I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Canadians are just about the coolest people on this planet. Back bacon, hockey and legalized prostitution are just the TIP of the iceberg, too.

Thursday marked the first day of the new Canadian province, Nunavut.

For those of you who think the creation of a new Canadian state is about as exciting as watching ice cream melt or a dry Veishea, let me assure you that this is a great thing.

Before you ask, “What the hell is Nunavut?” Let me tell what the hell that is.

Nunavut (Noo-nah-voot) is a sign of genuine respect and reconciliation on the part of the government of Canada toward the Inuit (not to be referred to as Eskimo in today’s column … no way) people who make up the majority of the province’s population.

According to the Associated Press, Nunavut is made up of 60 percent of what used to be land in the Northwest Territories. Eighty-five percent of the population of Nunavut are Inuit.

Since the ’70s, activists have petitioned the Canadian government for a state in which the Inuit people could govern themselves in a traditional manner.

Now, for the first time in the history of the New World, Aboriginal people will be given a real chance at governing themselves and determining for themselves what their future will be.

According to Tagak Curley, who has been at the forefront of the movement since the beginning, “Our forefathers dreamed of one day regaining responsibility, ownership and accountability.

They dreamed of a leadership that would incorporate Inuit traditional values into a modern style of government.”

Canadian Indian Affairs Minister Jane Stewart said: “This is proof that we are committed to reconciling aboriginal rights in Canada. We aren’t stuck in the past, we are prepared to evolve … I can’t tell you the sense of pride this gives me as a Canadian.”

When you consider the Inuit have only been asking for a huge chunk of Canada to call their own, 20 years or so isn’t too bad of a wait.

In the United States, Indians ask for basic human rights and the ability to govern themselves all the time.

Technically, Indians are supposed to have sovereign rights to self government as stipulated by treaty law, but it doesn’t really work out that way.

A lot of Americans would be surprised at what is “supposed’ to be for Indians.

This is especially true for the “I saw ‘Dances with Wolves’ 10 times and loved it!” set; or for those who buy T-shirts with highly-romanticized drawings of Indian women on them who look more like tiny-nosed versions of Stevie Nicks with bad dye jobs than Sacajawea.

Or for people who see “Pocahontas” and get lost in the imaginary romance of what is essentially the story of a fat little 13-year-old who ended up dying disease-ridden and alone as an oddity in England — no singing raccoons or Mel Gibson voice-overs.

I think the United States should do something to show respect for Indians other than putting crudely offensive caricatures on baseball caps and doing the tomahawk chop.

Have any of you actually considered how offensive the Washington Redskins are?

There is about as much honor in that epithet as there would be the Washington Whiteys, the Houston Honkeys or the Chicago Rednecks.

I never could understand people who couldn’t understand why Indians don’t like to be redskins.

I mean, do we really need a Nebraska? Or TWO Dakotas, for that matter.

We wouldn’t even need to change the name of most states since they are already mostly Indian names, but we could formalize things.

I think the bit with the Black Hills in it was SUPPOSED to be Indian territory anyway until gold was discovered.

Then suddenly it was all, “We need to kill these people off for their own protection and put the tame ones on dried up plots and beat their kids into submission until they get Christianized.”

Then when Eisenhower had the chance to take care of the Indian problem, it was all about shipping them off to major cities where easy access to alcohol and white women would help them to breed themselves out of existence through assimilation.

Yes sir, the Canadians are definitely one up on us this day, my friends, and with the 20th century screeching to a halt, it looks like we can count on another 100 years of the same old rhetoric and double talk.

Let’s just hope we don’t have another 100 years of Costner movies about Indians.

---

Greg Jerrett is a graduate student in English from Council Bluffs. He is opinion editor of the Daily.