All accountable

Page 5

Dear Editor:

Yes, I agree we must be more accountable to our people but not to the government. They have not offered any accountability on the revenue that Canada has raised and how much of it was Indian monies. They seem to be able to do anything with our share of the resources; they even put it in a general revenue pot and do not identify any of it as Indian monies.

The government is not accountable to the people when they ruin the environment. There are barrels of radioactive materials buried all over Ontario, some they don't even know where. Talk to government employees, they can tell you a lot.

The government refuses to call the Indian Act what it is-cultural genocide. They were supposed to use that act to protect our rights, but it was used to commit genocide on us.

I have never lived on the reserve but am registered to a First Nation. The government does not allow me the opportunity to live on reserve by not supplying adequate housing. I have lost everything by their policies. I have lost my traditional culture, I have lost contact with relatives and I have lost my language.

I want to live and work on my reserve. My reserve wants everyone to come home so we can build up our community on our own, but this is not possible because of the lack of housing. We have many resources on our reserve and the government knows this. We cannot allow anyone to take control of our resources; we did this with the peace treaties and look where we are now.

This really smacks of cultural genocide to me.

Sarah Trout