I think First Nations People feel betrayed by early settlers because we have been. Early settlers came with their fake brotherhood and false smiles. They have taken our ways of survival and tradition, and beauty of open minds. Then they tried to discard our people and our understanding to whatever suited and still suits their needs. Once they thought they had reached enough understanding; that is they believed they knew all about the whole existence of our native people, which there is more than meets the eye, they took gross advantage of this knowledge.
I strongly believe that early settlers knew the effect they had on our untouched culture. I believe this because they had surly corrupted other cultures in the course of history and had continued doing so no matter the consequence. They also did this entirely for their own selfish needs and wants. Look at the Holocaust for example and currently the treatment of locals in Darfur.
The settlers' true intensions had become an obvious understanding to our people. If they could have bleached our hair and skin and break our language we would still not be "intelligent,"
or "perfect"
enough. When our people stood up against these new settlers, although constantly exposed to their controlling ways, they refused to die or be broken. Early settler's laws and views were easy to read. Their way of living came from a long traditional way of scheming, taking over, following rulers and kings. They also had different beliefs; they were headstrong to their own set of ideals and what was important in their lives, things like comfort, convenience and material goods were necessities; the very things our culture could live without.
The virtues of our culture were to learn lessons through stories, myths, and ceremonies. We love and honour all living things; we treat each other and the earth with all it's creatures with utmost respect.
Settlers saw the way of native living as a hassle and curse, it took them back to inconvenient times. They couldn't understand why natives would reject their way of living. At first they thought we were too naive to understand, then they realized that we preferred our traditional lifestyle. The settlers made a shameful mistake with their arrogance and like any shameful mistake they tried to cover it up by eliminating our culture. These times brought rejection and miscommunication; then came forceful times of traumatizing torture. It was the time of our transformation from savages to civilized beings.
If I had a way to express myself in a careful environment with the right material I know I could explain to my people: that we had been scorned, tortured and murdered and forced to bite our native tongues. We need to heal and forgive. Let those times go so we can move along. The early settlers have made changes where we are recognizable. We need to stand strong together and take advantage of those changes. We will not get burned for practicing our ways now. No one can truly hurt us. Our native communities are rock solid enough to create a foundation. Native communities know these words I speak of. We want to read it, to be acknowledged.
We want the chance to say we have been invaded by intruders then we can heal and stay strong like our ancestors once did. We don't need to fear the future based on the past. We need to shape the future because of the past.