For
Your
Information
How the Canadian
Government Imposed the Band Council
System on Indigenous Nations
Posted below is an
extract from Part III, Chapter 15 of the book Stolen
Continents by Ronald Wright,
which is a historical overview of
the brutal impact of European colonization on the ancient peoples
of the Americas.
***
When it became clear during the late nineteenth
century
that
the United States would not invade the British colony (Canada),
Indian buffer states were no longer required. Canada, knowing
that native nations held Aboriginal title to large parts of North
America, wanted to get rid of its Indigenous rivals. The best
way, short of extermination, was to absorb them. With no Indians,
there could be no Aboriginal claims; so the young Canadian
parliament passed an Indian Act intended to promote
assimilation.
The process could be hastened, Canada thought, by
encouraging
contact with "civilization" which often involved confining Indian
children in missionary boarding schools, and shrinking the
reserves, which it had come to regard as mere holding camps for a
doomed race. Under the policy of "enfranchisement" Indians were
expected to give up membership to their own nations forever in
exchange for the privilege of voting in Canadian elections. Males
received a lump sum and a piece of land -- essentially a bribe --
snipped from the reserve. Few took the bait. Between 1876 and
1918, only 102 did so, most of them women who had married whites.
Such a marriage brought automatic "enfranchisement" even though
Canadian women then had no vote.
The Indian Act also aimed to replace
Indigenous
governments with a uniform system of elected band councillors who
would be responsive puppets of the Indian Affairs department.
"Hereditary" chiefs (an inaccurate term for Iroquois sachems)
would be deposed, and matrilineality -- the reckoning of descent,
and hence nationality, through the female line -- would end. In
short, the act's purpose was to destroy native nations from
within by dissolving their political and family structures.
Canada began by overthrowing traditional
governments on
the
smaller Iroquois territories of Ontario and Quebec. In the
mid-1880s,
Indian Affairs pressured the Bay of Quinte Mohawks,
ostensibly on a trial basis, to replace their condoled chiefs
with elected councilmen. The Indians put up with the new system
for a couple of years, then rejected it -- the adversarial style
of European politics ran counter to their traditions of
consensus, as did the exclusion of the women's voice.
But it turned out that the "trial period" was a
sham:
Canada
would not allow the people to restore their own system. The
outraged Mohawks sent pleas to the governor general, Queen
Victoria's representative in Canada:
"We... do not want our Council Fire
extinguished,
because
it was the custom and manner of our forefathers....
"We will remind you of the Covenant Chain of
Peace
and
Friendship between the English people and the Six Nations. When
our forefathers first made the Covenant Chain with the English,
both parties engaged to keep the end of it fast in their
hands...
"Brother! At the time of the formations of the
treaties ...
the Six Nations were found and looked upon as a people, and had a
systematic constitution ... It was understood by both parties.
... that each should maintain their own constitutions, but in the
present instance, it appears that the Silver Chains is now
tarnished upon these points.
"The Canadian Government, which does not
recognize
us
fully
looks upon the Six Nations as minors and treats them as
such.
"Brother! We quote the words of Lord Dufferin,
one
of
your
predecessors, saying the people of Canada and the people of
Britain will not cease to recognize these obligations ... Never
shall the word of Britain, once pledged, be broken ...
"What is your power and authority to rule our
people?"
What indeed? But the petitions did no good.
Canada
recognized
only the puppet council and funnelled all rents, annuities, and
other funds belonging to the Indians through that body.
Along the St. Lawrence, where the Iroquois first
met
Cartier
and Champlain, are the large Mohawk communities of Kahnawake,
opposite Montreal, and Akwesasne, between Montreal and Kingston.
Although these had drawn close to the French for a century, they
had helped the British conquer New France in 1759-1760 and
welcomed large numbers of southern Mohawks during the
Revolution.
In 1890, the people of Kahnawake protested,
pointing
out the
Canadian government's lack of jurisdiction and its hypocrisy in
opposing "hereditary" chiefs: "Every nation throughout the
world retains their own customs, rites, and ceremonies, and
according to the British Constitution [there are] Kings, Queens,
and Lords and Peers as hereditaries. Brother! We cannot
account...why we cannot adhere...to our customs, rights and
ceremonies."
Canada's most brutal intervention came at
Akwesasne.
This
territory's very location should remind the United States and
Canada that the Mohawk Nation is far older than they, for the map
line drawn between them runs through the middle of it. Here, in
1898, the clan mothers wrote a long letter to the governor
general, explaining how their system worked and insisted that
they had no wish for change. Twice the women prevented elections
from being held. An official of the Canadian government, sent to
investigate, made a most revealing comment: The Indians, he said
in his report, "might as well look for the falling of the sky as
to expect recognition of their claim to hold the position of a
practically independent state." Very similar words would be
uttered ninety-two years later by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
The real issue, then as now, was sovereignty. And then, as now,
the affair turned violent.
In March 1899, Mounted Police arrived to enforce
the
holding
of an election. They were soon besieged by 200 Mohawks. No
Mounties were hurt, but they were sent packing. Two months later
they returned. Michael Mitchell, the present elected chief of
Akwesasne, wrote this account of how the council he heads, and
aims to reform, was installed:
"At 4 am on May 1, 1899,
Colonel Sherwood ... came to Akwesasne, leading a contingent of
police across the St. Lawrence River. They occupied the Council
Hall, where they sent a message to the chiefs to attend a special
meeting regarding the buying of stone [to build a bridge]... As
the chiefs walked into the council office, they were thrown to
the floor and handcuffed. One of the women notified the Head
Chief, Jake Fire, and as he came through the door demanding the
release of his fellow chiefs he was shot twice, the second shot
being fatal. The police marched their prisoners to the tugboat
and left the village. Jake Fire was shot down in cold blood while
fighting for Mohawk Indian government....
"The seven chiefs...were imprisoned. Five of
them
were kept in
jail for more than a year....
"Immediately after this affair, the
representatives
of the
government took fifteen Indians over to Cornwall and provided
them with alcohol. The Indian agents told them each to nominate
one of the others present. This was how the elective government
under the Indian Act system was implemented at Akwesasne.
This is the way Canada introduced our people to the principles of
their democracy."
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number 3 - February 2, 2019
Article Link:
For
Your
Information: How the Canadian
Government Imposed the Band Council
System on Indigenous Nations
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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