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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 19, 2005
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| October 2, 2004 |
Indigenous Peoples' Identity in the 21st Century – William "Wolverine" Ignace and Alvin Nelson |
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| William Ignace sitting at a camp fire in British Columbia |
Dressed in a plaid shirt, rumpled jeans and with a farmer's baseball cap jammed down tight over his head, William "Wolverine" Ignace hardly looks the part of a man that has cost the Canadian government millions of dollars in legal expenses. The slight Ignace peers out at the Peace Boat audience from a weather-beaten face with penetrating eyes, to give a brief history of indigenous tribes in Canada, also known collectively as the First Nations. A respected elder of the Shuswap Nation and an organic farmer, Ignace has spent much of his life fighting for the rights of his people and telling their story. |
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| The Vancouver skyline was built on indigenous land |
Along with the Inuits in northern Canada, the First Nations are descendents of those living in Canada before the arrival of Europeans. For indigenous people such as Ignace, this label, given by the Canadian government, is part of the systematic discrimination against them. "They called us First Nations, but what does that make other people – Second Nations? Third Nations?" He emphasized that the fight against lumping different indigenous groups under one name is critical to protecting their culture and the integrity of their territories. By being called First Nations, Ignace argues that their power of self-determination falls to the Canadian government, rather than if they are called indigenous people a – group defined and protected under international law. |
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| Alvin Nelson |
For many indigenous people, their first contact with the Canadian government was from white settlers and fur trappers passing through their territory in the 1850s. This traffic continued to increase until it culminated in an 1884 law banning their language and ceremonies, such as the Sun Dance in remembrance of the dead. Although that law was rescinded in 1951, the government started in the 1960s to place indigenous youths in boarding schools far from their homes. According to Lil'Wat Nation member and businessman Alvin Nelson, whose father spent 20 years in such a school, the education there was one of forgetting. Ignace is still angry about this policy, which many other Canadians are unaware of. "Their intention was to make brown people white. It was totally an assimilation policy to break our people so we couldn't fight for our human rights." |
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| Nelson's friend escaped from a boarding school on this island |
Despite this, many Indigenous people remained self-sustaining until the 1960s. "Around that time the government instituted a “relief system” that took away a man's responsibility for looking after his own family," Nelson explained. This shift in lifestyle away from hunting made many dependent on the government's system. From the late 1800s until 1981, the government and companies took advantage of Indigenous territories’ rich resources, through intensive logging, gold mines and fish plants. "Over $81 billion Canadian dollars were extracted from our territories and our payment back for a person on welfare is only $180 a month," Nelson pointed out. "It's really tough and sometimes people give up and sign really bad treaties that split our people up." |
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| Ignace (L) and Nelson (R) talking to Peace Boat participants |
Land held in trust by the government for the Indigenous people was gradually given or sold away, primarily benefiting provincial governments, corporations and a handful of Indigenous leaders. One of the reasons for this was the conflict of interest in chiefs and civil servants who oversaw projects that profited them. In 1982, the Canada Constitution Act required the government to submit to impartial mediators in any disputes with indigenous nations. Nelson, however, argues this wasn't reflected in changes made to the British North American Act that governs indigenous land use, made without the involvement of Indigenous leaders. "It took thousands of years for us to create those territorial boundaries. We developed treaties with other tribes. We had to stand our ground and spill our blood for that," said Nelson, who lost his job of nine years after protesting in Ottawa against those changes. |
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| Ignace at a peace camp set up by the Lil'Wat Nation |
Ignace said that indigenous people aren't taking these violations of their rights laying down. "The same laws we depend on are the same laws that the government is breaking." Ignace rattles off the various appeals they have made in courts of law - 41 to the provincial government, five to the Canadian supreme court, three times to the Queen and once to the Hague in 1991. "We try to do everything according to he law, yet we're still dealing with this conflict." In 2003, the UN Human Rights Commission criticized Canada's refusal to answer charges about their treatment of indigenous people, including the death of indigenous rights activist Dudley George, which Amnesty International and other groups had been lobbying Canada to open a public inquiry into. The victims of this conflict are not limited to indigenous people - more than seven lawyers working for indigenous rights have been disbarred, notably outspoken advocates Jack Cram?? and Bruce Clark. |
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| A traditional dream catcher |
This legal limbo has resulted in the use extreme force against indigenous people. Ignace points out that over half the people killed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in their 125 years of duty in western Canada have been indigenous people. He also speaks from personal experience, having been shot at in 1995 during a two month stand-off with the RCMP at Gustafsen Lake, the largest operation in the RCMP's history and the Canadian military's biggest land-based operation since the Korean War. Although the facts about what happened at the lake are disputed, one protestor was killed, a protestor's truck destroyed by a government land mine and Ignace shot out the steering mechanism of a military vehicle. |
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| Peace Boat in Vancouver's harbour |
When the group was brought to trail they were refused the argument of self-defense - which carries a lighter penalty - ruling that their actions were criminal. A Oregon District Court judge, however, refused extradition of James Pitawanakwat, who had escaped the stand-off and crossed over to the US, ruling that the Gustafsen Lake incident was political, not criminal. Throughout the stand-off, Ignace said the protestors were discredited by the RCMP in the media as cultists, radical criminals and squatters. "I guess we're not allowed to squat on our own land." While many of the key army, RCMP and political figures involved in the stand-off have since been promoted, Ignace served five years of an eight year sentence. "After all that, if I had to do it again I would." |
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| A poster calling for indigenous solidarity |
In July 2004 Ignace helped organize a National Warriors Society in July 2004 to publicize the use of force against indigenous people. "We know that there are other people being suppressed by the Canadian government, so we try to show our support even though they're so far away," said Ignace, pointing out that when Mohawks were protesting 3,000 miles away, they showed solidarity by shutting down the main road in their town. Indigenous leaders are also coming up with other creative ways to face their challenges. When the government refused to fund intensive indigenous language classes for Lil'Wat Nation youth, despite the number of fluent speakers dwindling to 265 people, Nelson helped create a volunteer-based language immersion program. "One of our sayings is that we're really tired of just surviving, we want to really live." |
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