Posts By: First Nations Drum

By Dan Smoke – Asayenes (NNNC)

On November 23rd, at the Oneida Community Centre, the first major fundraising dinner for a new Oneida Longhouse attracted 400 community members, Mohawk elders, and a Cayuga celebrity.

The Longhouse is a ceremonial building of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy or People of the Longhouse). The On^yota’a:ka (Oneida or People of the Standing Stone)is a member nation.

Organizers were able to raise more than $7,400. The evening featured speakers: Tom Porter, Mohawk elder of Fonda, N.Y.; Jan Longboat, Mohawk elder from Six Nations; and Gary Farmer, a Toronto-based Cayuga actor and multi-media producer.

According to organizer Ray George, “this great cause will bring our people together as extended families. These connections transcend political, territorial, and spiritual barriers.”

Tom Porter explained, “In our teachings, all the Six Nations must help each other. Especially when it has to do with the Longhouse. Whenever a Longhouse needs help, every community of the Iroquois has to come and help. That’s why I came here, to do my duty.”

For Jan Longboat the Longhouse “represents a place of spirit…a place of learning the languages and the stories.”

The Mohawk Nation is also going to be building a Longhouse on the Six Nations reserve, she said. “Our teachings of the Great Law tells of the power of the Good Mind. And that’s what the teachings of the Longhouse are all about. It’s to strengthen the mind, so that we can live a good life.”

In addition to speaking, Gary Farmer expressed his solidarity and support with a $400 donation to the Building Fund. Nick and Mary Deleary, who live on reserve, donated six acres of land.

The dinner catered by Ray and Norleen George and a host of volunteers drew compliments for the roast beef, turkey, corn soup and fried bread.

Dean George, emcee, is also the Chair of the Building Fund Committee. He said “all these people are busy people…But that’s how we get things done. If we want something done, we find the busiest person we can and ask them to help you, and they always will.”

Howard Elijah, an elder, is secretary of the On^yota’a:ka Nation Council. He said there are bi-weekly meetings to involve community members.

“This project is about breaking down barriers and the walls of factionalism. We didn’t put them there, so we have to sit down in our community to talk about our future together.”

He added, “This project has got a lot of support–even from the Band Council.”

Work has begun on the new larger Longhouse, which will be l00 by 40 feet. A hydro line is installed. The property is being prepared, the foundation laid, and the cedar logs purchased. More than $150,000 has been spent. More is needed for hardwood flooring, an open ceiling, and specially designed windows. Elijah added, “We’re building a cookhouse as well; almost the same size as the Longhouse.”

An opening is planned for the Strawberry Festival time, in June 2003.

According to Haudenosaunee protocol, the Confederacy will determine when the opening will occur. Elijah said, ” a ceremony has to be done to notify the other Longhouses…A ceremony to ‘move our fires’ will be conducted in which all the other Nations and every Longhouse will be represented and they will send their delegates to carry out the ceremony for us.”

By Lloyd Dolha

The BC government approved the controversial Tulsequah Chief multi-metal mine located 160 kilometres north of Atlin, despite being stopped twice from proceeding by the BC courts for lack of adequate consultation with the Taku River Tlingit First Nation of the sprawling Taku River watershed of northwestern BC.

On December13, 2002, Stan Hagen, the minister for Sustainable Resource Management, issued an approval certificate for the Redfern Resources Ltd. project proposal stating that the government’s approval of the project contains strict rules for the protection of the environment that addresses the concerns of Taku River Tlingit.

In a press release issued that day, the minister stated the approval is “based on serious consultation and accommodation of First Nations’ interests, more than any previous resource decision in BC.

“We’re dismayed and very angry about this decision. The courts told them twice they need to consult with us on certain matters,” said Tlingit spokesman John Ward.

The history
Back in March of 1998, the Tulsequah Chief mine was approved by the provincial Environmental Assessment Office. The following year, the Taku River Tlingit First Nation challenged that assessment in the provincial Supreme Court, arguing that the environmental assessment process was flawed and compromised their aboriginal rights protected under the Canadian constitution.

In the Taku River Tlingit v. Ringstad case of June 2000, the Supreme Court found that the province did not adequately consult with the Tlingit and the approval certificate was subsequently quashed.

The province appealed the decision to the BC Court of Appeal, arguing that they did not have a legal or fiduciary duty to consult with First Nations or consider those rights claimed until those rights are proven in court.

The Court of Appeal rejected that argument stating the provincial Crown’s position of ignoring those rights had “the effect of robbing s. 35 (1) [of the Canadian Constitution] of much of its constitutional significance” that would “effectively end any prospect of meaningful negotiation or settlement of aboriginal land claims.”

A few days later, Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), commented in a press release, “I am absolutely astounded that the provincial government would issue the Project Approval Certificate without meaningfully consulting the Taku River Tlingit after such strong wording from the court.

The court clearly stated that for government to proceed with land and resource use approvals without taking aboriginal title into account would be a constitutional violation of aboriginal rights and lead to a serious injustice.”

The $148 million project to re-develop the mine and upgrade the 160 kilometre access road from Atlin to the mine site, if allowed to proceed, is expected to create 300 new jobs during the construction phase and 260 direct and indirect jobs.

The multi-metal mine will produce copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver as it did when it originally operated from 1951 to 1957.

Environmental concerns
One of the major concerns is the leaching of acid rock drainage that is still happening from the original mine.

