Canada, the nation state, and Canada’s national policy continues to exist on the genocide of Indigenous Nations. Two public inquiries, The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015) and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (2019) have concluded that Canada’s foundation is based on the physical, biological, and cultural genocide of Indigenous Nations and people. What is more, it was argued that this Canadian made genocide continues today through cultural means that include laws, policies, practices, and standard operating procedures, as well as through acts of neglect and omission. This is the case regardless of Canada’s so-called good intentions. A narrow focus on intent is not the definitive element in the case of the genocide of Indigenous Nations and people, and of Canada’s crimes against humanity in this regard. As long as this policy of genocide continues Canada, the prime minister, the privy council, the cabinet, and the members of parliament are human rights violators. There is no need to debate this.

Cultural genocide against Indigenous Nations and people is carried out through Canada’s laws, policies, and practices—both written and unwritten—of neglect and elimination such as the extinguishment of Indigenous rights through the land claims and self-government process and policies that Canada, through forked-tongue rhetoric, erroneously calls the “Modern Treaty Process”. Since its inception in the 1970s, and largely due to Indigenous opposition to the genocidal terms of the land claims process, over time Canada has manipulated its rhetoric in its policy from the use of such euphemisms as “extinguishing all our rights” to “extinguishing only our land and land related rights” to “relinquishing our rights” to “defining our rights completely”. Regardless of the shift in rhetoric and the misleading name the outcome remains the same–Indigenous Nations continue to be denied the land and resources needed to rebuild our governance systems and institutions such as schools, housing, courts, and health care that are rooted in our knowledge systems and thus culturally meaningful, relevant, and subsequently efficacious in a way that the good life is attainable. Canada’s failure to address the genocide encoded in their land claims and self-government policies has been, and continues to be, manipulatively disguised and this is intentional. It is now clearly understood that Canada’s policy and law makers first and only priority is to obfuscate the genocide rather than address the genocide–meaning crafting a better tool—law, policy, practice, or gap in law, policy, or practice—that disguises the genocide. As a result the oppressor’s culture continues to be imposed on Indigenous Nations. This cultural imposition is genocide. Raphael Lemkin was clear about this.

Continue reading this manifesto by clicking here on this link:
https://www.lynngehl.com/genocide-a-personal-manifesto.html

​​© Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. She is a published author of Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit and The Truth that Wampum Tells: My Debwewin on the Algonquin Land Claims Process. You can reach her and see more of her work at www.lynngehl.com.

When Justin Trudeau relied on a platform/promise of truth and reconciliation and nation-to-nation to come in to power, I found myself in a sad and miserable state. What made this feeling worse for me was how so many people were falling for it. I knew it was a political lie. I knew he had no plan to meet Indigenous people on a nation-to-nation basis. I knew he was not going to share the land and resources on an equal basis. Although I knew this what made me sad and miserable was that he was manipulating the hopes of Indigenous people. This I felt was a violation of the worse kind. I know too many Indigenous people who have killed themselves because they had no hope. And I know what it is to live without hope. I do this every day of my life. As a child all too often I felt and observed my hope being manipulated by other people; people who knew better but could not come through for me. Recently I have had another experience of this manipulation of hope. This time it was more of a bizarre form of appropriation.

I must caution you though that reading the paragraphs below may cause within you extreme cognitive dissonance, extreme enough for you to project hatred toward me, or maybe it may deepen that hate you already feel. I will take that risk though because ultimately I know I am going to die alone; die alone without all the pretenders who claim to care about Indigenous people.

Indigenous people have been speaking up, petitioning, and protesting for our land and land related economic rights since the early 1600s. Our more recent protests include challenges to the 1969 White Paper, and in 1982 when the Constitution was re-patriated. And of course there have been numerous court challenges such as the 1973 Calder decision, 1990 Sparrow decision, 1997 Delgamuukw decision, 2004 Haida decision, 2014 Tsilhqot’in decision … . Indigenous people have done our work over and over and over again. It is clear as day we want our Land Back. Again we have done our work.

The latest Indigenous uprising is on the matter of the Wet’suwet’in Nation’s demand that their rights be upheld and honoured. Many Indigenous and settler people across Canada protested in solidarity with them. During these protests I had an odd experience, again a feeling, and an insight when I heard an older white woman share her joy that she, in her old age, was finally able to experience Indigenous people rise up against the colonial state. This older woman expressed her glee where people around relished along with her. I experienced this collective glee perplexing and disenfranchising because it seemed to me that she was making the protests all about her and her need for a happy story and ending. It seemed like the only thing that was important was how she felt experiencing the protest and the hope it gave her. To me this was a bizarre experience of appropriation of hope somewhat analogous to when a wealthy person appropriates the ‘culture of poverty’ as a part of their persona.

Indigenous protests are not about settler Canadians and their need to feel good about themselves. It is foremost about Indigenous people and our need to address in concrete and practical ways the hopelessness that many of us feel and experience. As many know, many Indigenous people feel hopelessness every day of our lives and for good reason. We wake up with this feeling of hopelessness, every step we take is with this feeling of hopelessness, and we go to bed with this feeling of hopelessness. For me, and many Indigenous people, it was a sad situation when Juno award nominee Inuk singer Kelly Fraser ended her life on Christmas Eve. She was only 26 years old and for many she held hope.

