"You can't write that or say that. That information will be in So-and-so's book!"

I have not written a blog post for quite some time.  Paralysis by analysis has been my issue.  Yeah!  That's sounds much more interesting than saying I've been lazy.   I have had some great ideas about blog posts but, I haven't written about those ideas for one reason or another.  Intimidation by family members has occurred.  Out respect and maybe a small amount of fear I have chosen to write nothing here.  That is changing.

I have written some material but, it's not posted here.  It was on my own private blog on myTonidoPlug 2 using an application called "Thots".  Then I accidentally bricked my server while attempting to update the operating system and well, I'm still trying to revive that cute little Linux gadget but, my attempts have lead to frustration.

I have had concerns mentioned to me about some of the interesting pieces of information that I've come across.  Family members have told me, not asked me, told me that I can't write about some of the things that I have discovered because the things that I had discovered were discovered by other's before me and that the information would show up in a book or several books that various cousins were going to write or are writing.  Now, I am not sure if some of the information that I have found was actually discovered before I located it or not.  It's possible.  More and more information is available of the World Wide Web than ever before.  Someone could have found something before me.

All of the information I'm writing about is in the public domain and is information made public by provincial governments as well as the Government of Canada.  There's nothing at the "Wikileaks" level of intrigue here.  Not even close.  I'm not going to be hunted by anyone for sharing what I have found, except maybe by the odd family member for ruining their book.  Unlike Julian Assange, who is holed up in an embassy in the United Kingdom, I shall continue to have my freedom.  No clandestine or illegal activities took place.

As an amateur genealogist I have sat in front of a computer and searched for information about my family and other topics of interest.  I know that some family members have known of the things that I have researched for years.  I was able to find the documentation that attests to some of my family's folklore.  I have also found documents that show some of what my family believes to have occurred over time is not true and did not happen.  I have also discovered and can prove that some people that think they are family are not.  People get testy when I tell them that.  "Do your own research and see what you come up with," I say.  Those people at that point just mumble something, lose interest immediately and wander off.

I have attempted to convince some of my family members interested in writing books to consider blogging.  I've also told them to consider putting what they have up on Facebook (Shudder!).  I have my issues with Facebook.  That's why I'm not on Facebook anymore.  I've explained to them that blogging is a way of presenting what you want to say, the way you want to say it, anytime you want to say it.  The time table for writing and publishing material through blogging is your own.  I've further explained that if you blog material attracts enough attention you might want to consider consolidating blog data into a book.  I heard nothing but crickets coming from the other end of the phone!  Not really but, the line was silent for a few seconds.

I am amongst the youngest of my cousins.  Some of my older cousins are computer literate but, still think that writing a paper book is the way to go to tell the family story and possibly make some money to support further research or what have you.  Has anyone written a book yet?  No.  None of my cousins have book deals with publishers to my knowledge.  I don't think anything more than further attempts at intimidation will be forthcoming.  At that point it won't matter because I'll have whatever I want to write about published here.

To my family I say:  "Yep!  I wrote that.  Read it and weep.  You've had lots of time and you did nothing with it!  Someone has to write something before we're all gone.  That is what I'm doing.  Our tribe has been removed from history.  Our family's nobility has been denied time and again by European settlers and everybody else who thinks they are chief of some tribe or another whether that tribe ever existed or not.  Yet, you don't want me to write anything because I've never lived on the reserve.  Fill your boots!  I'm filling mine."

I will attempt to write at least once a month for now.  I guarantee that blog posts will be much more frequent than they have been.  Will I write about the Weiwaikum Kwiakah Treaty Society?  Yes, I soon shall.

The other side of #IdleNoMore.

