----- Original Message -----
From: RUSSELL DIABO
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;@priv-edtnaa03.telusplanet.net
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 5:51 AM
Subject: Counterpoint: Native assimilation is not the answer
Thursday » November 16 » 2006
Counterpoint: Native assimilation is not the answer
Waubageshig (Harvey McCue)
National Post
Thursday, November 16, 2006
In a recent editorial, this newspaper praised former Ontario cabinet
minister Alan Pope for his proposal to relocate the Cree residents of the
troubled Kashechewan First Nation from their reserve near James Bay to the
outskirts of Timmins, Ont.
But Mr. Pope and his media admirers are merely reiterating what many
Canadians have argued for generations is the salvation for First Nations: "Get
off the reserve and get a life!" In fact, this sentiment began in earnest with
Duncan Campbell Scott who, as the deputy minister for Indian Affairs in the
1800s, officially commented numerous times that the only good Indian was an
extinct one, or words to that effect.
If the residents of Kashechewan agree to it, the relocation proposed by
Mr. Pope will result in their assimilation. The same would be true of any other
isolated First Nations communities that accept this route.
Elsewhere, other First Nations, such as the Cree on the Quebec side of
James Bay, are actively pursuing economic and social progress, and rejecting
the conventional wisdom that says success for First Nations lies in
assimilation. The principal difference between the communities on the two sides
of the bay is that the Quebec Cree have acquired authority over their lives.
That authority has enabled the Quebec Cree to fashion a growing regional
economy, a quality of life that combines ancient Cree traditions with Western
modernization and a cultural confidence that is the bane of Quebec separatists.
They have found a successful course that does not involve assimilation. Life is
not perfect for the Quebec Cree, but they do have the tools to work at
resolving their problems.
The Ontario Cree, by contrast, have been virtually ignored. The
communities there have been left to subsist on federal government handouts
rather than developing policies for their own benefit. That subsistence has led
to what some might call a culture of dependence.
The condition stems from the views of an army of officials, who have been
unwilling to see northern Indian communities as self-reliant. And so Ottawa
continues to provide a minimal level of services, which ensures that a
wholesale social collapse will be avoided but ignores any meaningful
consideration of how these communities might become successful. Consequently,
the residents lack the tools, i.e., the infrastructure, the institutions, the
fiscal resources and, more importantly, the self-determination to do much more
than make do with handouts.
Indeed, the federal government doesn't really know what "self-government"
means for First Nations. If the Quebec Cree had relied on Ottawa to achieve
their local and regional governments, their nation would now be in tatters.
Moreover, the process to achieve Indian self-government -- as Ottawa defines it
-- is mired in bureaucracy with little guarantee for success.
Relocating northern residents is the easy way out, the quick fix. The
slow strangulation by the umbilical cord of government handouts is not a viable
option either. Instead, we should support Kashechewan and similarly situated
First Nations in creating a northern economy, and ensuring that they have the
power necessary to take control of their land and resources.
For two centuries, officials and politicians have been trying to figure
out how to get rid of Indians. As their strategic roles as key players in the
early economy of the fur trade and as military allies waned, the preferred
strategy came to be moving them as far as possible from developing areas onto
remote, isolated patches of land. Duncan Campbell Scott predicted that
residential schools would possibly be the final step in the process. Failing
that, the Indian Act was used as an instrument of the state to get rid of
Indians through the loss of Indian status.
Mr. Pope's suggested urban relocation of an entire community is just
another step in that desperate process. Assimilation is simply not a
justifiable or worthy goal for this country to pursue.
- Waubageshig (Harvey McCue) consults on a variety of First Nations issues
© National Post 2006
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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