Post-War Indian Policy and Aboriginal Activism
Post-War times in the United States were marked by the rise of Indian termination policy and African-American civil rights movement. Against the background of its neighbour, Canada also decided to overview policies and attitude toward First Nations. In 1969, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Minister of Indian Affairs Jean Chretien wrote the 1969 White Paper, a policy paper proposal, according to which Indians became equal to Canadians and Indian status was eliminated. The White Paper abolished the Indian Act that had existed in Canada since 1876 and was considered to be discriminating. However, the new proposal did not get approval from First Nations and was abandoned in 1970. Why did Indians not support the 1969 White Paper and the idea become equal to Canadians like African-Americans did in the U.S.? This paper is dedicated to the analysis of the 1969 White Paper, its creation and abolishment. It contains information about the role and place of Indians in Canadian society in those days, reasons that led to a creation of the 1969 White Paper, its provisions, response to them, and the following aftermath.
For a start, it is necessary to give background information about the Indians in Canada and observe the reasons that led to the creation of the 1969 White Paper. First Nations have always seen themselves as a part of the treaty relationship with non-Aboriginal peoples. Most of those treaties were aimed to keep peace and friendship between Natives and Europeans based on trade and mutual help. Starting with the times of fur trade and continuing with various international conflicts, Canadians have always preferred First Nations to be in the ranks of an alliance system. However, with the course of time, the Canadian government had started to find the Indian status of Natives less acceptable for the country. In the second part of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries, the major purpose of the Canadian government and the Department of Indian Affair was “to eliminate Indians culturally”. They planned to achieve their purpose with the new mechanism called enfranchisement. Enfranchisement was aimed to make First Nations “surrender their distinctive Indian status and become full citizens of the country” and had become a central idea of Canadian policies until the late 1940s.
After the Second World War, The Indian population experienced its rise, and the policy of enfranchisement and Indian assimilation became questioned. Indian contribution to the military operations in the days of the war awakened the interest of Canadians in alleviating First Nations conditions. The efforts of Indian leaders to have an impact on the government’s policies brought mixed results. The major Indian policy issues shifted to the settlement of land claims, clarification of treaties, and the problem of self-determination. The leaders of First Nations got an opportunity to represent their interests in the Canadian government. In 1960, John Diefenbaker offered to give all Canadian Indians full citizenship without abolishing their Indian status. His offer did not get enough support from First Nations, but Indians got a right to vote in all elections, both federal and provincial. Diefenbaker also granted Natives the franchise that was viewed as a way to accelerate their assimilation into Canadian society. In 1961, a joint parliamentary committee struck that the Indians were a racial minority and that they should accept the benefits of having the full Canadian citizenship. At the same time, the Canadian society supported Indians and their distinctiveness and criticized “the government's 'benign neglect' of Indians, in particular their relatively poor socio-economic and living conditions.”
The twenty years of the Indian-activism policies ended in 1963. It was a great experience for both Native leaders and fledging rights associations. Natives could not have enough impact on the government’s policies “since they lacked the human and financial resources to sustain a persistent political lobby.” In 1966-67, the government published the Hawthorn report that “view Natives as Canadian citizens possessing special rights.” The Hawthorn report enhanced provided for First Nations social, educational, and health services assumed their advocacy role, and technically made them “citizens plus.” Those recommendations were well met by Natives, their supporters, and members of the new Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Thus, the policies of 1966-68 were aimed to implement the Hawthorn report, and the same was thought to be in 1969, but suddenly came the previous Indian policy’s dramatic departure.