I have always felt that there is the need to allow Indigenous peoples the space required to express this very hopelessness. I do this bravely as I soldier on. We need to keep in mind that suicide is only one manifestation or response to living with hopelessness. We need to allow people the right to talk about hopelessness when they want to versus quell and silence it.

My commentary here is not so much about living with hopelessness, rather it is about how it is that our protests are not about a settler’s need to feel hopeful especially considering that most settlers do not really understand what the issues are and what it is that we want: Our Land Returned to Us. We want more than Church charity; We want to live as well as Canadians on our land and from our land with structures that are meaningful to us such as health care, education, and law.

It was my experience that this older woman appropriated the recent Wet’suwet’in protest as hers for her need to feel good. To me it was bizarre because I know that it will not be until settler Canadians stand up en masse to their government regarding Indigenous rights that anything will change. Once this happens, Indigenous people will genuinely experience the joy and glee associated; then settler people can stand behind that. Until this happens there really is nothing for settlers to feel joy about.

Please Creator make them stop these bizarre forms of appropriation. The hopelessness and hope to be felt is not at all, all about them. When it is, the hopelessness sinks deeper for Indigenous people. It sure does for me.
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While after reading this, while some people may be prone to act and think into a place of cognitive dissonance and hate the messenger, as settler Jean Koning has stated several times, “Settler people need to shut up and listen” and I will add stop stealing hope that is not really there.

​© Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. She is a published author of Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit and The Truth that Wampum Tells: My Debwewin on the Algonquin Land Claims Process. You can reach her and see more of her work at www.lynngehl.com.

​While you may have questions guiding your thinking, and this is a good thing, it is never appropriate to assume you can direct your questions to a person. Said another way, while it is good that you are thinking and have some boundaries around what it is that you are seeking to learn, you should not assume that you have a right to have your questions answered. There are many reasons for this.
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First, knowledge does not unfold in linear ways. Continue to listen, read, and think. As the knowledge unfolds you will learn what is important when the time is right. As the knowledge unfolds you may learn that your guiding questions were not important after all.

Second, a good teacher will always respect your own journey. They will respect your process of learning because they know that if the journey to the knowledge is your own process of observing, participating, thinking, dreaming, and making the necessary cognitive connections you will come to embody the knowledge and remember it better than if the knowledge is simply handed to you on a plate. We need to value that knowledge is more than about a squirrel collecting nuts or about rote memory; this is especially so if the knowledge is deeply layered or requires conceptual reasoning skills.

Third, when the knowledge is of a personal nature it is not appropriate to ask questions. This is especially so if you do not have a proven good relationship, a proven trusting relationship, or a proven relationship of reciprocity with the person.

Fourth, if you are in a quest for knowledge it is really important to demonstrate that you will be responsible first. Responsibility means many things such as you will act in a good and respectful way versus use the knowledge for personal gain; or when the knowledge is of a personal nature you will not use it to gossip about and thus harm.
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Fifth, it must be understood that the most important knowledge will not be shared and we may never know it because the knowledge is too personal. Sometimes you have to trust your authority versus question it.

​© Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. She is a published author of Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit and The Truth that Wampum Tells: My Debwewin on the Algonquin Land Claims Process. You can reach her and see more of her work at www.lynngehl.com.

The Second of 13 Moon Teachings

The Anishinaabeg have sophisticated teachings about the intelligence of the heart that can take many years, if not a lifetime, to come to understand and fully know. In my work on Indigenous knowledge, identity politics, the land claims process, and cultural genocide I have had to reflect on the intelligence of the heart over and over again. I cannot teach the depth of this in this short blog. In the immediate, though I can offer two short teachings that I think many people will find useful. As you read on though, be forewarned that you may be triggered.

Pain is Not a Competition

Some time ago a friend told me a story about an experience she had with a ‘victims of a sexual violence’ support group that she herself had facilitated. This experience was an important teachable moment for the members of the group. Support groups are important because through them victims are provided a safe context where they share their thoughts and feelings about the violence that they experienced with people who have had similar experiences. Through sharing with people who are like them a context of wellness potentially presents itself.

In this particular support group, my friend told me that the women began to compare their pain in a competing way through offering statements such as “he raped me more than once”, “he raped me with a knife to my throat”, and so on …. Upon observing this my friend was compelled to gently interfere because the process of sharing for social mirroring and potential healing was becoming more of a competition. She reminded the women that they were gathered together to support and listen to one another.

She carefully reminded and coached the women to understand that support groups are not about members competing with one another; rather support groups are about social mirroring and all that is inherent such as listening to and gaining understanding from people who have had similar experiences. She implored the women to hear and understand what she was saying because as a wellness professional she knew that it is through the medicine of social mirroring that people gain, in the very least, a tiny little bit of medicine, where after, this little bit could become the seed for more healing to follow.

My point is, it is a good practice not to silence people who have had a similar experience as you. Rather, it is best to listen to others where in turn others who understand your pain will then listen to you when you share. Pain is not a competition. Wellness can be found in listening.

