And Some Stories...

...make you want to laugh and cry at the same time:

The fight for the soul of the AFN

"In the traditional politics of grievance, standing up for treaty rights is done by “pushing back” against the federal and provincial governments. “We need to make them understand they have no legal jurisdiction on our land,” said Bill Erasmus, the candidate from NWT.

For native leaders, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 is the bedrock of all negotiations – a deal with the British Crown that guaranteed peaceful co-existence but, according to First Nations, did not see them give up land title."

It's quite obvious these folks have neither read the Royal Proclamation, nor do they know anything about the times in which it was issued. It was, as the name implies, an proclamation, an edict, written by a king in which he refers to the lands occupied by Indians are "Our" lands. That's "Our" in the royal "we" sense. It was an order issued by a dictator. It was not a "deal" worked out with inhabitants of the land. It was basically an order to the occupants of New England and the Thirteen Colonies to stay put and quit gobbling up lands that still belonged to the English Crown.

Sorry. Not even close and certainly no cigar.