Raise the Hammer

"Why is assimilation no good, other than some may not desire it? Is there an inherent bad in moving toward a common mind? What if we urban non-natives all of a sudden saw the benefits you speak of and wanted to assimilate in the other direction, toward a native worldview? JR Saul thinks we already have, to a degree."

Assimilation isn't about choice. Natives have had the option for centuries, and although most (51%, so barely) live in cities, that doesn't mean they've given up their identities as natives. Assimilation is about the destruction of cultures, almost always indigenous ones, and that starts straying very dangerously into the territory of genocide. A diversity of cultures is not a bad thing.

Moving toward a common mind, historically, has always come with brutality and oppression. No matter what the "enlightened" purpose. Rome, the Vatican, the British Empire - all committed unspeakable injustices while hoping to create a world in their image. Canada's own history of assimilationist policies have done exactly the same things - Residential Schools, redistributing native kids to white families in the 1960s, or all the laws which would strip a native of status if a man became a doctor or lawyer, or a woman married a white man. Would the whole world embracing an enlightened worldview be a bad thing? I'd question how enlightened any worldview is which would desire it.

There is no way Six Nations would ever allow all of Hamilton to join their nations. Get any indigenous person started on how they feel about white people trying to adopt their culture...you'll get an earful. And in any case, no one tribe ever ruled Canada, and trying to restore a "native" Canada by getting us all to join one or a few tribes en-masse would be laughable. Indigenous societies work very well for a lot of reasons, but only because they are the product of vast stretches of careful adaptation. It isn't something you can just pick up without years of work. If anyone does want to be a part of Six Nations, it isn't all that hard. Lots of white people are involved in many positive ways - but it means being humble, respectful and helpful - just like anywhere else. I'd wholeheartedly welcome any move which let native societies accept immigrants ON THEIR TERMS, as I suspect others would as well - there's a rich tradition of it in Canadian history. Blood quantum is a horrible way of establishing community membership.

If non-native people truly want to embrace a more "native" worldview (and there are certain widesperad patterns across tribes which one could point to, like autonomous communities or respect for the environment), we need to change our own society. To suggest that we live with a "Native" worldview is pure postmodernist semantics. We're living in one of the most wasteful and destructive cultures in history, and no matter how enlightened our ideas sound, they'll always come off as hypocritical when seen from the perspective of the 90% of the world which has next to nothing by our standards.