On Vicarious Trauma

Heartache is never the same for any two people; even when the traumatic event that causes the heartache is the same, we all experience things differently because many things mediate our personal responses. For example, our various subjectivities mediate what we observe, how we feel, and how we cope. Another way to say this is there are multiple responses to the same stimuli; there is no universal response to any one trauma. All humans have a subjectivity that includes such entities as a person’s age, gender, and race.

While the concept of subjective responses to violence are easily grasped, some people struggle with understanding how at times the same traumatic event can become vicariously magnified in one person. Understanding vicarious trauma requires a little more conceptual thought but it can be done. In a home where an episode of physical violence has occurred, while each child will experience the trauma based on their subjectivity, some of the children also experience vicarious trauma. They do this through reading the pain on their sibling’s faces and bodies, where through this reading, they themselves experience additional trauma. For example, an older child who feels responsible for the safety of younger siblings may observe and read the pain in their faces where through this process additional trauma becomes inscribed in their own heart and mind thus deepening the heartache. Depending on the number of children involved, vicarious trauma can be two fold, three fold, four fold, five fold, six fold, seven fold… .

No two people share the same trauma; subjectivity mediates. We must also consider the possibility of vicarious trauma.

Chi-Miigwetch for reading this and thinking about it.

​​​​​​© Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of Canada's land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com.

The First of 13 Moon Teachings
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I have come to learn that many people do not really understand what I mean when I talk about “practice knowledge”. There are many delineations of what I mean …
 
First, some people think I am talking about the difference between theory and practice, and that when I talk about practice knowledge that I am stressing that people can have all the theory in the world but if it is not practiced it is meaningless. While I like this truth and agree I mean something different ... .
 
Second, in the Anishinaabeg knowledge tradition it is commonly thought that the most important knowledge is the knowledge we do through our practices. What I mean by this is our parents teach us how best to do things through their practices, meaning through being good role-models. For example, through practice they teach us how to be good human beings. From this process of practice we practice it too even though we do not consciously understand the theory of ontological morality. We just do morality in practice as it was practiced for us to learn from. This means we do not necessarily have a conscious and cognitive ability to talk about the theory of morality and why it is important; rather we embody and practice it.
 
Third, ceremony is a collection of practices. While some people are able to conduct a Sacred Pipe Ceremony because they learned it through practice from their Elders, others who were not trained in ceremonies yet who have been trained in Indigenous knowledge philosophy have the skill to talk about it in a way a ceremonialist or Elder may not be able to. Both are important.
 
Fourth, some people who embody intergenerational trauma manifest it at the level of practice with little ability to express consciously and cognitively the very knowledge they have within their bodies. This inability does not mean they do not have knowledge about their trauma; they do at the level of embodiment and practice. When knowledge is embodied and practiced in this way, in a way that is harming to self and others, it is suggested that the person go on a journey; a journey to connect one’s heart and mind so they are better able to cope and have a good life.
 
Fifth, some people have great ideas in that they are great thinkers but they lack the skills, or maybe the time, to manifest the ideas into concrete practice. When this happens another person can pick up the idea and work with it to ensure it moves into practice.
 
Sixth, sometimes practice knowledge is just yours and only yours. It is not something you do for other people. For example, it is never advisable to say to an impoverished person, “I will pray for you”. Once I heard someone say this to a woman who was struggling to feed her eight children. I could tell by the look on her face that she was patronized and was thinking, “I don’t need your prayers. Stuff your prayers and help me feed my children in real and practiced ways.”
 
Most of the time knowledge at the level of practice is the most important knowledge. Sometimes thinking or theoretical knowledge is the most important knowledge. And sometimes both together are important knowledge.

Chi-Miigwetch for reading this and thinking about it.

​​​​​© Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of Canada's land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com.

People need to stop thinking reconciliation is possible through government rhetoric alone. Genuine action must follow. As long as Canada fails to participate in a genuine nation-to-nation relationship that honours Indigenous Land and Resource rights, reconciliation will always only be something settler people and their descendants celebrate through false parties at the expense of Indigenous people.

Imagine an Indigenous child who has embodied within them generations of racist, sexist, and genocidal colonial policies and laws, where their father was an angry, abusive, drunken, maniac due to racism, abandonment, abuse, and poverty, and where their mother was a neglected child, a residential school survivor, and a victim of sexual abuse. Imagine this child who has grown up in a similar context as their parents of racism, sexism, abuse, poverty, neglect, and hunger. Imagine all this knowledge is embodied within this child yet the young child is unable to express it verbally; all they can do at their young age is express their embodied knowledge and inherent emotions at the level of practice. After all this is what Indigenous knowledge brings to the table – that being that knowledge is not simply in the mind; it begins in the feet and body first.

Imagine this child of direct trauma, inter-generational, and multi-generational trauma goes to school and manifests their embodied knowledge and emotions of racism, sexism, and genocide against a more privileged white settler child, where they are then forced to reconcile their knowledge that is yet to be really understood, examined, and affirmed and consequently if fortunate enough addressed and resolved. In this context so-called reconciliation means the Indigenous child has to shut down their knowledge and emotions and who they are, where everyone is then allowed to ignore what the real underlying issues are all for the sake of reconciliation. In this context it is the privileged white settler child who gains reconciliation off the back of the Indigenous child. In this context reconciliation means the Indigenous child is not really a person; in this context the privilege child with all the material wealth once again gains.

