Click here to read the full text of - "Letter from Innu People to Queen Elizabeth II" dated 1997 (since we are having a history lesson here):
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/41/052.html
This is a partial quote:
"The Labrador part of Nitassinan was claimed as British soil until very recently (1949), when without consulting us, your government ceded it to Canada. We have never, however, signed any treaty with either Great Britain or Canada. Nor have we ever given up our right to self-determination.
The fact that we have become financially dependent on the state which violates our rights is a reflection of our desperate circumstances. It does not mean that we acquiesce in those violations.
We have been treated as non-People, with no more rights than the caribou on which we depend and which are now themselves being threatened by NATO war exercises and other so-called 'development'. In spite of this, we remain a People in the fullest sense of the word. We have not given up, and we are now looking to rebuild our pride and self esteem. "
I can be quite cruel and biting when it comes to some pompus crooked politician, but it caused me sadness to read some of my fellow Freepers cruel comments about suicidal children.
There is so much that is beyond a group, much less a child, to control - the grinding wheels of distant decisions has resulted in children's deaths.
I can only learn more, learn about the cruelty of the Taliban, learn about these tribal people caught in something beyond their control and pray for them.
I pray that a miracle visits them and their spirit is renewed with hope.