I apologize for not writing something on the blog for slightly more than a year.  I have been thinking of writing numerous blog entries and for one reason or another, with some of those reasons being possibly legal ones, I’ve chosen not to write anything.
Something that I’m sure most Canadian press will not write about is the other of #IdleNoMore.  The least “attractive” things that the media would either never cover or, if the press wanted to provide coverage, they’d get bogged down in the myriad of detail that is available.  I’m referring to are those native peoples that have never been idle.  Those that have attempted to bring accountability to local band offices and national native organizations with varying degrees of success or, failure.
It’s great to get media coverage of the native peoples of Canada standing against the Government of Canada with the coverage now becoming something of worldwide interest.  Prime Minister Harper has become a scapegoat for everything that is wrong with the way the native peoples of Canada are treated.  Prime Minister Harper certainly is not the whole problem for the native peoples of Canada.  It’s not just the federal and provincial governments that are at issue.  Before you think I’ve lost my mind, please read on.
How about media coverage for the native peoples of Canada standing against native band offices, governments, societies, councils and other bodies that are as bad or worse than the federal government when it comes to accountability and honesty with the people they are supposed to serve?  There’s more to what’s going on for most native people than Bill C-45.  This has been true for a very long time.  Where do these native band offices, governments, societies, councils and other bodies get their example of leadership and government from?  Most directly, Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada.  That’s an issue that no one in their politically correct, right mind would touch for a long enough time to make a difference!  Certainly no one within the Canadian media that would want to keep their jobs.
For example: June 20, 2011 is a day that a number of native governments will come to dread for a very long time to come.  That was the day that people governed by one of the worst pieces of legislation in Canadian parliamentary history, The Indian Act of Canada, could utilize the protections provided by the Canadian Human Rights Act.  Suddenly abusive behaviours and action against the native peoples of Canada living on reserves became illegal and inappropriate like it always has been for all other Canadians.  I know of one band office in particular that should be quaking in their shoes.  But are they?  Maybe not yet but, soon.
There are a lot of issues and I don’t have the time or wherewithal to touch on them all.  I also do no claim to know all the issues.  The amazing thing is many of these issues have nothing to do to with the federal government directly!  I’m not saying the federal government isn’t a problem.  They are!  Ever since 1867 when the Indian Act came into being.  That’s 145 years really lousy treatment and colonization of the native peoples of Canada and counting.  Something needs to be done about it.
#IdleNoMore is no doubt a good thing.  But, Bill C-45 is not the only piece of federal legislation that affects the native peoples of Canada.  As a child of native and non-native ancestry I can tell you: Change is needed.
Happy New Year!  I’ll be writing again in 2013.

How much longer shall the injustice(s) continue?

I am a member of the Ahwahoo Tribe of the Laichkwiltach Nation who resides in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory which I know to be the land of the Kwanlin Dun.  I respectfully submit that I am not from here.  I am from what is now called Campbell River, British Columbia.  The Ahwahoo tribe is not recognized today as a legitimate group of people with that group having an identity within the Laichkwiltach Nation.  Our ancestors lived in what is now the Campbell River area before what is now known as Indian Reserve #11 existed.  Members of the Ahwahoo tribe have many times attempted to bring this discrepancy to the attention of those in power be they native or non-native.  The Ahwahoo tribe remains unrecognized regardless of those efforts.  How many people are we talking about?  With the estimated 7 billionth person estimated to having been born sometime as I write this, the number may appear insignificant to some of those of you that read this blog entry.  350 to 420 people may be identified as a Ahwahoo is they so chose to be enumerated as a member of this tribe.

Those of you reading this blog may be wondering why this is so important to me.  This is my family and our history that I am writing about.  It is a matter of identification.  The lack of recognition in the case of my tribe appears to be a form of genocide.  Some may think that is far fetched but, please read on.  The Ahwahoo tribe were and are a noble people.  Thanks to things like the Indian Act and those that were put in place to supervise the activities that were or were not permitted within the Indian Act.  As much as Prime Minister Stephen Harper may choose not believe that colonization occurred, that is exactly what the Indian Act was designed to do!  Colonize the indigenous peoples so that their lands and resources can be taken from them in ways they do not understand.  Assimilate these people into the general population and wipe out the native question entirely!  As much as the Canadian Government apologized for such activity having taken place 13 years ago much has still been left undone.

The Laichkwiltach Nation was made up of five tribes at one time.  To my understanding four remain.  According to the Vancouver Island 1881 Census those tribes were, as named at that time, the Ah wah oo tribe, the Kwe ah kah tribe, the Waw lit sum tribe, the We wai a kai tribe and the We wai ai kum tribe. These tribes of the Laichkwiltach Nation are not individual First Nations as people would have you believe today.  There is and was no such thing as the Weiwaikum First Nation, Kwiakah First Nation and Weiwaikai First Nation.  Furthermore I do not believe that the people of the Ahwahoo tribe gave up or surrendered their identity at any time!  Prove to me that this in fact the case.  If such proof is not immediately forthcoming that immediate reinstate the Ahwahoo tribe of the Laichkwiltach Nation so that we may be recognized as the hereditary people of what is now called Campbell River, British Columbia.