The proposed impoundment of mine tailings from the newer upgraded mine would have to be contained in perpetuity as they would occur just upstream from significant salmon bearing areas.

The mine is located on the Tulsequah River 12 miles upstream from its confluence with the Take River and immediately upstream from the Alaska/BC border.

The 18,000 square kilometers of the Taku River watershed is still pristine with exceptional wildlife and environmental values and the Tlingit still harvest the flora and fauna of the Taku River drainage as they have historically.

The Taku River produces two million salmon annually and there are fears that new mining activity could put those runs at risk.

Reviewed by Chiara Snow

Inuit Legend in Print and On Screen

Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner

By Paul Apak Angilirq
Published by Coach House Books

“A naked man running for his life across the ice, his hair flying…”

For those of you have yet to see the beautiful story of Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner on the big screen, you now have a choice of seeing it in print.

The newly published book presents the entire screenplay of Atanarjuat in a dual-language edition (in both Inuktitut syllabics and English). The beautiful book includes: large full-colour photos with detailed captions throughout, interviews with the filmmakers of the exciting action thriller and detailed explorations of the legend of Atanarjuat and of the Inuit culture.

The extraordinary film premiered at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, won six Genie awards including Best Picture and Best Screenplay, and was titled a masterpiece by The New York Times.

Atanarjuat is Canada’s first feature-length fiction film written, produced, directed, and acted by Inuit.

Filmmakers Paul Apak Angilirq and Zacharias Kunuk were inspired by the traditional legend of Atanarjuat. Their movie presents this incredible story of love, murder, revenge and shamanism set in ancient Igloolik

Coming of Métis Age

Little Buffalo River
By Frances Beaulieu
Published by McGillan Books

This short novel tells a hard coming of age story in the gentlest of voices. Each chapter – a short story in itself – revolves around life seen through the eyes of a sweet young girl named Anna.

Growing up Métis in the Northwest Territories in the 1950s, Anna’s descriptions of the environment that surrounds her paints a cruel society:

The white kids wouldn’t play with Anna because she was a half-breed and she lived in the poor part of Yellowknife. With her grandmother. Well. Where were the parents, then?

The Indian kids where shy. Anna looked too white.

Each experience is so naturally described, with heart touching innocence. Anna and her half-sister Violette, live with Ama a surrogate grandmother.

Mommy Suzanne, Anna’s biological mother, is an alcoholic who struggles to keep her white husband married to her. She sees Anna sporadically; and each time they meet, the young girl learns more than she needs to about a sad chilling adult world.

Anna squinted her eyes and peered just as hard as she could.

“It is Mommy Suzanne! Wowee, just look at her!”

Mommy Suzanne was getting closer. Her face looked kind of funny. Her eyes were all read and weird and her mouth was hanging open all loose… Mommy Suzanne’s hair was coming undone from its bun. Her blouse was all untucked from her tight black ski-pants. She had no socks on. Her ankles looked white and scaly and her sneakers were really grimy and had no shoelaces so they flapped in the dust like bedroom slippers.

“She looks really drunk, eh?”

When poor Ama is stricken with fatal cancer, Anna, in her teenaged years, is moved from one white foster home to another. She finally falls into what seems like an inevitable fate – one of drugs and depression.

Little Buffalo River, written over 18 years by Frances Beaulieu, is her first. Beaulieu is Métis, born in the Dene Nation, Denendeh, and adopted as a baby by a woman from the Chipewayan family. She lived in Yellowknife until the age of 16. She currently lives in Toronto and writes for a daily newspaper.

A Story of Survival and Tradition

Sacred Hunt: A Portrait of the Relationship between Seals and Inuit
By David F. Pelly
Published by Greystone Books

For centuries, aboriginal people throughout the Arctic have depended on seals for their survival. This moving portrait of the traditional hunt and of the spiritual link between Inuit and Arctic seals not only provides an educational experience, but an escape from the modern world.

The book’s foreword, written by the commissioner of Nunavut and sprinkled with Inuit terms, the Honorable Peter Irniq shares his childhood anecdotes, which reveal how profound an impact the seal has had on this culture’s lifestyle.

When my father returned home with a seal, it was my mother’s responsibility to butcher the animal. As soon as the seal was pulled through the entrance of our iglu, my mother would take a small piece of freshwater ice and gently put it into the seal’s mouth and let the dead seal drink water.

She would then say… “This is so that all seals under the ice will not go thirsty!” How powerful and strong this simple message to the spirits was. And spirits listened!

Divided into three main areas (Respect for the Seal, Hunting the Seal and A Pact for Survival); each section is enhanced with beautiful photographs of Inuit sculpture, paintings and prints that showcase the importance of Arctic seals in Inuit culture. Pictures show the hunting of seals, the eating of the meat, and the making of clothing from the animals’ skins.

Most revealing is the description of the new economy and its affect on the Inuit people. While in the past the seal provided food, clothing, and fuel (from its blubber), technology has introduced the Inuit people to a world of snowmobiles and rifles, and a much lesser demand for seal products.

A powerful anti-sealing campaign that grew 30 years ago when Brigitte Bardot had her photograph taken with a baby seal pup off Newfoundland, helped the animal rights movement gain attention. This lead to a ban on seal imports from the European Community. With almost no market left for sealskins, hunting today has become more expensive and difficult, not to mention dangerous.

With the collapse of the sealskin market, social assistance payments to Canadian Inuit have risen dramatically, as have rates of suicide, domestic violence, and substance abuse. The anti-sealing campaign has changed life in the North forever.

