my native rights message for critique

[David Dalton]

I just posted that I edited the main messages page of
my Salmon on the Thorns web page.

But I also edited the UN/derived messages page
http://www.nfld.com/~dalton/un.html some, though
I still need to condense it a bit more.

As part of that I have a native rights message which I ask you to
read and comment on both editorially and for content. I plan to
edit it to reduce rambling and after I read the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/ga_61-295/ga_61-295.html ,
and may edit it more after I come out of my low years,
which I hope will be soon. It is:

15. The rights of those with a long (and continuous during that
length, though note the stuff on displacement below) ancestral
connection to the land must be respected particularly if they are good
stewards of that land, and this perhaps applies most to native people
who as a people have been living on the land (not necessarily with
dwellings in always exactly the same spot, sometimes they were and maybe
still are nomadic to some extent within that territory, or just have
hunted, fished and trapped in that territory) for 300 years or more. Any
who have been or who are in the future (hopefully none in the future)
displaced from their territory after holding it in permanent settlement
within the region [not necessarily houses or other dwellings in the
exact same place] for 300 years or more should get such respect with
regard to management of the land and return of the land to their control
if feasible and if not some form of compensation if none has already
been given to them. But immigrants who are respectful of the land and
can be in harmony with the native peoples also have some rights but I
hope native peoples will be consulted a bit more regarding immigration
and however that immigration will not always be just to the megacities,
in Canada (and that may apply elsewhere as well). Also of course some
native nations are technically sovereign and in partnership with Canada
though they may be on the geographic area most in the world still know
as Canada, but eventually should have their own representation at the UN
or in world government should the UN evolve to a weak world government
[one more level on top of municipal, state/province, national (including
native nations) with division of duties]. I suggest there could be one
native umbrella council (so in North America that could be a combination
meeting of the US region Council of Grand Chiefs and the Canadian region
Assembly of First Nations) for each continent that has aboriginals
(which generally implies displaced individuals so I don't think blacks
in Africa are considered aboriginals) that would send a representative
to world government and report bck to all the native nations on that
continent, but that may depend a bit on population and the number of
representatives globally to the world government. There should also be a
Romany representative to such a world government.

--
David Dalton dal...@nfld.com http://www.nfld.com/~dalton (home page)
http://www.nfld.com/~dalton/nf.html Newfoundland&Labrador Travel & Music
http://www.nfld.com/~dalton/dtales.html Salmon on the Thorns (mystic page)
"Here I go again...back into the flame" (Sarah McLachlan)