My Great-great Grandfather Captain John Kwaksista or Kwawkseestahla was enumerated in the Vancouver Island 1881 Census along with all who were in his house.  Be it also known and recognized by all that look at and read the above linked web page shows Kwawkseestahla's family was listed as "Family Number: 1".  Why is this important?  Kwawkseestahla was not "a lesser chief" as many would have us believe today.  It substantiates the claim(s) made by the hereditary Chief of the Ahwahoo tribe, my uncle, Captain George Quocksister, and his siblings have been making for years.

The man that thoroughly recorded the population within Kwawkewlth Agency in 1881 was Indian Agent George Blenkinsop.  From what I have read of what is now historical information recorded by this Indian Agent tells me one thing about Mr. George Blenkinsop.  He was painstakingly thorough and dedicated to what he was doing!  How do I know that?  Over time from I understand his first wife and eight of his nine children died while he lived in Alert Bay, British Columbia.  That kind of tragedy would destroy the average man.  This man knew adversity and sacrifice!  He never left.  He stayed on there, remarried and from what I've read, lived out his life there.  Apparently he fluently knew the dialects of the people within the Kwawkewlth Agency which means his enumeration of all the people within his agency would have been accurately recorded.  Indian Agent George Blenkinsop enumerated 42 members of the Ahwahoo tribe in 1881.

Moving forward to present day, as of September 2011, the current populations of the Campbell River Indian Band, Cape Mudge Indian Band and Kwiakah Tribe can be viewed by clicking on the links provided.  The Ahwahoo are sadly mixed in with the Weiwaikum tribe (Not First Nation) and possibly with the Weiwaikai tribe of Cape Mudge unlike all 20 (According to the data I read as of September 2011) of the members of the Kwiakah tribe.  Again, 350 to 420 people may be identified as a Ahwahoo is they so chose to be enumerated as a member of the Ahwahoo tribe.  You've read what I've written before where I inaccurately wrote that the number of the Kwiakak tribe was 29.  It was 19 and according to the data from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada it the Kwiakah may have gained a soul.  If the Laich-Kwil-Tach Treaty Society tribes can recognize the tiny Kwiakah tribe, how about the more than up to twenty times larger Ahwahoo tribe?

From what I have learned from my living ancestors who knew their grandparents, my great-grand parents and never heard any of them once say that the Ahwahoo tribe extinguished it's rights then why are we treated as such?  Show me the written proof of such!  I'll believe it if I can see it.  But, I tend to believe my living ancestors claim that no such thing as the Ahwahoo tribe giving up it's identity ever legally occurred!

Another issue that may arise from further review of the way the Ahwahoo tribe has been treated by others is discrimination against members in whole or in part of the Ahwahoo tribe on the prohibited ground of race.  June 20, 2011 was a significant day for indigenous peoples in Canada living on reserves in terms of being able to finally address human rights complaints.  The Canadian Human Rights Commission may be interested in hearing the Ahwahoo tribe`s case.  The fact that the Indian Act is, or at least was, a horrendously discriminatory all by itself as a sad example set before us all.  Yet, this poor piece of legislation lives on and affects anyone who is indigenous to any part of all the territory that is now Canada.

Discriminatory practices and behaviours were sadly well modelled ever since the Indian Act was enforced upon native peoples here in what is now called Canada.  In the process of such activity could the Ahwahoo tribe been intentionally overlooked?  Indian Agents had absolute power.  Could that power have been abused?  Yes!  At any time and in many cases and situations across Canada it was.  Could this also be what happened to the Ahwahoo tribe of the Laichkwiltach Nation?  I believe this is a question that no one knows the full answer to today.  This information was carried to the grave by our Ahwahoo elders.

Again, if I'm wrong.  Prove it!  Show me that the Ahwahoo tribe no longer legally exists because one of the hereditary chiefs at sometime in history chose to make his mark or sign his signature giving up the rightful identity of the Ahwahoo of what is now called Campbell River, British Columbia.  Yes, I am repeating myself.  I refuse to be silent about this issue until such time as this occurs.  If no such document exists and nobody's come forward to this point to show that it does, then the other three remaining tribes of the Laichkwiltach Nation need to immediately recognize the Ahwahoo tribe and it's people for who we are!