Advocates call for Canadian investigation after FBI study links serial killings and t

I have travelled that highway from "George" to "Rupert' many, many times while growing up in the North. Sadly, racism is alive and well still, in the north, and the aboriginal peoples often live in incredible poverty on their reserves, and are treated like vermin by officials in different aspects of local and provincial gov't, as well as the local mounties. To put it bluntly, if these were white girls that had gone missing, an intensive search and investigation--and I mean "intense" at the highest level, with colossal manpower devoted to it-would have been underway years ago. But these are aboriginal girls, and the indifference-other than an occasional newspaper article-is sickening.

 

In BC , many school districts have an Aboriginal or First Nations department, with the term Aboriginal being the first peoples or residents of our province. Sadly, many of my childhood friends, growing up in a coast fishing community, were sent off to residential schools, a great puzzlement to a 7 year old to encounter such racism ans see friends taken from their families.

 

To Native Dancer-sorry I have to have 50 posts before I can answer you with a pm-I am at 46. To answer your question-I grew up in Pr. Rupert, Ketchikan, and the Charlottes. Father was involved in the west coast fisheries for a big company. He had a great love for all cultures, and I heard the myths and legends of the coast peoples before I ever heard fairy tales. He also had a great love for the art and artisans of the coast peoples, and told me one day the world would sit up and notice the art of the coast peoples, and pay large sums for that art. He had a great friendship with one of the chiefs of the Hartley Bay nation. And introduced the son of that chief to me as a prince, and told me to behave myself in front of royalty. My family was greatly upset when our BC premier did not name a new ferry the Spirit of Hartley Bay after those folks did such a great job of rescuing folks when the Queen of the North sank. Blasted politicians.

 

The Charlottes are one of the most beautiful places in the world. Also logged over there when there were still 20' diameter spruce there. The People used to cut out strips from cedar for house construction and occasionally we would come across one with hundreds of years of scars from this. Partied a lot in Rupert. Spent a lot of time fishing the Kispiox before that fishery was destroyed. I did a lot of the engineering on the old Mezziaden haul road for Skeena Forest Products. Did you ever get up the Naas?

You are Blessed to have a father like you have. He gave you wisdom that can never be learned in a classroom.

Only two more posts to go.

 

Yup, got up around the Nass. Used to fly in to Khatada Lake on occasion in the bush planes to fish. Get a kick out of seeing the videos on the net of guys running the Khatada River in kayaks. Gotta be nuts! Loved beach combing in the Charlottes-used to bring home the glass Japanese fishing floats that would wash up on the beach, and stick them in my mother's garden. I remember when the 92 lb. steelhead was caught in the Kispiox River! (Yes, I am an oldster!) Used to hunt for garnets up Tuk Inlet in Rupert, chip them out of the rock, and bring them home in a Crown Royal bag! Remember my father getting blasted by a young fisheries biologist who found out my dad went to talk to some of the native folk on the Skeena about what they thought the fishing run would be like. Dad's reply was classic "So, who would know more about the fishing runs on the Skeena-people who have lived on the river for ten thousand years, or a fisheries biologist that was raised in Clinton?" I miss the North country-the northern lights on a winter night, in particular.