The Anishinabe Algonquin Nation
The People of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation have never been conquered! (Show me the Terms of Surrender.) No military force ever chased us off our traditional lands. We never gave up our lands in treaty nor did we trade it away to any representatives of the settler people. We never surrendered our lands to any other First Nation nor to the Inuit nor to the Métis! We never gave control of our lands to any organization (Algonquins of Ontario = AOO) or to any real estate company (AOO).
We never agreed to allow lumber companies the right to cut even one tree in our territory. We never agreed to allow Hydro companies the right to dam the Kichi Zibi (Great River) nor any other river of its watershed. We never agreed to allow any mining companies the right to plunder the minerals, gold, silver, copper etc. contained under the soil of our lands! We never surrendered the wealth of real estate value of our lands to any province nor municipality!
Is there something about the words “never surrendered” we don’t understand? It’s time for the Algonquins to start making demands. No more Mr. Nice Guy! We need to stop living our lives as if we have been conquered! We offend our beautiful ancestors when we do so.
Donald Trump
At first glance of Trump’s mugshot I thought, “Ugh, how the mighty have fallen.”
In the photo, he looks grotesque! He looks deranged! He looks pathetic, like a spoiled brat in the midst of a tantrum! How did such a person ever become the president of a country like the USA? How could so many (millions upon millions) apparently sensible, level-minded people ever be fooled into believing that Trump actually cares anything at all for them. Isn’t he nothing more than a selfish, self-centred egomaniac? It’s so obvious!
The face on the mugshot!
To me it is representative of the look, the horror, the rage of an extremely racist white man as he bears witness to the moment a black man walked into the White House as the president of the USA. “America is no longer great,” he tells himself over and over again, “not until a white man is again the leader of this country.”
It’s the face of the most vicious slave owner of a bygone time, watching as the people he once used and abused walk away from the plantations as “free” men and women. It’s a face no one with kindness in their hearts for their fellow man expects to see someday by the side of Creator.
Bloodline
I wrote an authentic account about how the vile and oppressive Indian Act impacted my family lineage. I compiled the facts of my lineage into segments and with the advice and guidance of Phil Jenkins (a seasoned playwright) created Bloodline, a play. It’s a true account, no fact stretched for the sake of empowering the message, no lies told. Bloodline is a statement revealing the despair, agony and the hope in the heart of a boy coming of age. It journeys into dark crevices, where the seeds of dysfunction and alcoholism are found. It travels on the wing of a hawk to salvation and healing.
I have performed (yes, I’m the actor, it’s a one man play) four times thus far. It seems that all who have seen it had only good comments to say about it to me. The fact that I bring in my abilities as a storyteller and poet to help strengthen the play, I believe, helped greatly in making it a success.
Somebody, I’m not sure who (I have my suspicions), sent a poison-pen letter to a church group where Bloodline was performed. The coward (she/he didn’t sign it) wrote the nastiest things about me.
“His mother is white,” they wrote. Not true, my mom had much more Algonquin blood in her veins than she did that of her European ancestors.
“He misappropriates prayerful openings with his political views.” What does this person mean by these words? I have never gone up to any podium and hollered to those gathered, “In the next election, vote NDP!”
I swear on the honour I have for my eagle feather that I have never hated anyone in my life. Hate is destructive! There is no pay off to hate! I refuse to hate.
The poison-pen writer wrote, “He is full of hate”, “He teaches his grandchildren to hate.” Wow! Those sentences just about ripped my heart out! I guess I’m fair game to the people who dislike me, but for Creator’s sake, keep my family out of it!
I am well aware that there are those who hate me. I accept that fact and do not lose any sleep over it. I’m an activist. I believe I am a good one. Having hate and negative feelings directed at me as such comes with the territory. Bring it on! Give me your best shot! I won’t back up. I never have and I never will.
Keep the Circle Strong,
South Wind (Albert Dumont)
Keep on trying…you are admirably brave and speak the truth not just for yourself.
I’m looking forward to seeing your play at the Fourth Stage!
Enjoy your poetry and your readings…
I stand with you Albert!
And for those who seek profit through the wielding of greed and lies; you have no clue what you’re are up against. As long as there is a SouthWind, this man will not stop.
Blackbird
Thanks for sharing this excellent article.
I’ve started watching “Nations at War” on APTN recently. In every account of historical events I look for what the narrator leaves out, as well as what they emphasize.
In the episode I saw recently, they left out the part about ‘What happened next? What happened to the people after they fought, signed treaties, established boundaries, etc?’
The show seems to attempt to be sensitive to the history of many of the nations, Cree, Anishnabe, Mohawk, etc,. They cite the different alliances some of the First Nations people made with various European interests. By citing the alliances, without mentioning the treachery of the ‘settlers’, allies and foreign governments, they practically accuse the Indigenous tribes of giving away their land, power and rights to the European invaders.
They should state clearly at the beginning and end of the story: the Anishnabe never surrendered.
I hope everyone reads your treatise. It fills in the gap between history and today.
The mugshot of tRump is emblematic of the arrogance and sense of entitlement that white men assume as their rightful place in society.
Irrespective of when a European migrated to North America, they come with the promise that “In America, all white men can be kings.”
tRump is an example. His Nazi-sympathizer father migrated to the US and joined neo-fascist groups, earned his wealth through exploitation of Black people and quickly built an empire through crime, graft and dishonesty. In the century since Fred tRump arrived, he and his family have done nothing but exploit the trappings of illicit gain and white supremacy.
Mexico, The US, and Canada are built on the premise of exalting any and all people of European descent over Indigenous, previously enslaved, and Black and brown people in North America and around the world.
Many Black, brown and Indigenous Peoples acquiesce to white supremacy and accept and support their dominance as a necessity. The APTN show leaves a viewer open to imagining that’s what happened.
Erico Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, who was sentenced yesterday to 22 years in prison for terrorism against the US, is an example of a brown man who identifies as part of the “Conqueror Class”; brown people who aline themselves with the European part of their identity, in his case, his Spanish name, language and culture. He and his type of white supremacists have never been told the part of history that reveals that the only part of the white nationalist movement they’ve ever held is that of cannon fodder.
While brown men like Vivek Ramaswamy, a Right Wing candidate for US presidency, are examples of Asians who surrendered and helped European invaders conquer and subjugate their country for centuries, only to seek refuge in North America when their countries gained independence, hope that by being the brown face for white dominance, they can regain the only power the Conqueror Class will allow them to have. As long as these people ignore the hatred and contempt their white leaders hold for them, and aspire to never be more than the overseers of the subjugated people “below” them, they feel their position in the old-world order that they want to establish, is secured.
Mr. tRump is the person who promised all of them the 1 thing they want more than life: To be able to be as cruel, greedy, inhumane and abusive as desired to anyone who is not in the Conqueror Class. If tRump doesn’t get out of his current legal debacle, they all go down.
If they were to follow the law, and prosecute tRump and his co-conspirators as if they were any other suspected criminal, white supremacist terrorism and its attendant violence, injustice and civil unrest would, be dealt a decisive blow.
If 1st generation Americans, like Vivek and Hispanic Americans, like Tarrio who reject the indigenous and colonialised part of their heritage, are ever going to accept their place in the racial hierarchy, i.e, that of being either oppressive sychophant, or hired muscle for scared white folk, they will have to accept responsibility for their part in the subjugation, disenfranchisement, cruelty and injustice of their white overlords.