Proposed in 1969 the White Paper was a part of a policy to integrate Indians into Canadian society. However, instead of the peaceful integration, the new document was aimed on the Indian termination. While the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development had carried out a number of consultations with the representatives of Natives, the real idea of the document belongs to Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the new Liberal Prime Minister who came to power in 1968. Trudeau and his government arbitrarily dismissed the Hawthorn report and started new Statement of Indian Policy called the White Paper. The representatives of Natives and the personnel of the Department of Indian Affairs warned the creators of the White Paper about the contents of the document, but under the influence of Trudeau, they ignored them and fashioned “a document that embodied Trudeau’s strong commitment to individualism and antipathy to collective ideologies such as nationalism.” The major consequence of that ignorance was that “the White Paper decried Indian status and attributed all the problems First Nations faced to their being kept apart from other Canadians by such distinctiveness.” The White Paper declared that all treaties between the Indians and the Canadian government would be reviewed and the only way to accept their claims to land was to do it through a policy that made Indians the full members of the Canadian society. The Indian provinces would get required social programs and services and the government’s responsibility for First Nations would be abandoned as soon as Indians get Canadian citizenship. In other words, the 1969 White Paper suggested “the elimination of Indian reserves, an end to Indian status, and winding up the operations of the Indian Affairs Department in five years.”
It is worth noting that The 1969 White Paper proposed to abolish the Indian Act considering it discriminative and oppressing. However, many Aboriginal leaders supported the document that had estimated their existence in the Canadian territory for almost a century. Most Indian governments in Canada derived their power exactly from the provisions of the Indian Act. In other words, the Indian Act stated the rights and freedoms of First Nations. Native leadership “elected under its provisions, operated under its authority,” and “increasing assume responsibilities hitherto delegated to the Department of Indian Affairs.” Political and administrative structures together with major provisions of the Act were familiar to lots of communities that had already operated under the Indian Act for several generations. Coates states that the Indian Act was not just the document that had brought Indians a lot of pain; it was also “the legal and administrative focus of Aboriginal distinctiveness.” The abolishment of the Indian Act meant the abolishment of Indian uniqueness and their identity even not making them the full members of the Canadian society. It, of course, was profitable for Trudeau whose major purpose was “to eliminate all special provisions and rights for status Indians.” Technically, the abolishment of the Act deprived First Nations government obligations and legal political rights.
Quoting Dickason, Belanger states that for some people the 1969 White Paper was a governmental way “to response to the threat of the American Indian Movement spreading into Canada.” Either this suggestion is true and the government was afraid of possible Indian uprisings or it just wanted to save money on the costs required by Indian affairs, it hid its real reasons in the language of desirable equality and freedom to develop Indian traditions and culture as a part of prosperous Canadian heritage. The federal government just tried to ease its work and to transfer most part of its responsibilities to provincial jurisdictions through the bureaucratic control. Such transferring required the federal government to distance from all the previous treaty obligations and responsibilities.
The response to the new document came immediately. In the new document, Indians found a threat to the rights that had been granted them since Confederation. First Nations and their supporters discovered the end of the Indians’ separate legal status and felt themselves betrayed. Quoting one of the Indian leaders talking about the new governmental policy, Scott calls it “thinly disguised programme of extermination through assimilation.” The Indians also saw the White Paper as a way the government tries to balk from the sufferings it had brought aboriginal communities before. The White Paper stated that it was exactly the Indian status that prevented the productive cooperation between Canadians and First Nations. The White Paper also proposed removing all references about the Indians’ status from the Canadian Constitution. It was the first time when the Canadian government made an attempt to consolidate the whole Indian policy into one document. In the White Paper, Trudeau and his government minimized the importance of the treaties to “limited and minimal promises” that had already been kept. The government stated that Natives misunderstood and overestimated treaties and it was the time for change and getting equal rights with the rest of Canadian population.