If you think reconciliation comes from institutions and organizations with paid employees that are funded in part through the latest political rhetoric and dollars you are not doing the critical thinking needed. And you are patronizing critically trained and thinking Indigenous intellectuals who know better. Follow the money and you will learn you are being manipulated; you are celebrating the oppression of others; and you are complicit in the perpetuation of the pain of children who are pooping in buckets, drinking poisoned water, and eating mercury contaminated food.

When people celebrate their own oppression, or the oppression of others, this is the worst form of manipulation and genocide. Today colonization has become a celebration rooted in the lie of reconciliation. It is a party that makes some Indigenous people happy and where some settlers too are happy and benefiting more. Today reconciliation parties, like false generosity, are actually fake celebrations that may absolve settler anxiety and guilt. In this way these parties are rituals that are ultimately more for settler people.

Today colonization means celebration called reconciliation that will include only some Indigenous people because the Indigenous critical thinkers want nothing to do with celebrating their own oppression. Look around and you will most likely see the party goers are paid employees; look around and you will most likely see party goers who are seeking awards; look around and you will most likely see party goers who are looking for political appointments.

That said, if you need to attend a celebration to absolve your guilt, you can be sure there are Indigenous intellectuals who very well know you are complicit and they are hurt by your complicity. When you look at their faces you will see and feel their pain. Consider this transfer of their feelings the kindness and truth they offer.

Reconciliation will only be achieved when Indigenous Nations’ jurisdiction to their Land and Resources is respected. We only need to turn to the land that Canada’s parliament buildings squat on. For almost 250 years the Algonquin Anishinaabeg have been asking Canada to respect our rights through the framework of the Two Row Wampum Belt and the British and Western Great Lakes Covenant Chain Confederacy Wampum Belt constitutional framework. Despite our repeated request Canada is only offering the Algonquin in Ontario 1.3% of our territory, a $300 million buy-out, and is currently desecrating Creator’s Sacred Pipe known as Akikpautik and Akikodjiwan.

If you experience cognitive dissonance from this message this does not mean it is wrong.
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One day I hope to invite you to a real party that will not celebrate my oppression.

​© Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of Canada's land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com.

I have been hearing people offer the rationale that ‘all land is sacred’ as the excuse to desecrate land and waterscapes that are particularly sacred to the Algonquin Anishinaabeg. Intuitively most people are able to quickly realize that burial sites are particularly sacred and that the argument is poor.
 
In his book “God is Red: A Native View of Religion” the well-known and highly respected author, theologian, historian, and Indigenous activist Vine Deloria Jr. (1933-2005) offers important thoughts that can guide us in thinking through the desecration and destruction of so called development. Deloria offers us four categories of sacred places.
 
The first category involves land and waterscapes to which we attribute sanctity because it is a location where, within our known history, something of great importance took place there. One such example is the Gettysburg National Cemetery and the ground where the Twin Towers in New York City were once located. Another example is Wounded Knee, South Dakota. These places are considered sacred sites because of recent human activity.
 
Second, other lands are sacred not due to human events, but rather due to a higher power. These are land and waterscapes where people have a special experience and this experience is attributed to the sacred. Said another way, within a secular context there is an experience that is attributed to the holy. One example is the town of Buffalo Gap at the south eastern edge of the Black Hills of South Dakota which is the location where the buffalo first emerged in the spring and which marks the beginning of the Plains Indians’ ceremonial year.
 
Third, Deloria explains there are indeed locations of overwhelming holiness. At these places a higher power, on its own initiative, is revealed to human beings. Afterward this location and revelation is then preserved in story and shared for future generations to remember, revere, and direct them forward in a good way. Interestingly Deloria offers, “Indians who have never visited certain sacred sites nevertheless know of these places from the community knowledge, and they intuit this knowing to an essential part of their being” (271).
 
One such place is Akikpautik, the location where Creator placed the First Sacred Pipe, also known as the Great Sacred Pipe. The sacredness of this particular land and waterscape has been preserved and taught to Algonquin Anishinaabeg and settler allies by the late Grandfather William Commanda (Gehl 2018).
 
Lastly, Deloria offers there is a fourth category of sacred lands in that higher spiritual powers will always communicate with human beings of future. His point is we must always be open and ready to experience new revelations at new locations that will then become particularly sacred places. In this way Deloria values that Indigenous knowledge is alive, it growths, it is fluid, it is a verb, and it continues on into the future.
 
References and Additional Sources
 
Cicero, M. (2018). Condos on an Algonquin sacred site? Panels examines ongoing colonialism. Leveller. Retrieved from https://leveller.ca/2018/11/condos-on-an-algonquin-sacred-site/
 
Deloria, V. Jr. (1992). God is Red: A Native View of Religion. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing.
 
