BEING AN "INDIAN GIVER" - AND THE LAW OF CONSECRATION

Our family went to see the famous "Head-Smashed-In" buffalo jump in Southern Alberta a few days ago.  I have been paying particularly close attention to our native brothers and sisters - and learning as much as I can about how they tick.  They soon will have the upper hand - so it behooves us to get a long with them.  If we do not, we may be their prey as the natural (white man's) order breaks down and power shifts, as spoken of in 3 Nephi and Isaiah.  Great are those words.

In Cardston, we are right between three major native reserves.  One in the US and two just inside the border - the same group of Blackfeet people, just two different sides of the border.  Here is the rub for Cardstonites:  We are on land that was pretty much stolen from the First Nations by unscrupulous land agents in the late 1800's.  I read the exact wording from the treaty at the Buffalo Jump World Heritage Center.  It states that they would have all the land between two rivers which originate south of the border and come together around where Lethbridge is today.  In other words, the US border is the southern boundary of the reserve.  Someone, either intentionally, or accidentally made "the border" approx 15 miles north of where the 49th Parallel is right now (modern survey).  It may well have been a mistake in early surveys or some other nefarious reason.  Knowing that there was a VERY early outpost of the RCMP on a place called Police Lake where Ora Card (original founder of Cardston) along with some of the early settlers passed thru and paid border fees, is telling.  It is right on the very modern border with the US.  It tells me that they knew where the line was almost from the beginning of the opening of the land for settlement.

What is my purpose in sharing this information?  Not to rake muck.  I think the Natives were shorted and need to be compensated by the Provincial or National Gov't and to work through it.  People make mistakes and we just need to deal with it.  Once something is done - there is often no way to go backward - just to move forward as best as possible.

Now, for the reason I started this post....

As a kid growing up, I was called an Indian Giver if I gave something to someone and then asked for it back.  I have come to the conclusion after years of observation that this was the nature of the "indian" people and a carryover from their days as a delightsome people who had more light and knowledge than we as Latter-day Saints currently enjoy.  They simply did not "own" anything - but held it in common.  If they needed it - they were just simply accustomed to taking it.  It was about the good of the people, versus the good of the individual.  I am sure the pure concept was lost over time as the people lost the original light of the gospel - but the tendency for that was still there.  Cultural norms do not change - sometimes even over hundreds of years. 

As a side note, I have run into many from the Reserve who are filled with intelligence and light and I plan on probing them for 

This is just my observation - but I believe it is accurate.  We (white people) have not learned how to have that spirit about us completely.  In fact, I have seen it erode at an alarming rate in the last decade to the point where I feel (in many places I have been) that there is often the same sense of comraderie with my fellow Saints as I might feel with my co-workers.

We need to move this to more of the Zion spirit - if we are to qualify for those blessings.  It will happen one way or another; either by living our temple covenants or by force of circumstance.  Let us make the correct choice.  We have our agency - but we MAY NOT choose the consequences.