"I'm an Indian Too-oo-oo, a Jioux"

Canadian Jewish News columnist Avrum Rosenzweig has an, ahem, interesting take on "similarities" between Jews and Canada's First Nations:

Chances are you don’t know the following: over a 400-year period, our land’s first people were marginalized until they were considered non-citizens, strangers, insignificant. This process was subtle and slow, but don’t be fooled: the Europeans who arrived on our shores systematically and strategically made our First Nations people feel invisible, as insignificant as an ant on your desk.   

Here’s some background. 

It would be easy to look back at the history of our Aboriginal Peoples and see a bunch of people scattered throughout the land, running wild and savagely warring with others and spending days sharpening their arrowheads. That’s the “John Wayne myth,” which is as nonsensical as the story of Jews, warped noses and all, sitting by the “gate,” hands extended, collecting debts from Christians. 

But like us, the Jewish People, Aboriginals in this land lived by a code of laws and had a sophisticated way of life. Elders passed on oral stories from one generation to the next. Native children learned that they were part of the entire creation, and they gave thanks to nature for their survival. We Jews call this process Torah sheba’al peh (oral Torah). 

First Nations gave respect to all things in their environment, animate or otherwise. They did so through songs, dance, festivals and ceremonies – just like we do through ritual. According to an Aboriginal Affairs online history, “In the Woodland First Nations, for example, a hunter would talk or sing to a bear before it died, thanking the animal for providing the hunter and his family with much-needed food."...

Actually, Avrum, some Aboriginals were into savagery, conquest and slaughter--and that's no myth! And here's another inconvenient truth: religion-wise, Aboriginals and Jews are nothing alike. Aboriginals are pagan; Judaism is a monotheistic--indeed, the first monotheistic--faith.

Also, Jews singing to bears? Not so much.