Educated, progressive, adaptable and with a keen focus on the future.

Welcome to the 21st Century Native.  The people of the Canadian First Nations are trashing the clueless stereotype of a Luddite-like existence amid an outmoded, outdated and obsolete way of life.

Gone is the misconception of Aboriginal people fighting change and progress in a new century.   Native people hang onto their beliefs and traditions the same as any other society, but have embraced change with enthusiasm and optimism.

Occupational fields with Aboriginal employees include (but are hardly limited to) technology and science, professional and legal, managerial and governmental.  The number of Native college and university students rise each year as education has been proven to be an outstanding  way to improve a standard of living.

The Information Technology sector.  Seems a long way from ancient Traditions still followed on reserve communities yet the old meshes seamlessly with the new for many Native technical professionals.  The Onkwehonwehneha - the Aboriginal way of doing - requires balance in one's life where what someone does for an income does not necessarily define what they are as a person.

"What do you do?" can be a loaded question.  "Try to enjoy life" might appear to be a smart alec response, but to those who desire to experience all that life has to offer and assign a high priority to that quest, it makes perfect sense.

So what distinguishes a 20th century Native from their predecessors?  Haven't the First Nations always been curious and inquisitive about non-Native technology?  European manufactured goods such as firearms,

 implements... and kahneka'shatste, liquor...  were adopted by societies whose daily rituals had not dramatically changed for centuries. 

Aboriginal people are nothing if not masters of adaptation.  Even the largest of trees cannot survive if it does not bend and flex among changing winds.  This process takes decades and even the strongest trees inevitably suffer damage from the severest of storms.

Winds of Change.  That's an expression often heard in Indian Country and its significance couldn't be more profound.   Within the span of 300 hundred years... an extremely short amount of time in the continuum of history... the First Nations people of this Turtle Island haven't even had time for their bodies to adjust to a non-Native diet.  Diabetes runs rampant among Aboriginal people as evidence that refined sugars, which are a staple in contemporary foods, was not a food indigenous to the First Nations.

Three hundred years may appear to be a long time but to put things in perspective, for example: the Grimaldi Royal family has ruled the Principality of Monaco for over 700 years.  Human bodies evolve over scores of generations - there have been less than ten generations since the very existence of Native people was dramatically and permanently altered by foreign ways, values... and foods.

Like it or not, change occurs at a blistering pace as technology makes quantum  frenzied excitement; today, they're on they're way out in favour of the clean and slick DVD players and recorders.  And one can only begin to imagine what consumer goodies might be available twenty years from now.... DVD may be an obsolete medium found in garage sales next to chunks of plastic called 8-Track Tapes.

Native people are very much aware and involved with the world in which they live and which surrounds them... and few would argue the Native has a very unique view of that world.  If a method or tool is made available and it suits the need or desire, chances are pretty good it will be embraced and mastered by some Aboriginal.   Personal computers come to mind (although it should be duly noted this author makes no pretense of having 'mastered' them) and the Native influence on the product or method will invariably follow.

Keeping pace with change.  Mastering new technologies.  Educating with an unflinching stare into the future.  Sounds fairly progressive and fully capable of integrating innovation into a culture.  And so it is with the 21st Century Native.

Yet for all the material and iconoclastic affectations, one aspect is held above all else.  It has nothing to do with change.  It has everything to do with Tradition.

The heritage, system of beliefs and values and interconnectedness with the natural world remain as they have for centuries.  Native tongues still speak the same words in the same languages as they've been spoken for centuries during Traditional ceremonies and celebrations.  Specific times of the year are still celebrated as they have been since centuries prior to the first European setting foot on these lands.

A solid, unwavering belief rooted in spirituality is as strong today as it was hundreds of years ago.  

The pride has returned to a people who underwent inconceivable acts which made every attempt to beat, cajole, tempt, humiliate or threaten that pride to the lowest depths of identity.   That humiliation exists to this day in many subtle... and not-so subtle... forms throughout contemporary North American societies.

The heritage and Traditional culture of the First Nations is by no means a guarantee in itself.  It's been said a culture begins to die once its language disappears and this very fact is indeed happening across Indian Country.  Encouraging signs of young Natives learning and speaking their indigenous languages is an enormously gratifying trend, yet there are languages which have already disappeared or are one generation from extinction.

The challenges?  Formidable.

The changes?  Some exceptionally positive; some mired in draconian negativity.

The future?

The future can only get brighter and there will be dark days as well.  But the people of the First Nations have very long memories and take the lessons of the past to heart... they're not likely to repeat the same past mistakes.

The 21st Century Native... if allowed access... has the curiosity, ambition and talent to contribute to not only the First Nations but non-Native society as well.

Educated, progressive, adaptable and with a keen focus on the future. 

A winning combination in any century.