|
Chapter 12
We Were Not the Savages - Confederation and the Indian Act
During the 1860s, politicians from Upper and Lower Canada and the Maritimes
began to meet to discuss confederation. In time, Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario worked out a proposal to federate, which was
forwarded to Great Britain’s Parliament for action. Although it would affect
them drastically, because of racist attitudes, First Nations were excluded from
participating in the process.
Confederation
In response to the recommendations of the colonial delegates the British Parliament
created Canada in 1867 by enacting “The British North America Act.”
The new country had four provinces with two levels of government, federal
and provincial.
The most significant change for the First Nations was that they now had
to look to Ottawa instead of provincial and territorial capitals for subsistence
allowances. The immediate benefit was that the assistance from Ottawa would
be high enough to end starvation. The biggest negative was that communication
with the remote Great White Father was very difficult for a largely uneducated
population.
Communication was made even harder for Amerindians by the federal
government’s habit of passing its new responsibilities from department to department.
Until Indian affairs were finally anchored with the creation of the
Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (diand) in 1966,
they were switched at random from one department to another—Secretary of
State; Energy, Mines and Resources; Citizenship and Immigration.
In retrospect, placing our People in the hands of Citizenship and Immigration
was very offensive. Today it seems like a cruel and tasteless joke that
the First Nations peoples, rendered destitute and landless refugees in their
own country by the English, were placed under the control of the department
responsible for immigrants to Canada. What made it even more atrocious
was that Registered Indians were not accorded the same rights and privileges
enjoyed by immigrants.
Under the new Constitution both levels of government had their responsibilities
and powers clearly defined. Responsibility for the welfare of Treaty
Indians and the security of their lands was placed in the hands of the federal
government by Section 91(24):
91. It shall be lawful for the Queen, by and with the Advice and Consent of
the Senate and House of Commons, to make Laws for the Peace, Order, and
|