David F. Pelly is a writer and researcher who has lived and traveled in the Arctic for more than twenty years. He is the author of five previous books, including Thelon: A River Sanctuary. His work has been published in Canadian Geographic and Equinox, among other publications. He lives in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.

A Fight for Aboriginal Rights

One Man’s Justice: A Life in the Law
By Thomas R. Berger
Published by Douglas & McIntyre

In what the author calls “the adventures of a lawyer”; One Man’s Justice is an account of a dozen legal cases – many of them championing aboriginal rights.

Thomas R. Berger’s 50-year law career began in 1957 when he was called to the British Columbia bar. After a brief stint in politics in the 1960s, Berger became a judge of the Supreme Court of B.C. in 1971 where he remained for twelve years. “But I always made my way back into law practice,” he writes.

He began arguing cases dealing with Aboriginal rights in his earliest cases. In 1971, he argued Calder v. British Columbia “asserting that Aboriginal rights had a distinct place in Canadian law.” In 1973, the Supreme Court of Canada decided that Aboriginal rights had a place in Canadian law. The Calder case led to treaty-making “for more than 25 years culminating in the Nisga’a treaty.”

Each and every case described in this book share a common theme: Berger’s passion and interest in representing those whose rights are disregarded. His characters, which include hookers and ageing judges – are colourful and rich.

He writes as much about his failures as he does about his victories. And with each legal decision, he finds a lesson that helps him with subsequent cases.

Thomas Berger, known for specializing in civil liberties, constitutional law and Native rights, is recognized internationally for his work in the areas of human rights and jurisdictional justice for the world’s northern peoples. His books include Northern Frontier, Northern Homeland and Village Journey.

By Dr. John Bacher

Twelve years ago, I had the fortunate experience of taking part in an Iroquois homeland meeting between the respected Seneca elder John Mohawk and Ronkwetason, (Spirit Man); more widely known as Danny Beaton.

Beaton is a Mohawk of the Turtle Clan. He is the son of Lois Clause, whose grandparents were Edna Beaver and Freeman Clause of the Grand River Six Nations Territory, located near Brantford, Ontario. He has produced and directed four nationally broadcast films that feature Native American spiritual elders voicing their concerns for the need of society to return to spiritual values and the protection of Mother Earth. In 1992, he was made by the Governor-General of Canada, and was a recipient of the Canada 125 Award.

In my first meeting with Danny Beaton and John Mohawk, we discussed strategies to realize native American views for the healing of our wounded earth. This resulted in a close collaboration between Danny Beaton, and Onondaga chief and faithkeeper, Oren Lyons. They would soon meet in Onondaga with the Traditional Circle of Indian Elders and Youth, a gathering of grassroots native spiritual elders and youth.

After his first Onondaga council, Danny Beaton would faithfully attend the annual gatherings of the circle. This year marked the 25th anniversary of the gathering and was held in Montana on a vast Buffalo ranch, hosted by the revered elder, Joe Medicine Crow.

From taking part in such sacred gatherings of native people with a deep bond to creation, Danny Beaton became a compelling messenger of their wise message of the urgent need to protect Mother Earth.

In his constant earth defense work with spiritually connected elders from the Arctic to the Amazon, Danny Beaton went beyond his many important individual battles to protect creation.

He placed these efforts in a context of restoring the planet to the balance that existed when it was guarded by native leaders who sought to be the custodians of creation.

This is why it was so appropriate that when conference planners of the third biennial Interdisciplinary Conference on World Order, held from May 24 to June 1 at Ryerson University in Toronto, sought a speaker able to share the holistic, Indigenous perspective of our place in and responsibility for the environment, they contacted Danny Beaton to speak at the conference’s sustainable education session.

Stephen Shcarper, an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Toronto, who teaches courses in Religion and Ecology, explains why the conference organizers felt it was so important that Beaton make a presentation.

He “felt it was absolutely essential that a person of his vision and ancestry be speaking at the conference because he brought a perspective based on the way of life of a people rooted in the land and not in western thinking. It is quite inspiring to hear from the perspectives of traditions based on the beauty of the earth. If Danny Beaton or someone from his tradition had not been speaking at the conference, it would have lacked both power and integrity.”

The conference
The biennial Interdisciplinary Conference on World Order is coordinated with the co-operation of Science for Peace, Ryerson University, and the respected peace orientated Buddhist movement, Sokha Gakkai International.

Its participants are internationally recognized scientists and educators from around the world. The conference seeks to develop “a wide angle and full spectrum systemic view of global issues” to assist government with solutions that encourage peace and the protection of the environment.

The Sustainable Education Session dealt with the implications of environmental sustainability or lack of it, for future generations. Danny Beaton was asked to give an opening ceremony to begin this session. He chose to give a recitation of the Iroquois Thanksgiving Address.

The Thanksgiving Address is a sacred prayer recited at the beginning and end of all gatherings of Iroquois people who still adhere to the earth respecting ways of their confederacy government and Longhouse traditions. Through it, the speaker expresses thanks from the earth to the sky for all the blessings of creation.

Beaton’s address
The SpeechIn his version of the Thanksgiving Address, Beaton told the assembled scholars and scientists that for the beauty of the day, “we join our minds together as one and give a great thanks to our great Creator for allowing us to travel to this place safely; for allowing us to come to this place in a good way. We give thanks for the protection that we receive to attend this gathering.”