Dumont, A. (2014). Free the Falls. Retrieved from http://albertdumont.com/free-the-falls/
 
Gehl, L. (2018). Akikodjiwan: The Destruction of Canada’s Heart of Reconciliation. Watershed Sentinel. Retrieved from https://watershedsentinel.ca/articles/akikodjiwan/
 
Gehl, L., & Lambert, L. (2018). Reconciliation Really?: A Timeline of the Desecration of Akikodjiwan and Akikpautik, An Anishinaabeg. Leveller. Retrieved from https://leveller.ca/2018/03/reconciliation-really/
 
Lambert, L. (2016). Chaudière Falls is an Indigenous Cathedral. Anishinabek News. Retrieved from http://anishinabeknews.ca/2016/10/01/chaudiere-falls-is-an-indigenous-cathedral/
 
Neigh, S. (2017). Canada 150 and the violation of an Algonquin Anishinaabe sacred site. Rabble. Retrieved from http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/talking-radical-radio/2017/01/canada-150-and-violation-algonquin-anishinaabe-sacred-s
 
Pilon, J., & Boswell, R. (2015). Below the Falls; An Ancient Cultural Landscape in the Centre of (Canada’s National Capital Region) Gatineau. Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 39, 257-293.

​​​© Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com.

Akikpautik: Akik, means kettle or rock basin; Pautik, means cascade; tik, means branch or stick as in pipe stem; Pipe Bowl Falls; Great Sacred Pipe; Creator's First Sacred Pipe.

Indigenous place names, learning about them, and reclaiming them is a complex process for several reasons:
 
First, languages evolve and shift into different dialects as they move across the landscape and as they move across time. Another way to say this is a language consists of a series of contiguous dialects that moves across space and through time. What this means is, like Creation, the only constancy we can expect is change.
 
Second, many nations can and will have their own name for a particular land mark or waterscape that they can see or hear in the distance, and/or as they travel on a river/lake/ocean, or as they traverse around and by them within the traditional territory of a neighbouring nation.
 
Third, some people are of the thought that because their nation has a name for a particular land mark and/or waterscape feature that this alone implies Truth and ownership.
 
Fourth, many people are unable to value that different nations can in fact share a particular land and waterscape where no one nation actually owns it. Places are shared spaces.
 
Fifth, through power over strategies, such as colonization and cultural genocide, and the death of old time original language speakers, many Indigenous people are at a loss in remembering original place names and their meanings.
 
Sixth, in the contemporary context, the process of renaming land and waterscapes is mediated by power and economics where as such internalized oppression and lateral violence flourishes.
 
Seventh, some people think the renaming of a place can be settled by majority rule arguments when this process is more about power and oppression. It is well known that sometimes the most important knowledge rests with the minority. Critical theory teaches us this.
 
Eighth, many people are not critical thinkers or trained in critical theory where as such they are un-able to perceive nuance and slight differences and where similarity in words is perceived as the same meaning.
 
Ninth, many people engage in a process of linguistic essentialism as their way to discredit thinkers. To these people the argument is that language is the complete knowledge source of all things; that language holds the Truth of all things when in reality language is only one source of a nation’s knowledge.
 
Tenth, an entity can in fact have several names, and the same name can have different meanings. For example, synonyms for sweater are cardigan and pull over. And a boiler can be a metaphor for rapids, a cooking pot, or a dangerous nuclear reactor.
 
Note: While Akikpautik means Pipe Bowl Falls, Opwagun means Pipe. There is a difference in both the words and meaning; while Pipe Bowl Falls implies an un-articulated Pipe Bowl and Pipe Stem, the second implies a complete articulated Pipe.
 
Note: The Mohawk name for Akikpautik is kana:tsio and it means a boiling pot; a whirlpool in the Ottawa River, where the waterfall has eroded the rock below creating a depression into which the water spills and swirls, creating the boiling effect. (http://geolinguistics.ca/2018/02/03/save-the-falls/)
 
In the Anishinaabe storytelling tradition respect for subjectivity and introspection is crucial. In addition, historically Anishinaabeg inscribed stories and teachings into the land and waterscape as a part of their system of symbolic literacy and land memory.
 
I was fortunate to spend time with Algonquin Grandfather William Commanda during my doctoral work. As a PhD student my interests were regarding Algonquin land and resource rights and traditional knowledge. During our discussions he talked to me about the “Great Sacred Pipe” also known as Pipe Bowl Falls. Grandfather described to me how it was that the falls formed an almost perfect circle like a Pipe Bowl, how the mist rising from the Bowl represented smoke and prayers going up to Creator, and where the rainbows above the Bowl represented two sacred elements, namely Fire and Water or man and woman, coming together in the special act of procreation and Creation. He also talked about how it is that Wìsakedjàk’s, also known as Nanaboozhoo, footprints are found along the Asinabka shoreline. I was honoured to spend time with Grandfather and I hold this time dearly in my heart. Through Grandfather’s story I interpret Akikpautik as the land and waterscape where Creator placed the First Sacred Pipe.
 
In the Anishinaabeg knowledge tradition it is understood that morals such as respect and kindness came before all else. Seeking to discredit my use and understanding of what Akikpautik means, and seeking to discredit my respect for Grandfather’s Asinabka teaching and vision, solely based on linguistic essentialism really should be re-thought as I am not the enemy that keeps the Algonquin poor. Clearly my goal is situated within the Seventh Fire Prophecy in that I am picking up the pieces of knowledge that our ancestors left behind for us to articulate a better future for all things: Water, Trees, Mooz, and Humans.
 
