Letters
February 3rd 2010
Re: “Being aboriginal is not an occupation” by Brian Rice (Jan 14, page 9)
This letter is in response to Being aboriginal is not an occupation, published January 13th 2010.
I choose to make a brief response to Dr. Brian Rice’s column, “Being Aboriginal is not an occupation,” printed in your Jan. 14, 2010 edition. Here is the gist of Dr. Rice’s comments, and I quote:
Here in Manitoba working at the University of Manitoba, there used to be a person that called himself Sakoieta Widrick. Sakoieta was the name of a famous Seneca chief in the 18th century. In spite of a few disgruntled people who searched to see if he had any Mohawk ancestry and found none, no one even checked to see if he was legitimately Mohawk. Today, thanks to his wife, who is an aboriginal, and several Six Nations members who have also given him the benefit of the doubt, he teaches at Brock University without a degree and without any Mohawk pedigree.
Dr. Rice damages his integrity as a professor who is supposed to make sure of his facts before he puts them forth. I am sorry he chose not to do so in this instance. Yet he chose to put forth several untruths as part of his post that I found surprising.
His reason for doing so is questionable but I leave it to him to answer for it. Here however are the facts:
I am a mixed blood man of Mohawk, Seneca and German ancestry. I come from New York State but have lived in Canada for the last 35 years.
I have no status here in Canada because Canada does not honor the status of American-born Indians as it should according to the Jay Treaty of 1794. The United States does and that is why status Indians born in Canada have their rights honored in the United States and they can live and work there freely.
I am a citizen of North America as a Mohawk. I also have an Associate in Arts degree, a Bachelor’s degree and am working on a Master’s degree in Aboriginal Education. I am a member of the Six Nations Mohawk Longhouse and also speak and teach my own Mohawk language. I also have documentation to this effect.
I wish Dr. Rice well in his pursuits of higher learning and sharing of accurate knowledge.
This letter appeared in Volume 64, Number 18 of The Uniter, published February 4th 2010.
