Aboriginal peoples in Canada, or Aboriginal Canadians, are the indigenous peoples within the boundaries of present-day Canada.

I admit it. I have deep-rooted and ugly prejudices about native people in Canada. When I think of native people, I immediately think of alcoholic, jobless and homeless people who abuse themselves and others in every imaginable way. For all of my life I have seen these images and I continue to see native people this way.

Here's the catch: I'm native.

I grew up in a small native community. My home was stereotypically native: abusive relationships dominated my younger years and permeate every aspect of my life today. My family, friends, and community have seen, and continue to see, disproportionate levels of murder, suicide, violence, sexual abuse, prostitution, alcoholism, drug addiction, emotional abuse, homelessness, and poverty and the criminality that follows from all of this............

A Canadian aboriginal community appealed for federal aid on Thursday after six suicides in two months and 140 suicide attempts in the last two weeks alone, the latest in a string of crises in Canada's often isolated indigenous communities.

The Cross Lake Cree community of 8,300, located 500 kilometers (311 miles) north of Winnipeg, Manitoba, declared a state of emergency this week as the suicide crisis spread, Pimicikamak Acting Chief Shirley Robinson told Reuters.

Accept it..... I boast about it.