And there is more …
 
The Algonquin Anishinaabe are entitled to live a good life off their land and resources, but Canada will not allow this to happen. Canada is afraid. Situated within the context where colonial Canada only provides small areas of employment and economic prosperity, what results is the Algonquin become at odds with one another. The issue between the Algonquin cannot be resolved through pro and con debates because the bottom line is if the Algonquin had what they were entitled to the debated issues would not exist.
 
Similarly, when settler allies step up to help a particular fraction of Algonquin they really are not the enemy as some people think they are, Canada is. It is Canada that is dividing the Algonquin, and it is Canada that is dividing the Algonquin and settler allies. We really need to think critically versus laterally, and we need to behave better than the way crabs do when placed in a bucket. Canada’s policies and laws will take us all down if we don’t get our acts together. Respect Algonquin and respect our allies, we need one another. We all need clean land, air, and water.
 
Links of interest:
 
https://soundcloud.com/mosaic-publication/dr-gehl-talks-about-construction-on-a-sacred-algonquin-island?fbclid=IwAR1Qg2IG3ejdqg2M0KYWUWH2pSbVWj3ui_BzUy0kR32tWusiJJ-uam9Eey8
 
https://cusjc.ca/mosaic/2018/11/23/indigenous-names-token-or-tribute/?fbclid=IwAR2A0c7udg3IC6MdsxVQjyswrUVCRjQ305A6szjqvWIK0iRXoqmnSF2w7WE
 
https://watershedsentinel.ca/articles/akikodjiwan/

​© Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com.

When it comes to Indigenous rights, it is part of Canada’s strategy to confuse its citizenry. Don’t be duped by the way Canada co-opts and re-defines terms.
 
The truth is Canada is not signing treaties nor is Canada’s newly proposed Recognition and Implementation of Rights Framework[1] at all rooted in reconciliation, nation-to-nation, or an equal sharing of lands and resources. Rather, Canada will continue to sign agreements that grossly and narrowly define Indigenous rights as Canada allows them to be. While Canada calls these agreements “modern treaties”, the reality is Canada continues to refuse to meet international standards regarding Indigenous rights, and thus continues to be a colonial and genocidal agent. Remember Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is unworkable.[2] Indeed Minister Carolyn Bennett should be embarrassed about her role in this.
 
When Justin Trudeau came to power as prime minister, it was in large part reactionary to the loathe many people felt for Stephen Harper. Regardless, for other people, Trudeau’s lofty feminist platform and promises of reconciliation and a new nation-to-nation relationship that included the implementation of the UNDRIP was immediately recognized for the lies they were. This was apparent when Trudeau promoted Deputy Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada Michael Wernick to the position of Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to Cabinet. With this move Trudeau promoted the highest ranking civil servant to an even higher position.[3]
 
To the wretchedness of many Indigenous people, it was in June 2016 when Trudeau divulged his thinking. He argued the federal government is the first order of government, the Provincial/Territorial governments the second, municipalities the third, whereas Indigenous government is the fourth and lowest order.[4] Clearly, Trudeau’s version of nation-to-nation was meaningless.[5]
 
In the House of Commons Trudeau stated his new Indigenous Recognition and Implementation of Rights Framework would “include new legislation and policy that would make the recognition and implementation of rights the basis for all relations between Indigenous Peoples and the federal government moving forward.” He said this new legislation, now set to be tabled in the new year, will “recognize Indigenous governments, and ensure rigorous, full and meaningful implementation of treaties and other agreements.”[6]
 
In line with lead colonial agent Trudeau, Bennett said following a co-development process with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) she plans to replace policies governing comprehensive claims and self-government.[7] But keep in mind here that the AFN does not represent all Indigenous people in Canada. Rather, it is a body of First Nation chiefs and their membership.
 
Justifiably, many Indigenous leaders are not happy with this approach. Chief Judy Wilson has argued, it makes more sense to implement UNDRIP as the new framework, rather than what Bennett is pushing, adding UNDRIP is the right direction for Canada to take.[8]
 
Indigenous policy advisor and leading Indigenous thinker Russell Diabo adds, the Trudeau government is developing and domesticating a Canadian definition of UNDRIP to further colonize Indigenous Peoples.[9] He adds, the development of this framework has operated in secret, in a top-down process, and with particular organizations, chiefs, and participants. In taking this approach Canada has selected people who are willing to consent. Chiefs and people, for example, who are under the oppressors funding regimes. Diabo argues this framework is designed to terminate our existing sovereignty, self-determination, collective Aboriginal Title and Rights, and Treaty Rights as Indigenous Nations.[10]
 
Thohahente Weaver, a First Nations band member of Kenhteke, the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, and outspoken critic, agrees with Diabo arguing, we offered the new comers peace and friendship. We presented them with our Wampum Belts, a traditional governance structure that collectively codify a good and honourable relationship, yet Canada continues to impose our extermination. That is what this new framework is about: The end of Indigenous jurisdiction.[11]
 
Diabo argues through the new framework, and through the fourth level of government, Indigenous rights will be domesticated and defined under federal jurisdiction. Canada will do this by financially coercing and co-opting Indian Act bands to become federally recognized as an Indigenous government. He adds it is important to know that this new framework only concerns Indian Act reserve lands, which consists of only 0.2% of our broader traditional territories. It is in this way that Diabo argues this new framework is an extension of the 1969 White Paper on Indian Policy that called for converting Indian reserves into fee simple ownership and private property.[12] No doubt Trudeau Jr is completing his daddy’s work first proposed in the White Paper.
 