He began his thanks to creation with “a great thanks for all the sacred vegetation that’s around us; for all the trees and the plants, the vegetables, for all the sacred vegetation and for the spirit of the sacred vegetation”.

After thanking the plants Beaton urged that the gathering “give a great thanks for the sacred four leggeds and for the winged beings, for the insects and for the fish that swim in the water.”

For “their spirits and for our friends” Beaton gave “a great Nia wen” since “without our friends, the animals, and the insects and the birds and the fish, it wouldn’t be the same on the earth. It would be very lonely without their voices and without their songs.”

Following his honouring of the birds and creatures that walk on the earth, Beaton went on to give thanks “for the rivers and lakes and streams, and the great oceans and tides.” These water forces he called “Mother Earth’s blood that quenches the thirst of all life.”

After thanking the waters, Beaton went on to honour “all the things that are in the sky”, including, “our brother, who is the sun” and “our grandmother, who is the moon.” He explained that “it’s the sun that makes things grow and for this we are grateful” and how it was “our grandmother, the moon, who gives us light at night”.

It was the stars, Beaton’s Thanksgiving Address explained, that provides the basis for when traditional Iroquois can perform their ceremonies. In these ceremonies the Iroquois give “thanks to all the spirits for the spirit world, for the spirit forces, for the spirit powers” and for “the four protectors who protect us from danger and trouble”.

Danny Beaton urged that the entire “Sacred Mother Earth” be understood “in a sacred way.” He gave thanks, “For all the nourishment that our sacred mother gives us, for the sacred beauty that our mother gives us and for the sacred medicines that our mother gives us so we can do our ceremonies.”

As it is customary in the Thanksgiving Address, Beaton concluded by imploring that “we join our minds together as one and we say Nia wen to our chiefs, our clan mothers, our grandfathers and grandmothers, for the people that are praying, for the people that are doing ceremonies, for everything that takes care of us.”

After reciting the Thanksgiving Address, Beaton explained how it was part of “a ceremonial culture of giving thanks”.

This was part of how “as traditional people we have to be connected to the earth by speaking to the earth and giving thanks, and honour to the earth and to all of creation so we are one with creation and we’re not separate from creation, we’re not separate from the sun and so we’re not separate from the water, we’re not separate from the fire, and we’re not separate from the air or the water. In native culture elders teach that going to the water, air and fire is medicine to purify ourselves.”

Environmental crisis
For Beaton, today’s environmental crisis is rooted in the disrespect of both the natural world and the “faithkeepers and clanmothers of this continent”. They have been unrecognized in the dominant culture for their role “as spiritual leaders of this continent over the years”. He explained that “native culture is a culture of oneness with the universe that is around us.”

Beaton explained he was not here to scold, belittle or ridicule, being “of one mind” with those gathered who sought to protect the earth. He then explained the deep spiritual connection traditional native Americans have with creation. This is so deep that often when they explain these bonds the elders “don’t need to have any notes”.

Beaton told how “our way of life is with the spirit world, it’s with the universe, it’s with creation. What we learn to do as we get older is to live with this force, with these forces. The sun, moon, stars, animals, trees, plants, all of these gifts that are, we learned to be a voice to them. We learned to give thanks to them, not to separate ourselves from them.

“And so when we get up everyday we learn to be at one with them. And so our elders learned to be the voice of the wolf, they learned to be the voice of the bear, they learned to be the voice of the eagle, they learned to be the voice of the plants-because we are close to them, because we work with them. We work with the bear, we work with the plants, the medicines, we work with these and this is where we get our strength. This is where we get our strength and this is the culture that has been.”

Traditional native culture living in respect and balance with the earth, explained Beaton, is “the furthest thing from triviality that could ever be. It’s the most profound existence, the way academics and historians have preserved and documented our culture throughout the years of colonization and western thinking.”

Listen to your elders
Native culture, Beaton explained, relies on the wisdom of elders who strive to protect creation, to which they are deeply connected. He told the gathering “it’s the most beautiful experience to spend time with an elder, a spiritual leader”. Such people dedicate their lives to “experiencing ceremonies, experiencing purification, experiencing oneness, with the universe.”

Beaton explained how “ever since colonization, my people have suffered from western thinking. That’s a profound understatement in the history of the earth. I am here for my people, I am here for my ancestors, I am my people, I am my ancestors and ever since colonization, our people have suffered. I am the wounded earth, I am my wounded people, I am the polluted water, I am the polluted air, I am the dishonoured sacred fire. That’s who I am and that’s who you are and that’s what your children will become”.

The reaction
Scharper recalls that he was “very deeply moved” by Danny’s remarks. “Part of it was how he explained how the Mohawks look at earth, air, water, and fire”, Scharper explains. ” He told us we are the earth, we are the fire, we are the water.

Following the address, Helmut Burkhart, then President of Science for Peace and a key organizer of the conference, said that he came to the same conclusions, only after 30 years of scientific research, that Danny made concerning the ontological relationship with creation. Western science, especially physics, is realizing that humans share matter and energy and the sub-atomic level, with all matter which they come in contact.”

For Scharper, “What was very urgent about Danny’s presentation was its sense of reconciliation, optimism and hopefulness. European policies towards indigenous peoples as Danny points out have usually been horrendous, yet Danny spoke with compassion rather than recrimination. He talked about our common purpose in saving Mother Earth. This is what I found to be particularly moving.”

