My sister used to work with Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) She was a "manualista", one of those young NDN radicals mentored by Chief George Manual. Manual was the founder of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP). A story is still passed among their people about an encounter with English gypsys back in the 1980s. The way my sister told it there was a UBCIC delegation in London England lobbying for NDN rights during the pending transfer of the Canadian constitution from the English Crown to Canada. These NDN delegations were there to ensure NDN rights were not lost in the transfer. During this time they received a request from the gypsy to meet with them. In many ways the gypsies are the NDNs of Europe. Landless and despised they have somehow endured over centuries. Hundreds of thousands were murdered in Hitlers concentration camps. When their English heard of the NDNs planning to meet with the gypsies they were very much against it. Old prejudices surfaced. The UBCIC replied they would meet with anyone who asked. The meeting took place at night in secret. Translation was a problem with so many NDN languages, Romani and English needing to be interpreted. An old man spoke for the Gypsy.He said he had a message for the Canadian NDN's. He told them, "never give up your land." The conversation, hampered by translation did not last long. In the silence that followed an NDN grandmother took off her scarf and placed the jewerly from her hand into the scarf and passed the bundle on. The NDNS took off their jewelry one by one and then passed the scarf to the old gypsy chief. Tears flowed from the old mans face and then from the NDNs. The gypsys then disapeared into the nite.