Clearly Indigenous self-government means more than the administration of our own property on reserves. It must mean meeting international standards of Indigenous self-determination which means Canada must respect our rights to our own land and resources so Indigenous Nations can build our own structures of governance and law, and our own institutions such as child care agencies, schools, hospitals, laws, courts, and policing. After all the land and the gifts it provides are ours because we are the Indigenous people to these lands, not the settler people and their descendants.
 
In his book “Reconciliation Manifesto: Recovering the Land, Rebuilding the Economy” Arthur Manual said Canada’s greatest betrayal of this century belongs to Justin Trudeau for the lies and manipulation that he campaigned on, that being that UNDRIP would be fully implemented once he was elected as prime minister. Adding Jody Wilson-Raybould is also a devastating disappointment to Indigenous people.
 
As an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley, a land and waterscape that due to processes of colonization I have never been afforded to live within, nothing speaks to me more about Trudeau’s lies and manipulation than the reality that Canada continues to stand still on their offer of 1.3% of our territory and a one-time buy-out of $300 million in the Algonquin of Ontario land claim. Trudeau’s Liberal government has not moved on this offer. It is through offers such as this and through the new Rights Recognition Framework that Canada’s genocide will continue. Nothing has changed, just more co-optation of the terms relied on.
 
Canada’s Parliament squats on Algonquin land![13]
 
[1]https://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2018/02/14/government-canada-create-recognition-and-implementation-rights-framework
[2]https://aptnnews.ca/2016/07/12/justice-minister-jody-wilson-raybould-says-adopting-undrip-into-canadian-law-unworkable/
[3]https://aptnnews.ca/2016/01/26/opinion-appointment-of-michael-wernick-as-top-federal-bureaucrat-in-ottawa-should-be-a-concern-for-aboriginal-peoples-especially-first-nations/?fbclid=IwAR17T-EscM85Qy-2WX19R1AiipoOej6kKo-LBNLEOOkFXUOCbkNdCdG19jM
[4]http://www.cpac.ca/en/programs/headline-politics/episodes/47793606?fbclid=IwAR2v3R9nFRMmHi2pYlyt1AkTpK5eyw5D-vI8FFt1Sgd_m9NWGMyP5zUHSzs
[5]https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5acc137850a54f99f58eb19a/t/5bd903d54ae237468519721e/1540948955470/Diabo+FPIC+Conference+Oct+25+18.pdf
[6]https://aptnnews.ca/2018/12/04/trudeau-to-address-first-nation-chiefs-amid-growing-opposition-to-indigenous-rights-framework/?fbclid=IwAR2uIVhI3_s60cG91RCclpNESBbpD4tFBQ0ymMpBlRiQ4oeioiP8mnnItF4
[7]https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/carolyn-bennett-specific-claims-overhaul-1.4930894?fbclid=IwAR1xehpJBH_afyXAEyOePMbAnDPBimeMEETp2Fykx6n3fSfXdTwe1zyqQgA
[8]https://aptnnews.ca/2018/12/04/trudeau-to-address-first-nation-chiefs-amid-growing-opposition-to-indigenous-rights-framework/?fbclid=IwAR2uIVhI3_s60cG91RCclpNESBbpD4tFBQ0ymMpBlRiQ4oeioiP8mnnItF4
[9]https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5acc137850a54f99f58eb19a/t/5bd903d54ae237468519721e/1540948955470/Diabo+FPIC+Conference+Oct+25+18.pdf
[10]https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5acc137850a54f99f58eb19a/t/5bd904268985831ed03ba163/1540949031200/DOL+TC+INM+Brochure+Sept+23+FINAL.pdf
[11]http://www.windspeaker.com/news/windspeaker-news/youth-rally-on-afn-takes-framework-message-to-afn-assembly/?fbclid=IwAR26fdEGv8aZhM7_UFPpZfof9v8AriNgVGj58mTyYabvKZM_0yH-Cj5QS84
[12]https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5acc137850a54f99f58eb19a/t/5bd90455758d468d5107cff0/1540949077581/DOL+TBR+INM+Backgrounder+Sept+7+18+FINAL+%2B.pdf
[13]https://www.lynngehl.com/black-face-blogging/algonquin-anishinaabe-land-acknowledgement

​© Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com.

​In the Anishinaabe world it was from Creator’s Dream that all was created. During the First Order of Creation the four sacred elements of Water, Rock, Wind, and Fire were brought into existence; during the Second Order of Creation the plant nations were brought into existence; during the Third Order of Creation the animal nations were brought into existence. Once all else was here on our Mother Earth, doing all the things they do, and once everything was beautiful and in its place, Creator began to lower humans to the Earth. At this time, during the Fourth Order, humans were gifted with free will and the intelligence of the mind.

​Within the Anishinaabe tradition it is valued that all the beings before humans are more intelligent. We value that Water, a member of the First Order, was born knowing what to do; and trees, although a little bit further from Creator and born in the Second Order, also hold a lot of Creator’s knowledge and wisdom, thus they know how to stand straight with integrity. We also value that although the Animal beings are born in the Third Order, who hold less knowledge than the tree nation yet more of Creator’s knowledge than humans do, are our teachers in the way they carefully and lovingly teach their young. And we value that humans born in the Fourth Order, despite the gift of our minds, require even more teachings than all the other beings. We value that we are only human and not as intelligent as all that came before. Within this understanding I know I am only a woman.
 
