He is just sitting there, quietly, with dignity. But hey he could probably use some extra strength. So I'll translate your message and ask someone to bring it to him :)</p>
<p>again, thank you so much for writing!!!</p>
<p>Jimmy</p>
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<p>On Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:55:44 -0500, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote:</p>
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<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">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. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">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. <em>'Breast Plate and Buckskin' </em>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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">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.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">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.<br /><br />-------<br />wahjeh<br />rolland nadjiwon<br />___________________________________________<br /><strong>War does not determine who is right - only who is left...</strong><br /><br /><br />-----Original Message-----<br />From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [</span><a href="mailto:ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">mailto:ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">] On Behalf Of Huang,Chun<br />Sent: November-16-11 4:50 AM<br />To: ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU<br />Subject: Re: [ILAT] 2012 ELECTIONS: Tsai says ‘ pseudo Hakka’ label is ‘unacceptable’ (fwd link)<br /><br />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.<br /><br />We could only hope so.<br /><br />The KMT party, which founded ROC, and its candidate, Ma, who is the current president, have not made such a promise.<br /><br />Jimmy<br /><br />On Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:36:57 -0700, Phillip E Cash Cash wrote:<br />> Tue, Nov 15, 2011 - Page 3<br />><br />> 2012 ELECTIONS: Tsai says ‘pseudo Hakka’ label is ‘unacceptable’<br />><br />> By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter<br />> Taiwan<br />><br />> Labeling her a “pseudo Hakka” for her inability to speak Hakka<br />> fluently is unacceptable, since language proficiency should never be<br />> judged as a “cardinal sin,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)<br />> Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.<br />><br />> She said the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) “crude language<br />> policies” of the past was the reason her Hakka was not more fluent.<br />><br />> Access full article below:<br />> </span><a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/11/15/2003518359"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/11/15/2003518359</span></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">-----<br />No virus found in this message.<br />Checked by AVG - www.avg.com<br />Version: 2012.0.1869 / Virus Database: 2092/4619 - Release Date: 11/15/11<br /><br />-----<br />No virus found in this message.<br />Checked by AVG - www.avg.com<br />Version: 2012.0.1869 / Virus Database: 2092/4619 - Release Date: 11/15/11</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></p>
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