Does the end of tradition mean the end of values?

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It's been a long time since the Indian people have lived a traditional lifestyle. The Europeans came and brought elements of their culture, which were superimposed onto a culture whose core was based on a belief system quite foreign to the European. These juxtaposed cultures each contained value systems that were relative to each lifestyle. The introduction of this foreign culture has changed the way the Indian people live and has dramatically altered the traditional values of our people.

European culture imposed a governing system that has found a place within the tribes of Canada's Aboriginal people and continuously causes uproar within our settlements.

The European system was acquisitive and politically structured around commerce. The value system was based on a religious doctrine that was manipulated to satisfy their acquisitive nature. This belief system elevated them above nature and the animal kingdom.

On the other hand, the value system of the Indian people centered on survival and an animalistic belief system that put them on an equal footing with the animals within the realm of creation. This system worked for many centuries, but the settlement and exposure to European ways conflicted with traditional ways. For centuries the Indian tribes governed by consensus. The people collectively elected their chiefs but the elders remained the heads of the tribe and their input was very important to decision making. The wisdom of the elders was respected, unlike the European system where the elderly were disregarded and assumed to be senile.

Have we adopted some of these European ways? Is the incident with the Bloods and Chief Harley Frank an example of European political dominance? The people of the Blood reserve obviously trusted Chief Frank to lead them. I sense an infiltration of European strategic maneuvering of divide and conquer: Divide the people and weaken the defenses. What are the real motives of council in disagreeing with Chief Frank's decision to purchase the buffalo, or is that really the issue?

The buffalo is symbolic of the traditional lifestyle of the Plains Indians. Buffalo are large animals, strong and powerful, traveling in large groups. The herds move around the plains freely until commercial and greed reduced their numbers to near-extinction. The buffalo were victims of evolution.

It's been a long time since the Indian people have lived a traditional lifestyle. That can't be changed; time takes us through the motions of evolution. But when we quit living our traditional way, did we have to give up our values, too?