Residents on reserves trapped in the past

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Time warps belong in science fiction movies and Ray Bradbury illusion of futuristic realities, not on the reserves across Canada.

As an urban Native, I felt as if I had travelled back a hundred years when a friend and I recently visited a local reserve. I was immediately reminded of my fortune, not only as a Native but as a human being.

The futures of many of these people extended to the boundaries of the reserve. Beyond that seemed unbearable without the defenses and skills of survival in an unfamiliar territory. All time had stopped and these people were trapped in that era, unprepared for progression and ill-equipped to dig themselves out.

The wit of an elder Indian had brought us to this place and acted as our guide to the sights and opened the doors to the real issues of these people, the poverty, the desperation, the ugliness of entrapment. He smiled as he presented his world and cried as he portrayed his self-worth.

The living conditions on many of the reserves across this country are not emphasized enough in political arenas. Realities are lost in political jargon and representation of those individual people who fight daily for survival somewhat is shuffled with the insufficient, bureaucratic 'reports' that crawl upon the tables of the politicians.

Thousands of Native people are trapped in that time warp with little or no hope of getting out. The time machine is controlled by the politicians and the people of Canada who haven't taken the time to consider the realities of a nation of proud people victimized by a process of civilization.

Understanding, consideration and a little compassion can engage the wheels of time and free the people who have the same aspirations and dreams as every Canadian citizen.

When tragedies on Indian reserves are publicized, people as "How do these things happen with all our modern technology, with all we know?" They happen because populations of people were isolated to small reserves of land and time has forgotten them.

The elderly Indian (or was he the trickster?) took us on a journey through the tunnels of time. As usual the trickster succeeded in steering our eyes in the right direction. In actuality we had convinced ourselves that we were really making a difference.

Prefocused, we left the reserve and returned to urban civilization. We crossed the invisible boundary and engaged the wheels of time.

We are the fortunate.