Blue-eyed gold-digger

Vincent J. Curtis

22 June 22

RE: Lawsuit on behalf of off-reserve Indigenous children approved.  Canadian Press news story by Brenna Owen, published in the Hamilton Spectator 21 June22.

Cheyenne Stonechild and her lawsuit would be impossible but for the zeitgeist of today.  Comely, blue-eyed, hair reddish-brown, she is genetically European, and presents about as aboriginal as I do.  Yet, legally, she is aboriginal; Cree, yet born and raised off reserve, further attenuating a claim to being “indigenous.”  And that’s what she’s suing about.

Cheyenne Stonechild, whose name is so perfect it makes me suspicious, was taken from her mother by child welfare and raised in the children’s aid system.  (If her name were Carole Stone or Charlotte Macintosh she’s be far less plausible.)  Her complaint is that she was deprived of a Cree upbringing.  She alleges she was deprived of her Cree language and Cree culture.  She was deprived of her identity as a “Cree woman.”

Only the zeitgeist of the age could tolerate such presumption, and stupidity - and such an obvious play for money.  In the first place, her identity is “Cheyenne Stonechild,” not “Cree woman,” of whom there must be thousands.  Nobody is born into this world with a promise of being raised in a politically favorable language and culture.  Why not sue over not having been raised in a Chinese culture by rich parents?

You don’t get to choose your parents, where you’re born, and your upbringing can sometimes suck.  But you’re alive, with a life you can make something of yourself.  Stomehild can’t be bothered to learn Cree and adopt Cree ways.  She’s rather sue the government for a lifetime’s income.

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