As most Canadians are no doubt aware, many victims of the residential-school system are receiving financial compensation for years of physical, sexual and cultural abuse they suffered at the hands of the government and God's representatives on Earth.
For most of the 20th century, generations of aboriginal kids were taken from their families and farmed out to big institutions run by a hodgepodge of religious denominations, often Roman Catholic, Anglican or United Church.
Most people - native and non-native - would agree that this was a grievous and abominable practice. Or so I thought.
Recently, I wrote a column about the aboriginal "day of protest" held on June 29 in which I said that "we demand the federal government apologize to survivors for over half a century of abuse at the hands (and other parts of the body) of residential schools. There are just some things children should not learn in school."
Like me, many native writers believe that this apology and the compensation package are long overdue. But evidently we are wrong.
One reader had a spectacularly different perspective on the issue. In a letter to the editor of the Peterborough Examiner, Zoltan Bank wrote: "Many residential-school residents are now receiving cash settlements for being sexually victimized by a few bad-apple priests/teachers. What is missing are some letters from native Indians who praise the white man for their generosity financially and otherwise to educate them when they were children.
"Many of them have found good jobs over the years after being educated free by the white man. It is dishonest and not fair; all we hear from them are the few sexual cases being compensated but nobody thanks us for their free education. Our ancestors did not have to do it; it was due to their good religious hearts."
Could this man be right? Are we overlooking the obvious? Over all, are we better off? Was it worth going through this attempt to destroy Indian culture (not to mention all the sexual abuse) just to get a good enough job to afford supersized fries?
Perhaps before deciding that, it would help to look at how other ethnic cultures have fared in the exploitation wars.
For example, many black people are still angry about the slavery thing. That was 50 years ago. I'm sure many white people at that time, if not today, would have considered kidnapping tens of thousands of Africans for plantation duty as merely an early form of a "make-work" project. Besides, what was there to do in Africa? They were all probably out of work and just hanging out.
I have heard rumblings that descendents of those slaves also are trying to create a groundswell for compensation. Why? They had a roof over their head. They had food. They were given something to do. So they had to relocate - life's rough.
Come to think of it, this whole compensation thing could really backfire on native people. In 1876, when Lakota, Cheyenne and various other disgruntled warriors wiped out General Custer and the U.S. 7th, did they set the stage for a reverse compensation claim? The descendants of the more than 250 dead soldiers could sue for emotional distress and demand cash (as well as an apology). Stranger things have happened.
As for Canada, look at the legions of Jesuits who came to the New World in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries determined to spread the word of God. Some of them got a little hot under the collar when they met with resistance. And a bonfire. Maybe the Catholic Church could demand payback from the Iroquois and other natives for the trauma the Jesuits suffered.
After all, it could be a case of turnabout being fair play - what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
So, who knows? Maybe Zoltan has a case.
Don't get us wrong. We do praise the white man for the education he gave us. We praise him for:
Educating the native lawyers who have allowed us to pursue and win this case.
Educating our doctors and psychiatrists, who are helping us to recover.
Educating us to write about what has happened, what is happening and what should happen.
Thanks, Zoltan.
One final note: Is it just me or do other people find it odd that the majority of churches have apologized for what they did to aboriginal people, but they don't have to pay them a cent? Meanwhile, the federal government refuses to apologize, yet has to cough up all the compensation dough.
It must be like court. If you plead guilty, you get a lesser sentence. If you don't, you have to do stiffer time.
White people are wacky.
Drew Hayden Taylor is a playwright, humourist and filmmaker from Curve Lake First Nation, near Peterborough, Ont.
CORRECTION
Canadian churches that took part in the operation of Indian residential schools will contribute a total amount approaching or equal to $100-million in money and services under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, in addition to amounts that church organizations have already paid under previous settlements. Incorrect information appeared in The Globe and Mail of Aug. 25.