Burkhart is astonished how Beaton “actually summarized the scientific world view in down to earth language about Mother Earth. I thought it was very good. He addressed the water question, he addressed the air question. Any scientific survey couldn’t have handled it any further.”

Burkhart took particular interest in how Beaton’s presentation of the native perspective offers a “different approach” to past conflicts between spirituality and science. He explains how, “Most of us come from a scientific perspective viewpoint. He came from a spiritual side.

“When the Catholic Church criticized Galileo for his scientific views about the earth going around the sun, they actually forced him to comply. We have a similar problem over birth control, which we know as ecologists, is important to protect the planet. However, at a United Nations Conference in Cairo, the Catholics and the Muslims used religious arguments to refuse to sign on to a population planning document. I found that with the native viewpoint there isn’t this conflict between spirituality and science.”

Strong message heard and spread
Another participant who was quite moved by Beaton’s presentation was Colin Soskolne, who is a Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

He believes that, “The environmental message of Danny Beaton was no less than profound. I was so impressed by the message that I made his films available to my colleagues in Australia. I think it provided a glimpse of how we can have a more sustainable future for ourselves and for future generations. The essence of the message is how to live in harmony with the environment. At least the Iroquois elders he portrayed in his speech understand the urgency of achieving sustainability. They are closer to the land than what western civilization has allowed itself to become.”

Leading scientists and scholars appreciate the wisdom of the spiritual teachings of native elders about the sacredness of creation and the need for leaders to be custodians, not the “owners” and exploiters of the earth. This was the great accomplishment of Beaton’s presentation, the first to be made in the three World Order Conferences that gave the perspective of Native American spiritual leaders.

It is tragic that the voice of elders was not heard even a century ago, when the then much smaller environmental community in North America was quite isolated from native Americans seeking to defend their ancestral and sacred lands from industrial pillage and exploitation.

Then the tragic massacre of Wounded Knee took place when natives were peacefully praying for a return of their buffalo to the great plains. No scientist, professor, or even the early environmental champions of this period, who were in the Sierra Club and Audubon Society, joined in this prayer for the earth.

Great spiritual leaders such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were never able to sit down with scientists to explain what would happen to our common humanity if the earth were to continue to be pillaged by the invasion of native lands.

Just when scientists and scholars are coming to respect the teachings of the elders, many native leaders in Canada are turning against it. I asked Danny what he thought about this dilemma.

“It’s no wonder why people like George Bush are able to get support for a third world war. What happens if Korea, Russia and China and the whole Middle East get fed up with American dictatorship and exploitation? George Bush is spending millions of dollars to feed soldiers, instead of starving children and building tanks, rockets and bombs, instead of fixing the environment from nuclear waste and acid rain.

“People like Matthew Coon Come and Ted Moses are bragging about selling our sacred rivers to Quebec Hydro for 3.6 million dollars. My hope and actions are with the spiritual elders of this continent and it is our original instructions from our ancestors to protect Mother earth from harm. I am truly thankful that there are still some people focused on peace and harmony and the protection of our children’s future. Nia wen.”

Dr. John Bacher, who has his doctorate in Canadian History, is the author of two books. He is also an environmentalist with the Preservation of Agricultural Lands Society and a peace activist. In 2000 he ran as a candidate for the New Democratic Party in the federal election, and has been nominated by the NDP for the next Ontario provincial election.

By Jim West

In midst of the political activity surrounding the First Nations Governance Act, when it goes to the committee hearing stage this fall, it takes the future of hope of aboriginal women for new rights from across the nation.

Aboriginal self-government. Is it the vision of healthy, proud growing young generations of aboriginal youth growing to maturity, enjoying a full and happy life moving through a new rewarding full life? Or is it a contradiction in terms, a political oxymoron?

Or perhaps the hope of male-dominated band councils, whose increasing numbers are characterized by nepotism and corruption practices; (approximately one-third) leaving aboriginal women across Canada out of the loop of emergent First Nations governing structures.

First Nations women from across the nation are demanding a greater role in the changes in governance heralded by the First Nations Governance Initiative (FNGI), the INAC-driven reform of the archaic Indian Act, now on first reading before the House of Commons.

“We have to get women out there to deal with their own issues. We have to give them a vehicle to speak and be represented without being under the arms of the chiefs,” said Gail Sparrow, NAWA board member and former chief of Musqueam.

The history
Last October, the National Aboriginal Women’s Association (NAWA), was founded with a $225,000 federal grant to work with Indian Affairs in the federal governance initiative. And the issues of Canada’s aboriginal women are many as we shall see but first, a little history.

Aboriginal women have been systematically marginalized by the Indian Act from its inception because the act was primarily a means to assimilate all First Nations people through education and society.

Over the course of the next 100 years of the act’s existence, native women were displaced from the traditional circles of matrilineal prestige and power found in the potlatch, feasting, healing and motherhood. The creation of the band council system of aboriginal government paved the way for the male-dominated band councils we see today.

It is well known that native women who married non-status men lost their status and non-native women who married status Indian men gained status for themselves and their children.

In 1985, Bill C-31 amended the Indian Act to do four things:
– it rescinded the “enfranchisement” provisions of the old Indian Act and provided for the reinstatement of persons who lost their status as a result of those provisions;
– it did away with the partrilineal definition of eligibility for Indian status and replaced it with new gender neutral eligibility rules;
– it enabled bands to assume control of their band membership list on condition that they adopt a membership code that conforms to the bill; and,
– it allowed bands to deny membership to certain classes of status Indians who would otherwise be entitled to membership if control of the band list had continued to reside with INAC.