Indians and their supporters responded angrily with various “red”, “beige”, and “brown” papers that clearly expressed their negative opinion towards the White Paper. Those papers quoted and cited the major Indian policies that had been held since 1943 to 1963, “presented in great detail the claims and rights agendas.” Generally, the response to the White Paper showed how much Native political leadership had changed during 1943-1963. First Nations became more confident in themselves and their rights. They relinquished their position with intensity, breadth, and impact. The new National Indian Brotherhood that had been formed in 1968 and was the representative of all Indians publically denunciated the Canadian government. Miller argues that one of the strongest statements against Trudeau’s policies came from the Cree leader Harold Cardinal and the Indian Association of Alberta’s Red Paper. Cardinal opposed Trudeau’s convictions to the Natives’ understanding of treatments. Quoting Cardinal, Miller states, “The Indians entered into the treaty negotiations as honourable men . . . Our leaders of that time thought they were dealing with an equally honourable people.” The Red Paper, in turn, concentrated on the Indian vision of the relations between Natives and the Canadian government. In the Red Paper, First Nations argued about their distinctiveness and the importance of Treaties. They also underlined that they were the only legal owners of their lands, and it was the Crown who granted them that title. The Indians also reminded the government that Treaties provided them with required health and educational services as well as with the right “to hunt, trap and fish for their livelihood free of governmental interference.”
After the Red Paper was published, the representatives of Indians met with Prime Minister Trudeau. The major goal of the meeting was to discuss an opportunity of the open relationship between First Nations and the Canadian federal government and to officially declare the Red Paper as the response of Indian population to the White Paper proposed by the government. Being unable to resist Natives and their supporters, Trudeau abandoned the White Paper in 1970. However, the damage to Canadian politics had already been done. The mistrust of Natives towards the Canadian government reappeared again.
According to Scott, the White Paper served Indians in two following manners. At first, it helped them to define their interests and rights they wanted to get from the federal government. Second, followed the White Paper opposition helped to mobilize and unite Indians across Canada. The 1969 White Paper and increased self-determination of First Nations was a step towards Indian self-government. In the 1970s, First Nation leaders argued “for the development of a contemporary form of self-government that was rooted in traditional philosophies that guided the governance process.” In 1970, Indian Chiefs issued A Declaration of Indian Rights, and one year later, the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians introduced the Position Paper. These Indian documents established new policies referred to the rights of Indians within Canada. In 1972, the National Indian Brotherhood released Indian Control of Indian Education, and soon it proposed the document, which stated that the education of young Indians should be determined by adult Indians without any exterior help. Thus, the new Indian documents “clearly predate Canada's current devolution policy or the transfer of responsibility of services to the reserve level.”
The 1969 White Paper was an attempt of the Canadian federal government to integrate First Nations into the Canadian society. However, that attempt raised a great hue and cry among Indians and their supporters. Trudeau and his government tried to abolish Treaties that had determined the rights of freedoms of Natives on the Canadian territory for years. They also tried to ease their responsibilities transferring Indian affairs to provincial jurisdictions. Trudeau wanted to eliminate all special privileges and distinctiveness of First Nations, but failed. Indians responded angrily, and Trudeau was forced to abandon the White Paper. However, the proposal of the 1969 White Paper had a significant impact on Canadian Indians. It united them and at the same time helped to defend their identity. It was a big step toward Indian self-government. The 1969 White Paper educed the desire of First Nations for self-determination and cultural independence.
Works Cited
Belanger, Yale D., and David R. Newhouse. “Emerging from the Shadows: the Pursuit of Aboriginal Self-Government to Promote Aboriginal Self-Being.” The Canadian Journal of Native Studies XXIV.1 (2004): 129-222.
Coates, Ken. “The Indian Act and the Future of Aboriginal Governance in Canada.” Research Paper for the National Centre for First Nations Governance. 2008. 1-32.
Leslie, John F. “Assimilation, Integration or Termination? The Development of Canadian Indian Policy, 1943-1963.” PhD Diss., Carleton University, 1999.
Miller, J. R. Compact, Contract, Covenant: Aboriginal Treaty-Making in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009. Print.
Scott, Mark A. “Aboriginals’ Quest for Recognition: Assimilation and Differentiated Citizenship.” Master of Arts Diss., The University of Western Ontario, 1998.
