An Open Letter To Ken Bear Chief

Is it really wrong for a 'white' person to rally to the side of Native Americans?

Photo of Ken Bear Chief: MySpace

(DAYTONA BEACH, FL) - Following is an Open Letter To Ken Bear Chief:

Dear Ken:

It's now a year or two since you appeared on Kevin Annett's blogtalk radio show "Hidden From History." On that occasion the principal discussion centered around your work as a paralegal and point man for a law firm in Yakima, Washington, working tirelessly to organize native people in order to pursue class action suits against the churches (backstopped by the government) which had visited so much pain, suffering and outright criminal atrocity on your people. You continue in that work today.

I don't need to sketch in Kevin's background in order to illustrate both why you were asked to appear on that program, but also to suggest that - while initially Kevin's work was primarily in Canada, the cause you both serve has no borders, and it would appear logical that the two of you, if not working together, should at least be cognizant, respectful and supportive of each other. So it comes as a surprise to learn that in various media, including print and radio, you have been highly dismissive and openly critical of Kevin's work and his character. Strange.

We all have points of variance. On that radio program cited, you were quite emphatic that the principal thrust of your work is in the area of compensation. It was pointed out to you at that time that - in the Canadian experience - the whole area and initiative of compensation for indigenous people had become a government (and church) placebo, and in fact that the notion plays right into their hands, in their constant attempt to silence witnesses and victims, exonerate the perpetrators, and dupe the Canadian public into believing that the "Indian problem" is a thing of the past. The farcical Truth and Reconciliation Commission is the government's last word in "healing," "compensation" and moving on - all white man's words, designed to dictate once again how native people should act.

The fact is that the system is geared so that government-enlisted legal firms - such as The Merchant Group in Regina - get to cream 40% off the top. Tony Merchant, that firm's principal, has bragged publicly that before he is through he expects to earn $100 million as an apparent hero of the native people. There are of course other profit centers in addition to the 40% whack off the top of all that government largesse. Such as pre-settlement loans to native clients at inflated rates of interest and or discount. A fertile legal mind on either side of the border can dream up various alternative fee arrangements. All of this may or may not have any implication for, or similarity with, the worthy organization in Yakima for which you are the paralegal point man.

But the sickening compensation routine operating in Canada - and I have no reason to believe that American attorneys are less adroit - is summed up in the words of the late Johnny (Bingo) Dawson, a friend and constituent of Kevin's and resident of Vancouver's skid row: "By the time you've paid off the lawyers, there's just enough left for one good drunk before you commit suicide."

Of course I'm not suggesting that compensation is the only thing you're about, although you did tell us that such was your primary activity. You are also, according to Indian Country, a sort of articulate inspiration for your people. To do what isn't quite made clear. The word "healing" appears now and then, just as it does in all of the church literature. You may well be a healer.

If so, I wonder again at why you feel it necessary to criticize Kevin Annett. It's been noted elsewhere that there is a certain faction that can't stand the guy because - well, I guess because he's white, and therefore he has no business messing around in the native world. Actually, I tend to agree. As his father, I sometimes wish to God that in stead of electing to trash his life, his family, his career, he had elected to mind his own business and let Weyerhaeuser acquire that Ahousaht land and let the rapists and murderers he uncovered go on about their business. Like the righteous white man he could have become, the one you're confusing with reality.

But I don't have to justify him, even to such a paragon of rectitude as you. In addition, you - the two of you - are not even competitive. There are 1.5 million native people within the white man's boundaries known as Canada, and about 3 million in what's known now as America. Right there you've got the edge on potential clientele.

Having run out of ideas for persuading the other 30 million Canadians to throw out the British colonial legal, socioeconomic and parliamentary systems, such as repealing the murderous Indian Act, he has written three books and produced an award-winning film, and lectured at two dozen universities from Berkeley to Innsbruck. By the way, contrary to opinion in some quarters, including friends of yours, far from having made a fortune in all this activity, profiting from native people (like some artisans I could mention) he hasn't made a dime of profit from any of those ventures. In fact it's cost him, his friends and a very few incredible people who have contributed to the cause. In stark contrast to most activists, legal and otherwise, who have been circling the whole native question and its monetary fallout, Kevin Annett has lived below the poverty line ever since he was thrown out of the United Church of Canada almost 20 years ago.

In the process, Kevin has helped to create a seven-nation organization to appeal for INTERNATIONAL truth and justice - not just for Turtle Island, but because worldwide there are 300 million indigenous people - not 1.5, not 3 million - who have suffered the same crap from centuries of domination by European empires backed by Catholic, Anglican (Episcopal) and Protestant churches around the world.

That organization (ITCCS), from which you recently removed yourself as not being compatible with your compensation agenda - but perhaps mostly because a white guy had started it - has more recently launched an International Common Law Court, which won't be just talking, it will be very shortly grabbing a lot of imperial and religious asses. And if that Court achieves even nominal success, and brings even slight attention to the international crime against humanity that has gone on for centuries, it will perhaps help to introduce some sanity to this sick world.

Now that, Ken, would be real healing. That would be real compensation.

Bill Annett grew up a writing brat; his father, Ross Annett, at a time when Scott Fitzgerald and P.G. Wodehouse were regular contributors, wrote the longest series of short stories in the Saturday Evening Post's history, with the sole exception of the unsinkable Tugboat Annie.

At 18, Bill's first short story was included in the anthology “Canadian Short Stories.” Alarmed, his father enrolled Bill in law school in Manitoba to ensure his going straight. For a time, it worked, although Bill did an arabesque into an English major, followed, logically, by corporation finance, investment banking and business administration at NYU and the Wharton School. He added G.I. education in the Army's CID at Fort Dix, New Jersey during the Korean altercation.

He also contributed to The American Banker and Venture in New York, INC. in Boston, the International Mining Journal in London, Hong Kong Business, Financial Times and Financial Post in Toronto.

Bill has written six books, including a page-turner on mutual funds, a send-up on the securities industry, three corporate histories and a novel, the latter no doubt inspired by his current occupation in Daytona Beach as a law-abiding beach comber.

You can write to Bill Annett at this address: bilko23@gmail.com