Since 1985, over 120,000 aboriginal people have regained status, the majority being aboriginal women who lost their status and their children.

The main focus of the bill was to make the Indian Act conform to section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to make men and women equal. It was widely anticipated that the passage of the bill would do away with the category of “non-status Indians” and in the future all Indians would be status and accorded the rights and benefits of status Indians.

Instead, Bill C-31 created two new classes of status Indians. Since 1985, all status Indians are now registered under section 6 of the Indian Act. Section 6 contains two subsections, sections 6(1) and section 6(2). A person must prove that he/she has two parents entitled to Indian status, then he/she would be registered under section 6(1). If a person has only one parent of Indian status, they are registered under section 6(2).

Those individuals registered under section 6(2) must marry a status Indian to pass the status on to their children. Section 6(2) thus creates a half Indian with its second generation cut-off clause. They are the growing numbers of “Ghost People” wrote Pam Paul, in her analysis of Bill C-31 entitled “The Politics of Legislated Identity” prepared for the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs in September 1999.

“Currently, the “Ghost People” are children of the Bill C-31, 6(2) reinstatees. However, in one or two years when the children born after 1985 who are registered under section 6 (2) reach child-bearing age, and out-parent with a non-status person, the rise in the numbers of “Ghost People” will grow.”

Paul goes on to explain that because Bill C-31 also provided bands with the means to assume control over who had band membership and to establish rules for eligibility. Whereas before Indian status and band membership meant the same thing, Bill C-31 separated the two categories.

People who regained their status through Bill C-31 had to apply to the band if the band developed a membership code. Bands had until June 1987 to develop these membership codes if a community wanted to exclude section 6(2)’s from their membership codes; as a result, many codes were developed in a hurried fashion with little or no thought of the future consequences of the code.

A report prepared by the Parliamentary Research Branch in February 1996, entitled ‘Indian Status and Band Membership Issues’ by Jill Wherrett, noted that some Bill C-31 registrants were granted automatic band membership; others were granted conditional membership.

Membership codes vary
As of September 1995, 240 of the 608 bands had assumed control of their membership codes. Bands were now free to develop membership codes with criteria very different of federal rules for recognition of Indian status.

Some bands developed open code policies while others, resisting new members for a variety of reasons, adopted more restrictive codes. A review of 236 codes adopted by bands from June 1985 to May 1992 identifies four main types. These are:
-one-parent decent rules, whereby a person is eligible for membership based on the membership or eligibility of one parent;
– two-parent decent rules, where both of a person’s parents must be members or eligible for membership for that person to gain status;
– blood quantum rules, which base eligibility on the amount of Indian blood a person possesses (typically 50%);
– Indian Act rules, which base membership on sections 6(1) and 6(2) of the Indian Act.

Of the 236 codes, 38% used the one-parent rule, 28 % had the two-parent requirement, 13% had the blood quantum criteria, and 21% relied on the Indian Act rules, not adopting membership codes.

While the rights of bands to determine their own membership is viewed as an important step toward self-government, many women have had difficulties in exercising their rights as reinstated band members or in receiving services and benefits from their bands.

Soon after the passage of the bill, several cases came to light where women already living on-reserve lost some of their benefits because their bands refused to provide services to reinstated women and children until their band membership codes were passed.

In June 1995, the Canadian Human Rights Commission ordered the Montagnais du Lac-saint-Jean band council to pay damages to four women who had regained their status under Bill C-31.

Prior to the passage of the bill, the band council placed a moratorium on various rights and services for reinstated members until a membership code was in place. When the moratorium was later lifted, the commission ruled that the women were discriminated against.

Reluctance towards new members
There are a number of reasons why bands are reluctant to accept new members. Some are concerned about taking new members without guarantees of increased funding from government. There is a shortage of land, resources and housing.

Bands’ concerns over sharing scarce resources have been at the heart of the debate over membership. Band councils and aboriginal service providers resented the actions of government in imposing new members on limited financial and human resources and often displayed this resentment through unfair treatment of Bill C-31 registrants.

In some communities, the treatment was overt and took the form of outright refusal to accommodate the needs of new registrants. In other communities, more subtle actions made it clear that the new registrants they were simply not welcome.

Thus, over the years since Bill C-31 was passed, the issue of membership has become an issue of extreme controversy among First Nations communities, given the various recent rules governing the determination of membership and the benefits and services associated with that membership. In the long-term, the overall Indian will decline and the numbers of “ghost people” will rise considerably.

Several major court cases arose in the aftermath of Bill C-31, most notably the Corbiere decision and the Sawridge Band decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Corbiere decision
Corbiere addressed the rights of band members living off-reserve in voting in band elections that forced a fundamental change in how band elections are conducted.The Indian Act voting regulations were amended to comply with the Supreme Court of Canada decision in the case of John Corbiere et al. v. the Batchewana Indian Band and Her Majesty the Queen.

The Court ruled that the words, found in section 77 (1) of the Indian Act, “and is ordinarily resident on the reserve,” violated the Charter rights of off-reserve members of First Nations that hold their elections under the Indian Act.

This decision, known as the Corbiere decision, and resulting transitional amendments to the voting regulations, provide for First Nations holding elections or referendums under the Indian Act to permit members, living off reserve, to vote.

