Douglas Mercer
October 9 2024
Proving yet again for anyone with small lingering doubts that when it came to the Red Man on this continent we should have rustled up the possies, hunted and tracked them down like rapid dogs, and wiped them out to the last brave, squaw, and child. I will concede that extermination is not the popular position nowadays, and I will admit that compared to the negros and the Jews and the mass number of mestizos the headdress wearers might seem like a thorn in our side rather than a dagger in our heart, but nevertheless I hold with my view. First off it would have been rather easy as by the end they were a rag tag element who were resorting to hail many expedients such as that infamous ghost dance where, seeing that they had been beaten and beaten badly, they took to some hopping up and down reminiscent of those jigs that the negros did while strumming the banjo in the slave quarters. Needless to say it was all very ineffectual and all rather embarrassing, and as such they would have been easy picking in terms of picking them off. And had we would not be subject to those egregious land acknowledgments that rub the decent White man the wrong way, the land forfeiture, the preening in the universities about so called “stolen land,” the brown congresswoman saying this is occupied territory, the eyesores of the kitschy casinos, and all the welfare and upkeep we have to pay for them, and the general whining and wailing that they had a “pristine” culture that was destroyed by all of our gleaming progress, and them telling us we cannot use a perfectly good world such as squaw, as in the good English sentence that squaw squatted out another papoose which will be on public assistance before you can say moccasin. But some weakling might say: is to kill not a sin? Well, maybe maybe not but you can be sure of one thing. This land was soaked in blood long before the Americas were a gleam in Christopher Columbus’ eye and Indians were scalping, raping, torturing, and killing each other long before they saw anyone a whiter shade of pale every lightened their door. That is if they had anything to say about it (they did not) it would have been us instead of them.
“The organization representing Canada’s doctors has issued a formal apology for the harms the medical profession has caused Indigenous Peoples. The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) made the apology Wednesday (September 18 2024) at a ceremony in Victoria, attended by representatives of First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples. CMA president Dr. Joss Reimer said the organization was deeply ashamed for the deplorable racism, discrimination and physical and psychological harms Indigenous people have faced as a result of the actions and inactions of physicians both historically and today. To Indigenous Peoples living in Canada, we apologize to you, we are sorry, we are sorry we have lost your trust and the harms that you, your ancestors, your families and your communities have experienced.”
The historical irony here runs deep. The merciless savages had their medicine man or as they are post-styled today “traditional healers” and as all the good little stenographers of the ruling elite will tell you today the medicine man was exclusively concerned with matters spiritual not physical ailments; that is because to the Indian the body was a dark mystery and when one fell ill the sum and substance of their remedy was to don multicolored headdress, jump up and down for no purpose, and utter a few meaningless syllables. It’s not the Mayo Clinic but perhaps once upon a moon it served as some kind of suggestible placebo effect and that nasty rash or sore went away. Of course the name “medicine man” has a lot of cachet today as it seems so close to the earth, and the stupid of today assume that anything an Indigenous did had to be sacred and holy when in fact the only thing a medicine man ever “cured” was a community of its reason. It was the equivalent of exorcising demons from the sick but all it really was a schtick and sick enough; it made the Indians feel good that one of their own had his ear to the ground and was subliminally in touch with the Great Spirit In The Sky but as for results they were nil. So in between bouts of beating their kids and drinking the whisky it is the Indians now who should be thanking and worshipping the White man for helping them out and brining cutting-edge science to their physical travails; they will of course avail themselves of the science but as to the thank you, no one should hold his breath.
“We acknowledge there are ripple effects on future generations. We take ownership of the CMA’s history and we are committed to righting our wrongs and rebuilding our relationship on a foundation of trust, accountability and reciprocity. The said association conducted a review of its records regarding the treatment of Indigenous Peoples as a part of its commitment to reconciliation. CMA board member and Mi’kmaw physician Dr. Paula Cashin said that research had revealed how the association contributed to systemically embedding and upholding anti-Indigenous racism in Canada. Examples included the racially segregated Indian hospital system, where Indigenous patients received substandard and unsafe care. Patients were subjected to abuse, experimental treatments and forced and coerced sterilization.”
Is there any sight sorrier than the White man saying he is sorry for White Greatness—for that is what this amounts to. We came to this wilderness of a continent on which the Indians had been wandering aimlessly for some 13,000 years and all they had to show for it was some rudimentary burial mounds, some false cosmogony, pointless rituals, some fanciful myths and that great animal genocide. Not much to show for themselves and if anyone should apologize for anything it is they who should apologize for living; and for slowing down what was an inexorable progress in this land; we wanted only to build roads and towns and flourishing life but from time to time we had to take time out from our civilizational inventiveness and wrangle up a small army to go shoot them in the head, not to mention all the times the vile creatures would lie in wait and sneak attack our settlements and slaughter our people all the while warbling weird war whoops; it seems the Sioux were always circling and it was no environment for a young White girl to grow up as a lady, and anything we did to stave it off was more than justified; it was pure necessity. But one will have to wait long to hear that story anywhere but here; the Indian knows when it comes to the game of guilt most White people can’t think or see straight and all you have to do is mention small pox blankets and they will start blubbering like babies and weeping like women. It’s a racket and a particularly transparent and dishonest one at that but let no one say it has not paid off handsomely for them.
“The association also acknowledged that physicians’ participation in systemic racism through the use of outdated, racist terms, and accepting racist, colonial and paternalistic attitudes toward Indigenous Peoples. It said many Indigenous people have suffered mistreatment and lack of care, leading to ongoing health issues and death in the present day. Jimmy Durocher, a Métis elder and former president of the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan, said the CMA’s apology and acknowledgement of historical wrongs was a crucial first step to real reconciliation. The legacy of colonization has left scars on our people that can be seen to this day. Although Canadians believe healthcare is a fundamental human right. Indigenous peoples have consistently been met with routine discrimination at the hands of medical professionals in Canada. That is a truth. We have to have truth before we can have reconciliation."
Given our magisterial history and our gleaming future stories like this are trifles and froth on the waves; they need to keep this propaganda going long after it has grown risible to anyone paying attention; but it appears they still have the public in their grasp and any of those on the right who grumble about it will have to caveat their grumblings with a concession to their predicate: they will itemize the list of grievances and they will acknowledge each and every one; all they will say is that was a long time ago that the White man was so baleful and we have learned our lesson and now we want the Red Man to just like everyone else; it’s a mollycoddle and weak tea argument which says bygone should be bygones and a version of Rodney King’s philosophy of why can’t we all get just get along; they will timidly say that perhaps the statements at public events that the land does not belong to us should just be a small and simple sorry and not so dramatic. But there’s the thing: bygone are never bygones they are not even bygone; we should remember this history with all our might and main but see it aright; our history is not one of keeping the Red Man down, the Red Man was never up; it was an epic of drive and undaunted courage and beautiful strength in the face of the hazards of life; that story is on the outs now but it needs to be remembered and told simply because it is the truth. As for the Red Man and his various mouthpieces in the world press that story would boggle their minds, so thoroughly have they been inculcated in and swallowed the lie. To them they were not the pointless people who besmirched a continent; they are the rightful owners just because they happened to wander in one day and wander in first. But no land is anyone’s, you possess only what you can defend. We too now have lost this land in a long slow process of subversion due to depredations from without and weakness from within but you don’t see us whining about it; you see us in the backcountry carving for ourselves alone and our descendants; and remembering the past and planning for the future all the while.
