Re: Algonquin Land Claim

Rick Revelle | Sep 09, 2015

Catherine Duchene makes many valid points in her letter to the editor (Re: Algonquin Land Claim) in the Frontenac News on September 3. Ninety percent of the article I agree with.

However when she starts to talk about Status and Non-Status Natives she is playing right into what the Federal Government smiles about. Native divisions. As far as I am concerned you are either Native or not. There is no 1/8th, 1/16th or 100%. If we as Native people allow the Government of Canada dictate to us that blood quantum and status vs non-status is an essential part of being Native, then the Native problem will just die out and the Federal Government will be done with the Native problem.

My grandparents suffered enough by not admitting their ancestry so they could survive in a white world. Myself, I shout it from the tallest mountain - I am Native. Status or Non-Status doesn’t matter. Native blood flows through my veins. Someone asked many years ago how long I have been an Indian. I replied since the day I was born.

Catherine, we are either Native or not. It does not matter if we are Status or not. We are Native and when a Native person like you differentiates, then the federal government smiles.

Rick Revelle, is the author of I Am Algonquin and Algonquin Spring