The Supreme Court provided 18 months for Canada to consult with First Nations and implement the decision. This time period expired on November 20, 2000.

Sawridge Band addressed the rights of reinstated women and the rights of band councils to determine membership and is the most significant decision to date on this issue.

Three Alberta bands challenged sections 8 to 14.3 of the Indian Act on the grounds these infringe upon the rights of Indian bands to determine their own membership, as protected by section 35 of the Constitution Act.

The bands also applied for a declaration stating that the imposition of additional members on the band constituted an interference on the latters’ rights under section 2(d) freedom of association section of the Charter.

In a July 7, 1995 decision, the court upheld the 1985 amendments contained in BillC-31, finding there were no existing aboriginal or treaty rights under section 35(1) to First Nation control over membership or they had been extinguished by section 35(4) of the Constitution Act, 1982, which guarantees aboriginal and treaty rights referred to in section 35(1) equally to aboriginal men and women.

Band challenges
The complexities of Indian status and band membership pose significant challenges for First Nations. The status rules introduced by Bill C-31, combined with band membership codes, have created different “classes” of Indians, a situation that is further complicated by residency on or off reserve.

As Clatworthy and Smith discuss in their study of the population implications of Bill C-31, membership codes based on one-parent descent rules will create band members without status who may exercise political rights associated with membership, but lack rights tied to Indian status. Two-parent descent rules will lead to Indians registered under both sections 6(1) and 6(2), but without membership and associated political rights.

The authors anticipate that within fifty years, two-parent codes may disenfranchise approximately half of those people with Indian status who are registered to First Nations with two-parent codes.(47)

In their view, “First Nations’ communities run the risk of encountering growing tensions and conflict around these inequalities. Distinctions between ‘classes’ are likely to become embedded in the social and political life of First Nations.”(48)

Jill Wherrett
Political and Social Affairs, February 1996

Then in 1999, the House of Commons passed Bill-49, the First Nations Land Management Act into law by a 117-45 vote.
Bill C-49 grants the participating 14 bands almost unlimited powers over the ownership, management, and expropriation of band lands.

The implications of Bill C-49 for the rights and positions of native women loomed large. It led to the court challenge launched against the federal government by the BC Native Women’s Society (supported by three major native organizations) to require that issues of native women’s rights be properly addressed before the enactment.

Property rights
In a February 2,1999, letter to the National Post, Wendy Lockhart-Lunderberg noted that “native women will bear the brunt of these legislative provision and will be denied protections they would have otherwise be afforded through treaties.”

“I think it’s shameful the government ignored aboriginal women in Canada,” Lockhart-Lundberg said in an interview shortly after Bill C-49 was passed.

“We do not have the same rights as all other women in Canada. I can’t inherit or pass-on land. If there is a divorce for native women, they do not have the same rights as all other women in Canada.”

What Lockhart is talking about is property rights. Under the Canadian constitution, provincial law governs the division of marriage assets upon marriage breakdown. But section 91(24) of the 1867 Constitution Act, confers exclusive legislative authority to the federal government in all matters dealing with the subject “Indians and lands reserved for the Indians.”

Therefore, with respect to the division of on-reserve property upon marriage breakdown, a court is not governed by provincial family law but by the federal Indian Act which contains no provisions for the division of marital property upon marriage breakdown.

The cumulative history of federal legislation has denied aboriginal women property and inheritance rights and has created the perception that women are not entitled to those rights. Most aboriginal women live on-reserve with their husbands until marriage breakup.

Therefore, it is a matter of historical and current fact that it is most likely to be the male partner who, under law, possesses on-reserve property.

The Supreme Court of Canada supported this perception in a 1986 decision that held, as a result of the Indian Act, a woman cannot possess or apply for a one-half interest in on-reserve property for which her husband holds a Certificate of Possession.

A woman may, at best, receive a an award of compensation to replace her half interest in on-reserve properties. Since possession of on-reserve property is an important factor in a woman’s ability to live on-reserve, the denial of interest in on-reserve family properties upon marriage breakup is to deny them their culture as aboriginal women and part of their identity.

Consider the example of Wendy Lockhart Lundberg of Richmond, BC, an off-reserve member of the Squamish Nation of North Vancouver and a board member of NAWA.

In 1947, her mother Nona Lockhart, married a non-native man and lost her status as an Indian. Nona ‘s father was Henry “Hawkeye” Baker, one of the famous North Shore lacrosse players, who passed away in 1968.

In his last will and testament, approved by Indian Affairs, Baker left his all off his assets and house on Squamish reserve. Despite having regained her status through Bill C-31 in 1988, Nona Lockhart has been refused inheritance to the house where she grew up by the Squamish band council and the decision stands to this day.

The original house has been torn down and replaced by a Sechelt band member who still lives there.

Despite repeated attempts, Nona Lockhart has never received compensation for the house willed to her legally by her father. Nona attempted to participate in programs and services, even applied for a house but has been all but ignored by the Squamish band council.

Her daughter Wendy regularly attended band meetings and she was not informed of the proposed changes encompassed in the 1999 amendments of Bill C49. Which also granted band councils the right to expropriate any land on reserve with only thirty days notice with appropriate compensation.

Wendy even traveled to Ottawa to make a formal presentation to the Senate Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, on May 4, 1999, on behalf of her mother arguing that the new powers of expropriation may be used in her mother’s case.

