MNN. Nov. 22, 2006.

“One of the “only” ways to address poverty on native reserves is to enhance property rights”, said Harper’s former adviser [no wonder Harper’s in trouble listening to deficients like this]. Obviously, he hasn’t taken Indigenous Studies 101. This guy doesn’t seem to be familiar with the historical material in the Indian Affairs archives of Canada and the U.S. that shows we are the full owners of every square inch of Turtle Island.

Tom said, “The system in place is stopping aboriginal “Canadians” from improving their economies”. Yeh! You know who’s in our way? A bunch of ignoramuses like you, Tom “who-doesn’t-know-his-history” Flanagan. You say you’ve taken a “hard” look at property rights on reserves. Take a good look at the colonial usurpation of property rights over Turtle Island that has impoverished us. People like Sir Walter Raleigh and Humphrey Gilbert were selling millions of acres of our land long before they even came over here with their disease-ridden crew.

Tom “Acts-like-Eichmann” Flanagan says, “Here’s my [“final solution”] plan for you Indians”. Tom, you’re just another genocidal maniac. Why don’t you go back where you belong and stop teaching your off-the-wall stuff to another generation of colonial opportunists?

Guys like you left Europe because you messed up everything over there, including property rights. Instead of cleaning up your own house, you came here and messed up ours. Tom, you’ve inherited that mental disease called “greed” [owistah] and maybe some stupidity and certainly a lot of ignorance about us.

“The value of property on native reserves has gone up significantly”, you told the Ottawa corporate press, otherwise known as the “liar’s club”. They were sitting there salivating and rubbing their sweaty hands and their eyes were blinking chi-ching. “Especially on the outskirts of cities like Calgary” [where you and your oil buddies live]. Oh, my goodness! Where have we heard this one before? Any natives living on territories near major cities have to constantly watch our backs. We have to always stand ready to resist wave after wave of expropriation by governments and appropriation by your real estate vulture friends.

“Yet people on reserves live in poverty and their homes are falling apart”, said you. Isn’t that part of your plan? At least we have a house. If your plan goes through, we won’t even have a house. We’ll be dying on the streets of the cities of Canada. This happened in the US in the 1950’s and 60’s through the “termination policy” that completely wiped out over 100 Indian communities. They wound up dead. We’re on to your plan, Tom “Draco” Flanagan Lord of the Flies!.

You called us “dysfunctional” although you admit you’ve never been to an Indian community. You’re admitting you don’t know anything. You don’t need to. You work for the corporations to get your sticky palms on our lands for your backers, the real estate developers and resource robbers.

Eeek! How did you manage to call yourself an instant Indian expert? You must have been hatched from the same viper’s nest as Sir Walter Raleigh. There’s no difference between selling land you’ve never seen and writing expert opinions about something you know nothing about. You Conservatives have no inhibitions about waving the flag of your ignorance for all the world to see. The people running Canada seem totally detached from reality. After making a fool of yourselves in China recently and elsewhere, you’ve come back to Turtle Island to insult everybody’s intelligence.

“Under Canadian law, many people on reserves face restrictions when it comes to selling or leasing land”. Yes, the restrictions are supposed to protect us from vultures like you and your friends, Tom “Hannibal-the-Cannibal” Flanagan. You think some of these rules should be lifted so there is no protection at all? Yes, we agree something should be lifted. You should lift yourselves out of our sight!

“Aboriginal people should have the right to sell some of their land to business developers, who would make better use of their property”. Then after you’ve all the reserves what next? Are you going to start selling off chunks of British Columbia and New Brunswick? 99% of our land that you’re already squatting on hasn’t even been paid for yet. It’s all wrecked and it will cost more to clean your mess than what you stole from it. We can’t sell our land as we hold it in trust for our future unborn children. Now you want the 1% we presently live on.

Last night Canadian Hydro Developers went to a Six Nations band meeting to offer money for the north end of the Haldimand Tract. They are trespassing by having built 50 of their windmills on it and 100 more soon. They want to pay us $50,000 over the next ten years. Not in funds, but in scholarships for our people to attend their corporate universities that they will chose for us and which will give them tax write offs! They’re from Calgary too! Making that offer was recognition that we own the land. We know a thief when we see one. Do they think we’re that stupid?

Tom-Tom, you said, “I don’t think native people have much choice in the matter because they are maybe three per cent of the Canadian population.” Are you telling us that someone only has rights if they are part of the majority? We own all the land. According to your twisted thinking we have no rights because we’re outnumbered. You guys have more political, social and economic control and you have the guns to back you up. According to you, we have nothing. We won’t go to colonial courts which are stacked against us.

You said that we are surrounded by western capitalism everywhere. What do you mean by that? Are you openly declaring war on us now? Are you pushing the genocide policy? Is western capitalism what you call the guns that the police are pointing at us? That’s what the King of England said in 1738, “We shall beat the Indians through economy” as he waged economic warfare on us, the Iroquois. We’re still here, Tom “remember-the-French-and-Indian-wars” Flanagan.

Your comment apparently angered Wayne Courchene, an adviser to the Assembly of First Nations, a colonial government lobby group of sell-outs. He said your views are “narrow-minded”. “Narrow minded” is a strange name for genocide. His salary comes from the federal government. What can you expect from a dog on a leash? You can’t expect him to bite the hand that feeds him.

Tom “who-lives-on-our-real-estate-without-paying-any-tax-to-us” Flanagan, you question why First Nations should live in a tax-free environment with free housing. We are the greatest taxpayers on earth. Our real estate has been put up for the biggest economy in the world. So, shut up! You said that you’re not advising the government on aboriginal issues. If it’s true, thank goodness. But you are the mouthpiece for the corporations who want our lands for nothing. You’re planning to bulldoze us, put pipelines and oil wells in, take our trees and minerals and destroy the environment. Before you run away to make your next mess, pay for the clean up here.

Explain to us why Canadians aren’t paying taxes to the U.S. The law is that Indians don’t pay taxes. You want to change it. When Indian lands were illegally taxed, we lost everything. You can’t seize our property, so we can’t pay taxes. You’re after the wholesale destruction of our society and all of Turtle Island. It’s not going to happen if we can help it, Tommy boy!

Stop trying to get rid of us because we’ve been blocking all your evil schemes, Tom “Dr. Evil” Flanagan. We have always and will continue to fight your greed all the way. We will never surrender our interests to our land. If it wasn’t for us, all of Turtle Island would have been destroyed long ago. We will resist your efforts to remove us so your friends can come in and rape our land.

Tom “the-unfortunate-scalawag” Flanagan, come and visit us. You’ll need more than your cape to keep all that filth off your dirty feet, mind and mouth.

Tom, we hereby eject you from our homeland for conspiracy, fraud and espionage. If you’re not careful, we might put you away in that “Tower of Power” [Indian Affairs] dungeon in Hull. Your ideas about us are some of the lowest points we have seen in the last week. Don’t mess around with us. The gig is up, Tom “the-cat-is-out-of-the-bag” Flanagan. Don’t end up like Sir Walter Raleigh who made it back to England just in time to be executed on the 29th October 1618. You’re already there, Tom “will-bomb” Flanagan. You could end up like your zero hero, Walter. He ended up unpopular due to his greed, arrogance and skepticism.

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News