History and Current Issues Native People

Joseph Brant - Brantford

Brantford and Oshweken

Olympics Four Aboriginal groups were official hosts of the Olympic Games

8 th Fire A CBC series dedicated to understanding the plight of first nations in Canada. Handout

Asian Origins Bering Strait is a waterway that now separates Russia from North America Submerged landmass once connected Siberian mainland with North America People are believed to have moved across the land bridge 10,000 to 30,000 years ago

Why and How Why did they come to America (not called America then)? They followed the food – elk, deer, bison and even wooly mammoths How do we know this? Fossil evidence reveals that they travelled as far as Chile by 14,000 ya

Aboriginals InuitMétis Status IndiansNon-Status Indians Wab Kinew of 8 th Fire First Nations Between 1971 and 2011, the Aboriginal Ancestry population grew by 487% while the Canadian population grew by 52%.

First Nations Group of aboriginal people who share the same culture and heritage Status and non-status Indians National Chief Perry Bellegarde

Status Indians registered as an Indian under the Indian Act are exempt from paying income tax on any income they earn on a reserve are not required to pay Ontario Retail Sales Tax (RST) on most goods or services that will be consumed or used on a reserve. personal property of a status Indian cannot be seized if it is situated on a reserve

Non-status Indians Not registered under the Act, but self-identify as native

Métis French word meaning “mixed blood” – people of mixed ancestry Children of French fur traders and Cree women in the prairies and of English and Scottish traders & Dene women in the North Recognized as Aboriginal since 1982 Controversial as to who belongs Métis flag oldest flag in Canada. Used before Has an infinity sign with two different backgrounds: Red was the colour of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Blue was the colour of the North-West Company.

Inuit Natives originating from the region between Labrador to Northwest Territories 50% live in Nunavut Inuit Register defines as Inuit all children born to an Inuk and a person of another race, regardless of the second person’s race 59,115 in 2012 Census Median age of 21

Aboriginal Identity Percentage

Aboriginal Issues Problems ignored or glossed over by history textbooks. Suicide rate Substance abuse Conditions of extreme poverty and isolation Land Claims Attawapiskat, Ontario

Residential Schools Abuse and cultural loss involving residential schools About 150,000 aboriginal, Inuit and Métis children were removed from their communities and forced to attend the schools. Church-run, government-funded boarding schools Churches: Anglican, United, Presbyterian and Catholic (75% ) Chief Phil Fontaine and Prime Minister Stephen Harper during official apology for residential schools’ abuses 2008

The Schools The conditions The apology

Residential School Problems Students lived in substandard conditions and endured physical and emotional abuse. Many allegations of sexual abuse. Students at residential schools rarely had opportunities to see examples of normal family life. They were in boarding school 10 months a year, away from their parents. All correspondence from the children was written in English, which many parents couldn't read. Brothers and sisters at the same school rarely saw each other, as all activities were segregated by gender. When students returned to the reserve, they often found they didn't belong. They didn't have the skills to help their parents. Students were discouraged from speaking their first language or practising native traditions. If they were caught, they would experience severe punishment. Students became ashamed of their native heritage.

Common Experience Payment The Indian residential schools settlement has been approved. The healing continues.

Residential School Compensation $1.9 billion compensation package for those who were forced to attend residential schools set aside in 2007 Common Experience Payment: Former residential school students were eligible for $10,000 for the first year or part of a year they attended school, plus $3,000 for each subsequent year. Deadline to submit Sept Any remaining money to support learning needs of aboriginals. As of Sept. 30, 2012, $1.55 billion paid, representing 75,800 cases. United Church of Canada formally apologized in 1986 Presbyterian Church statement of apology in 1994 Anglican Church of Canada apology in 1993 In April, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his "sorrow" to a delegation from Canada's Assembly of First Nations for the abuse and "deplorable" treatment that aboriginal students suffered.

Aboriginal Voices Wab Kinew, interviewed by George Stroumboulopoulos relationship.html LINK relationship.htmlLINK Who is Wab? 8 th Fire: Aboriginal Peoples, Canada and the way forward 500 Years in 2MIN LINK to 8th Fire INTRO 10 MIN So, what went wrong? WAB on RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLSRESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS Explain Paul Martin’s comments at the end:

The Trials of Nunavut In extremis – stats & video of crime surge Capital Crime – gallery and northern patrol, Iqaluit Culture and Clash –home & art, Cape Dorset Road to Redemption – Leo & Repulse Bay nal/nunavut/

In 2007, the United Nations passed a resolution called the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:  Self-determination and self-government;  Pursue economic, social, and cultural development  Own and manage lands and resources; and,  A nationality. Article 2 of UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

I’m not the Indian You Had in Mind you-had-in-mind/ you-had-in-mind/