As many people know one of the main differences between Indigenous people and our knowledge philosophy and most, if not all, settler Canadians, is that Indigenous people value the Original Dream and Creator’s Laws. Another way to understand this difference is to value that Indigenous assumptions, beliefs, teachings, and rituals are intentionally and consciously designed around natural features on the Earth and the knowledge inherent. This serves to keep us rooted within Creator’s Law and the naturalistic tradition, also known as the naturalistic paradigm. The short story is that the naturalistic paradigm places natural law at its core whereas humans are placed after, but at the same time within, the broader context of all the other beings such as the four sacred elements.

​The humanistic paradigm is different from the naturalistic paradigm. The humanistic paradigm places humans above the natural world and above all the other beings versus after all else and within it. This includes all human creations such as our governance and economic traditions and this includes brick and mortar structures. These entities are all situated above the natural world. They are not designed to work with Creation and natural law; rather they are designed to control and monopolize the natural world. While humans are smart and able to create amazing things with the gift of our minds; our egos, greed, selfishness, and arrogance are the barriers to respecting the importance of the natural world and all that came before our arrival. This unexamined default way of being is what is meant by the Anishinaabe saying, “humans are pitiful”.
 
As we are all beginning to learn the humanistic paradigm and all the inventions that emerge from it, is devastating our collective land and waterscapes, so much so that our water is polluted with multiple layers of different kinds of pollution: debris such as plastic and other forms of garbage; organic and inorganic chemical compounds such as dioxins, heavy metals, and pharmaceuticals; biological and sewage waste; and radioactive particles. Again, this is the result of human beings placing their needs and desires over and above all the beings within the natural world, which is a particular kind of arrogance over Creator’s Law. Creator, I think, must be sad to have gifted humans with a mind that so quickly defaults to all that is inherent in the Wendigo: Ego, greed, selfishness, and arrogance. I know I am and so are many of my friends.
 
The problem in coming to value our own complicity in the destruction of the natural world is that most people are suffering from “cognitive paradigm paralysis”. What I mean by this is that many humans are unable to think conceptually about the paradigm they live within, and thus unable to think critically about the limitations of that very paradigm ‒ again the humanistic paradigm ‒ and value that there is a better and more intelligent option waiting for them to shift into. The culprit is human cognition. The mind is not as smart as we think it is.

A telling example of people’s inability to understand that they are stuck within the limiting and irrational humanistic paradigm is the fact that when a brick and mortar Church, Mosque, or Synagogue is vandalized, people are disgusted and outraged and they quickly refer to it as a “hate crime”; yet when a natural sacred place that has a 5,000 year old history, such as Akikpautik and Akikodjiwan, located within the natural world of the land and waterscape of the Ottawa River is further desecrated, these same people are unable to shift conceptually and thus value that this too is indeed a hate crime. This inability to shift conceptually into the naturalistic paradigm and truly value Creation and all that came before humans, continues to harm all beings not just Indigenous nations and peoples.
 
Akikpautik and Akikodjiwan are the very land and waterscapes where Creator placed the First Sacred Pipe, the ultimate ritual and ceremony of reconciliation. The Spirit of the West Wind gifted his son Nanaboozo with the Sacred Pipe for fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and citizens of all nations to assist in reconciliation. Sadly, Akikpautik and Akikodjiwan are now slated for further desecration through the construction of Windmill’s Zibi condominium and retail complex, a so-called One Planet Community (now under Theia Partners and Dream Unlimited Corporation). What is particularly bizarre is that this desecration is happening just upstream from Canada’s Parliament.
 
While I understand that I am only a woman brought to this Earth after all else and thus I am less intelligent, many know I have been on a long learning journey piecing together what Canada has done, and continues to do, to Indigenous nations and peoples. What I now know for sure is the most effective way to destroy a people is to destroy their sacred beliefs, stories, and places. It is a complete abomination that the further desecration of this sacred place of reconciliation is happening during the time of the Liberal government’s reconciliation and feminist platform.
 
Here are a few resources if you wish to learn more about the sacredness of Akikpautik and Akikodjiwan: 

• https://watershedsentinel.ca/articles/akikodjiwan/
• http://anishinabeknews.ca/2015/05/26/opinion-lambert-on-free-the-chaudiere-falls-and-save-the-islands/
• http://albertdumont.com/dreamkeepers-politicians-chaudiere-falls/
• http://muskratmagazine.com/celebrating-canadas-150th-featuring-the-desecration-of-an-indigenous-sacred-place/

• http://albertdumont.com/asinabka-impossible-to-buy/
• http://asinabka.com/​ 

​© Lynn Gehl, Ph.D. is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley. In 2017 she won an Ontario Court of Appeal case on sex discrimination in The Indian Act, and is an outspoken critic of the Algonquin land claims process. Recently she published Claiming Anishinaabe: Decolonizing the Human Spirit.  You can reach her through, and see more of her work, at www.lynngehl.com