Native women fear more discrimination
Many native women are fearful that aboriginal self-government as envisioned by the present male leadership is nothing more than a continuation of the discrimination and oppression from the male-dominated band councils.

In a March 2001 article by Rebecca Atkinson entitled “Native Women still far from Justice”, Atkinson argues that the widespread mistreatment of aboriginal women by their predominantly male leaders has forced aboriginal women to seek secure the same rights as other women through legislation resulting in what she calls “a 30-year gender war that has pitted the political aspirations of aboriginal leaders against the rights and needs of female band members.”

Native leadership, says Atkinson, views such attempts as an invitation to the federal government to interfere with self-determination (i.e. aboriginal self-government).

Writes Atkinson, “The gender struggle has translated into the suffering of native women under the current systems of government – through physical and sexual abuse, discriminatory restorative justice measures and unresolved gaps in federal policy.”

Angered by the discrimination, lack of accountability, abuses of power and outright physical abuse, in some cases, native women are standing up to the male domination, out from “under the arms of the chiefs,” at the risk of ostracism from their own reserves.

The problem stems from the control of band funds, direct transfers of multi-million dollar cash infusions each year sometimes referred to as a “lottery.”

“Aboriginal women don’t have a voice. The chief’s haven’t been truly representing us,” says Wendy Lockhart-Lundberg. ” Twenty top councillors and administrators earn approximately $2.5 million, tax free.”

NAWA hopes to ensure a right of return to reserves for aboriginal women in the First Nations Governance Act for aboriginal women married to non-aboriginals and address concerns regarding inheritance laws as exemplified in the Henry “Hawkeye” property case.

“We’re been a sleeping giant. We’re going to rise up and take our rightful place in society. Until now, we didn’t have the vehicle to be politically recognized.

“Well, now we’re here, we’re not going away and finally, women are going to have a voice,” said Sparrow,

By B.H. Bates

There are as many ways to beat a drum, as there are stars in the sky.

May I suggest that you: Carry a big drum, but walk softly!

I’m all for defending one’s honor. If you call my mother a low down so and so … prepare to bleed! If you disrespect my father’s good name … notify your next of kin! If you don’t like my articles … shut your fat mouth!

I’m only kidding of course. I only wrote that last line in the hopes of putting a “bee in your bonnet.” If you have a problem with anything I may make light of, please feel free to write and let me have it!

After all, isn’t that what a newspaper is all about – getting the word out? The only way to solve a problem is to discuss it. A problem is like a mold, if you leave a problem hidden away in the dark, it will never go away.

I recently received an angry e-mail, about one of my articles (Finding Pride in the Mirror). In the article, I wrote that I had changed my opinion of the “Down and out” and how I thought their predicament was their own damn fault. The electric letter went on to say that: “I had a light go on, after I volunteered at a local friendship center.”

And that person was right! For years I was of the opinion: “If you’re a drunken Indian on the streets … tough shit!” And the reason for my contempt was because I was trying to make it in the business world and I thought that “they” only made my endeavors harder.

You know the old “bug-a-boo” about how “they” reflect badly upon the rest of the native community.

In fact, a light did go on and I wish a lot of other people would see the “light” too! I came to the realization, that the poor Bros’ (or sis’), who find themselves on the streets, have nothing to do with my position in life!

But I’d like to let that “e-mail-er” know, that I’ve never in my life disrespected or mistreated any unfortunate person. Hell, half the people I grew up with, at one time, had a little problem with the bottle, and the other half I was related to! And to this day, they’re still my friends and I’m still related to the rest!

The same mad e-mail-er went on to say that I was putting down the pissed off militants, the malcontents, the “Drum Beaters!” Again, “E” was right! I am putting them down! They are doing more harm (for the native cause) than good.

Don’t kiss the native cause good-bye
I look at it this way – one of the most powerful entities on the planet, the United States of America, got their ass kicked by little ol’ Vietnam. Then the States takes on the fourth largest army in the world and they blow away Iraq in mere days. And why, you may ask, is it possible for a small group of indigenous people to succeed, where a large army has failed? It was the people!

They didn’t have the support of the people in Vietnam or at home in the United States. A “just cause” will win the hearts of the masses! And there-in lays the path to our inevitable victory. If we win the hearts of the people, we natives will one day see our dreams come true!

And how do natives accomplish this task? I can tell you one thing that won’t work – acting like a whiny two-year-old! If you piss off the people you’re trying to win over to your side, by getting in their faces and throwing up the past at them – you may as well bend over and kiss it (the native cause) good-bye!

Most non-native people, already know of the injustices perpetrated against the natives of North America. And worldwide most people, other than the Klu Klax Klan, already feel some compassion toward the plight of the First Nations people.

We natives have another bit of good fortune in our favor: today most people already have some animosity toward the government and the yo-yos that run it. If we show the world that we’re trying to do the right thing, by proudly fighting for our place in the sun, we will prevail.

And I’ll give you two examples of the right way and the wrong way. I won’t mention any names, only Band #1 and Band #2.

Band #1, educated their people, they welcomed business and above all the Chief and the Elders set a good example to the others. Soon they prospered and became a model to other reserves across the land!

Band #2, fought with everyone at every level, from the local township to the halls of power in Ottawa. When opportunity knocked, they threw up road block after road block, just because things didn’t go exactly their way. They felt the false power of being a feared bully. Soon, no one wanted to do business with them. They now have lots of potential – but that’s all they have!