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https://twitter.com/JorgeBarrera/status/1307349679915651078

https://mobile.twitter.com/DarrylLeroux/status/1307347195860058113

this is what’s happening right now in DIGBY NOVA SCOTIA.

Why Traffickers Go After Native American Women

In 2015 the National Congress of American Indians found that an estimated 40 percent of women who are victims of sex trafficking identify as American Indian, Alaska Native, or First Nations.

Why seek Natives? “We’re associated with fetishes,” such as long hair, exotic looks that sex patrons perceive as Asian or Hispanic, Imus-Nahsonhoya says.”We could look like anything.”

Sex traffickers prey upon young girls and women they perceive as vulnerable. Labor traffickers look for boys and young men, as well as girls, to labor in oil fields, sweatshops, “man camps” and as domestic help.

The high rates of poverty and hardship in tribal communities; historical trauma and culture loss; homelessness and runaway youth; high rates of involvement with child welfare systems, including entry into the foster care system; exposure to violence in the home or community; drug and alcohol abuse; and low levels of law enforcement all add up to a community rich in targets for traffickers.

The “Smokey Bear” effect:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/brief-history-smokey-bear-180972549/

Native American controlled burn methods (which shaped the landscape to begin with):

The Willamette Valley used to be composed primarily of wetlands and oak savanna. The oak savanna was maintained partially by the Kalapuya, who harvested the bulbs of camas (a plant in family Asparagaceae with edible bulbs), bracken fern rhizomes and grasshoppers. They also hunted the ungulate mammals that came to the savannas for grazing opportunities.

The onset of fire suppression by european settlers allowed douglas-fir and western hemlock dominated forests to take over, because the plants that comprise those communities generally lack fire tolerance, while the native oaks (Quercus garryana) and associated species are highly fire-tolerant.

Decades of this and later development have reduced oak savanna to about 1% of its historic extent. There is a litany of species that have suffered from this; for instance, egg-laying reptiles cannot find nesting sites with enough sun once the doug fir takes over.

A lot of people can’t fathom how setting the landscape on fire intentionally could possibly be healthy for the environment. I remember going with my dad to a wildlife refuge event in upstate New York once and accidentally being grilled on the subject by a man who called himself ‘Andrew the Cryptozoologist’ because I made the mistake of agreeing to mind the booth and wearing the official fire vest. I was fourteen and unfortunately didn’t know anything, and Andrew was a hard-line environmentalist who didn’t actually understand how the environment works (weirdly, this applies to a lot of people who ‘love’ nature).  

Queen Victoria bonus round -

And a John A. MacDonald bonus round for the road -

 Um, Michael… Do you know your friends are cartoon characters?

For even if I’m far away, I hold you in my heart. I sing a secret song to you, each night we are apart.