WARRIOR POST IS FACTUALLY CORRECT

Oldtown News
Vancouver, BC

Warrior Post is Factually Correct


I received this post below from an anonymous individual stating that my Blog piece post on the Gang who stole the Olympic flag was not factually correct. In this recent post to me, the writer gets things muddled. Here is my factual response.

Yes I agree that there were Warriors societies prior to Colonization, however my post was not about Colonization.

Nor did I suggest that Warriors against Violence society invented the movement. Locally though the Warriors against Violence Society was the first group to initiate the Contemporary Warrior movement here in BC. Warriors against Violence Society formed in 1997 and incorporated in 1998.

The other group calling itself Native Warrior Society (the ones who stole the Olympic flag) is more recent and they may be an offshoot of West Coast Warriors who formed in 2000 out of the Native Youth Movement. And an affiliated group called East Coast Warriors also didn't form until the year 2000. So my comment that these East and West Coast Warriors groups were bastardizing the proud Warriors against Violence Society name is factually correct.

I have to say that Warriors against Violence Society has as its core values, Respect, Honour and Equality. These values are similar to the Black Civil rights movement and even the Gay Rights Liberation Movement now contemporary known as PRIDE.

At no time did the Black Civil Rights Movement or the Gay Liberation movement resort to criminal acts to get its message out. Instead these groups relied on sit-ins and marches in order to be heard and they were heard. Human Rights advances came as a result.

I must say that groups who engage in warfare get nowhere. In fact they create harm and set movements back.

And the Gang who stood in front of the Mohawk flag with their faces covered are demonstrating disrespect and dishonour. Its too bad that our young people who need positive role models will see this and gain nothing from this stupidity.

Great example isn't it Boys!

JLH



Post Below from Anonymous Individual

Your post is factually inaccurate.Warrior societies were a fundamental part of indigenous cultures in this part of the world prior to British colonization. Warfare existed between indigenous nations and between the indigenous peoples and the British colonizers until the late 1800s. In the late 1960s, indigenous peoples across Canada began to revive their traditional warrior societies and retake their land.The "Warriors against Violence Society" did not invent the term "warrior". The term warrior denotes a person who takes part in warfare, an armed conflict. Canada has always been and is still at war with indigenous peoples.Harriet Nahanee waved the Unity flag when she was arrested at Eagle Ridge bluffs. This flag is also sometimes called the Warrior flag because it was designed by the late Mohawk warrior Louis Hall and was popularized during the 1990 Oka Crisis, when armed Mohawk warriors successfully defended their land against Canadian police and military forces.Warrior societies not only defend indigenous peoples from the violent attacks of the Canadian government but also play a positive role in diminishing anti-social violence within indigenous communities and provide an alternative to the recruitment of indigenous youth into the violent armed forces of Canadian police and military organizations or anti-social gangs.