To the Editor,

The media has to move past state-created false dichotomies.

We need to understand there are traditional sovereign Indigenous people who are correct when they stand up for their larger jurisdiction and rights beyond the reserve system and the Indian Act.

We also need to understand that Chiefs and Councils of First Nation communities are doing their best, within the confines of extreme duress, when they make decisions for their community members’ needs.

What is incorrect is Canada refusing to address sovereign Indigenous Nations and what they are entitled to. What is incorrect is Canada placing Chief and Councils under so much duress that they are forced to accept scraps.

And it is completely incorrect for news reporters, news outlets, and national political television and radio programs to set up debates between these two groups of Indigenous people. The real issue is what Canada is doing that places these two groups at odds with one another.

The media has to learn to think more critically, trust that their audiences are more intelligent, and become more objective about the genocidal truth of Canada the nation-state and start reporting in more solid ways.

Regards,
Lynn Gehl
(author of Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit, among other books)

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