On The Art of Stealing Human Rights

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Native Americans learned the hard way but finally understood white men’s colonization methods once they dealt with them after so many years. They learned his tactics and methods were an advanced level of intellectual evil, as seen in the writing below. This is a newsletter from 1968 that captures their understanding of the manipulation of human rights, which should be studied and used today for Blacks and other minorities faced with this dilemma.

The following extracts are from a speech given by Gerry Gambil at a conference on Human Rights at Toblique Reserve in New Brunswick, in August, 1968. In his speech, he warned native people about how this society goes about taking away their human rights.

"The art of denying Indians their human rights has been refined to a science." The following list of commonly used techniques will be helpful in 'burglar-proofing' your reserves and your rights.

Gain The Indian's Cooperation - It is much easier to steal someone's human rights if you can do it with his OWN cooperation. SO...

1. Make him a non-person. Human rights are for people. Convince Indians their ancestors were savages, that they were pagan, that Indians are drunkards. Make them wards of the government. Make a legal distinction, as in the Indian Act, between Indians and persons. Write history books that tell half the story (your half).

2. Convince the Indian that he should be patient, that these things take time, are making progress, and that progress takes time.

3. Make him believe that things are being done for his own good. Tell him that you're sure that after he has experienced your laws and actions that he will realize how good they have been. Tell the Indian he has to take a little of the bad in order to enjoy the benefits you are conferring on him.

4. Get some Indian people to do the dirty work. There are always those who will act for you to the disadvantage of their own people. Just give them a little honor and praise. This is generally the function of band councils, chiefs and advisory councils: they have little power but can handle the tough decisions such as welfare, allocation of housing, etc.

5. Consult the Indian, but do not act on the basis of what you hear. Tell the Indian he has a voice and go through the motions of listening. Then interpret what you have heard to suit your own needs. 

6. Insist that the Indian ''GO THROUGH THE PROPER CHANNELS," Make the channels and procedures so difficult that he won't bother to do anything. If he discovers what the proper channels are and becomes proficient at the procedures, change them.

7. Make the Indian believe that you are working hard for him, putting in much overtime at great sacrifice, and imply that he be appreciative. This is the ultimate in skills in stealing human rights: when you obtain the thanks of your victim.

8. Allow a few individuals to "MAKE THE GRADE" and then point to them as examples. Say that the hard workers and the good Indians have made it, and therefore it is a person's own fault if he does not succeed.

9. Appeal to the Indian's sense of fairness, and tell him that even though things are pretty bad it is not right for him to make strong protests. Keep the argument going on his form of protest and avoid talking about the real issue. Refuse to deal with him while he is protesting. This will take all the fire out of his efforts.

10. Encourage the Indian to take his case to court. This is very expensive, takes lots of time and energy and is very safe because the laws are stacked against him. The court's ruling will defeat the Indian's cause, and make him think he has obtained justice.

11. Make the Indian believe that things could be worse, and that instead of complaining about the loss of human rights, to be grateful for the human rights he has. In fact, convince him that to attempt to regain a right he has lost is likely to jeopardize the rights he still has.

12. Set yourself up as the protector of the Indian's human rights, and then you can choose to act upon only those violations you wish to act upon. By getting successful action on a few minor violations of human rights, you can point to these as examples of your devotion to his cause. The burglar who is also the doorman is the perfect combination.

13. Pretend that the reason for the loss of human rights is for some other reason than that the person is an Indian. Tell him some of your best friends are Indians, and that his loss of rights is because of his housekeeping, his drinking or his clothing. If hé improves in these areas it will be necessary to adopt another technique of stealing his rights.

14. Make the situation more complicated than is necessary. Tell the Indian you will have to make a survey to find out just how many other Indians are being discriminated against. Hire a group of professors to make a year-long project.

15. Insist on unanimity. Let the Indian know that when all the Indians in Canada can make up their minds about just what they want as a group, then you will act. Play one group's special situation against another group's wishes.

16. Select very limited alternatives, neither of which has much merit, and then tell the Indian that he indeed has a choice. Ask for instance, if he would rather have council elections in June or December, instead of asking if he wants them at all.

17. Convince the Indian that the leaders who are the most beneficial and powerful are dangerous and not to be trusted. Or simply lock them up on some charge like driving with no lights. Or refuse to listen to the real leaders, and spend much time with the weak ones. Keep the people split from their leaders by sowing rumors. Attempt to get the best leaders into high-paying jobs where they have to keep quiet to keep their pay check coming in.

18. Speak of the common good. Tell the Indian that you can't consider only him when there is the nation to think of. Tell him that he can't think only of himself. For instance, in regard to hunting rights, tell him to think of all the hunters, or the sporting goods industry.

19. Remove rights so gradually that people don't realize what has happened until it is too late. Again, in regard to hunting rights, restrict the geographical area where hunting is permitted. Then cut the season to certain times of the year. Then cut the limits down gradually and insist on licensing. Indians will, then, be on the same grounds as white sportsmen.

20. Rely on reason and logic (your reason and logic) instead of rightness and morality. Give thousands of reasons for things, but do not get trapped into arguments about what is right.

21. Hold a conference on HUMAN RIGHTS. Have everyone blow off steam and tension, and then go home feeling that things are well in hand.

22. Have one Member of Parliament complain that the Indian is being unjustly treated by the government. That will give the Indian confidence in the governmental structure. After he is convinced that you have his best interests at heart have him do a feasibility study on whether he (or you) should have something that is rightfully his.

Any one of these methods are still being used today when dealing with systemic injustice toward the communities of people of color; in the United States or around the world where whites have control of the government. These methods are not only deceptive and manipulative, but are against the nature of human decency and is evil in nature.