There are so many ironies to be reading this story now with the current anti vaccine protests and blockades going on at just this location. This simple story is about a proud Blackfoot woman and her teenage son who set out to visit their daughter and sister in Salt Lake City. Should be a simple enough. Not, however if you are indigenous. To which nation do hold your first allegiance and who gets to decide which takes precedence. Does it have to? Is there not a third way?
When one thinks about this blockade or the ones going on in Ottawa one might well ask, whose freedoms take precedence over another? What does it mean to live in community? What about the common good? Are there other ways of looking at this? As in the story, as in life, there is a lot going on here.
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