All seven First Nations elders alike express some form need, loss or restoration of relationships. The emotional numbing caused by residential schools and its negative impact on the ability for individuals to trust to form lasting bonds is only soothed by a return to community and support. Ultimately, resilience and continuity are attributes of the holistic, culture-based approach to preserving and rehabilitating heritage by Indigenous…
Neal McLeod’s “Rethinking Treaty Six” focuses on the creation and results of Treaty Six while documents 2.3, 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 in Keith Smith’s Strange Visitors focuses on Treaty 7; both accounts highlight how there are different views of the treaties impact depending on the document and party involved. Written accounts were from the British perspective who imposed regulations while oral accounts were from Indigenous people who had to endure dire conditions following the treaties. Smith’s primary documents outline the articles in Treaty 7, the consequences that Indigenous people faced and oral accounts of the events. McLeod focuses on the need to reexamine history and the importance of understanding past events from an Indigenous perspective;…
Throughout the course so far, I have been able to gain a greater understanding of the First Nations peoples culture. As the course progresses it is noticed that as we keep going further into the past of the First nation's people, it keeps building on itself, due to the fact that there has been so much history covered up. Through the pieces of the literature studied in class, such as the novel Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese and the poem seven matches by Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire, I have been able to determine how the four major themes within the course, identity, sovereignty, relationships, and challenges are a part of the First Nations culture's past. The First Nations people are struggling with these themes, but are in a pace now where they are working to fix their broken past.…
This paper will review “A Right to Treaty Education by Sheila Carr- Stewart as well as looking at a short article simply entitled “Schools” which was written by the Treaty Seven Elders . Both readings were published within five years of each other (The Treaty Seven Elders in 1996 and Carr-Stewarts’s article in 2001). Although both readings are about the educational systems the government of Canada provided for the indigenous people, one article (A Treaty Right to Education) focuses on the historical documents surrounding the issue of foral education provided by the Europeans. The other article (“Schools”) has a strong focus on the people who survived these schools.…
The author of the novel The Walleye War: The Struggle for Ojibwe Spearfishing and Treaty Rights is Larry Nesper, an assistant professor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, as an understudy for Raymond Fogelson, a well-renown American Indian ethnographers. Nesper specializes in the Ojibwe or Chippewa tribes of Northern Wisconsin. As a result, the whole scope of his career is based on the social injustices and struggles that the Ojibwe face, creating this very in depth ethnography. He has collected evidence through field work, participant observation, and interviews over a span of 9 months in Lac du Flambeau, in the heart of the Indian reservation.…
In conclusion, aboriginal women play a negligible role in fur trade, promoting the trading development and relationships at a rapid speed; their interactions with Europeans bring new blood to their original native culture. However, these native wives are also victims of mixed-race marriages, suffering from various kinds of discriminations. The contributions brought by these great First Nations, especially the Cree women should be memorized by…
In this article, Lee Maracle discusses how Native people handle situations with enemies, paths to take in life, education and the laws of the land. Maracle begins with discussing her personal life, "I sought the teachings of my grandmother" (36) to enhance the reader's understanding of the complexity of Native people inheriting and learning everything from their elders. This information then gets expanded on when Maracle discusses the importance of decision making and how someone has to use "self-determination... when our own people are making decisions." (37) Maracle then furthers her discussion of life paths with the discussion of education systems and educating on traditions, laws, and values for young children. She discusses the difference…
Interpretation of Kent Monkman’s Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience Monkman’s exhibit is a demonstration of the narrative of relations between the Canadian government and Indigenous peoples, implying much of what he is trying to convey with the title of the collection. Each piece is interconnected and has some relevance to the story of Indigenous culture and its survival of the state’s attempts to assimilate or destroy the history and ways of life of the many Indigenous groups within what is now considered Canadian borders. The discourse that surrounds this narrative is one which has begun to bubble up more in popular Canadian culture; the rejection of Canada 150 and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are both examples of how many…
What does the current model of Indigenous “self-government” in Canada offer to First Nations? Using an example (such as Nunavut), examine the pros and cons of this model and how this does/does not provide an opportunity for First Nations to become healthy, sustainable, and self-sufficient. Self-government is the cornerstone of the Inuit policy goals in the Nunavut region. While self-government is an important goal, the idea is intricately linked to other goals such as land claims settlements, cultural preservation, and economic development; goals which the people of Nunavut are finding very hard to meet (Nowland-Card, 41). Indigenous people were self-governed long before Europeans arrived in Canada, but in 1876, the Indian Act came into…
Aboriginal Spirituality is inextricably amalgamated to the Dreaming, in which the adherent is provided with grounding in the past, present and future- a vehicle for posterity in finding meaning and purpose. Here, “the Dreaming can be seen as an embodiment of Aboriginal creation which gives meaning to everything”, exemplifying the importance of Dreaming in determining Aboriginal Spirituality. Furthermore, the Ku Ring Gai people’s rainbow serpent creation story of Ku Ring Gai National Park accentuates this inextricable connection as it provides sacred sites and a sense of identity for the tribe. Dreaming also dictates kinship of tribes, a significant aspect of spirituality with the Kinship group subtending from Dreaming as well as the territory…
Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Cheyenne Indian and past U.S Senator, once said, “treaties are promises between two nations. And whether they are going to be valid or not, and whether they are going to last or not, is based on the heart and belief of the people that are participating.” (Harjo,221). This short statement is packed with reference to historical treatment and intent of American Indian treaties, acknowledgement of the continued power of treaty making in the present and the lasting social, economic, legal and strategic impacts of reclaiming sovereignty. These sentiments reveal that treaty making has had an extensive effect on the daily lives, both past and present, of countless American Indians as well as American ideology and law.…
How someone identifies is a complicated matter to dissect. There are an innumerable amount of factors that play into identity, both internally and externally to an individual. The fact that culture is an integral part only adds more complexity, as many cultures are becoming increasingly integrated and globalized with other unique groups. Generally speaking, identity is usually determined, often simultaneously, on three different levels: the national level, in one’s community, and at the personal level of self.…
Thomas King's The Inconvenient Indian provides a harrowing and sarcastic but ultimately very real, look at the history of Indigenous peoples in North America from the time of first contact to the present. King details the relationship between non-Indigenous peoples and Indigneous peoples, establishing a subversion of history in which this relationship has continuously exploited and dominated over Indigneous people. At times a deeply personal account on his own conflicted activism, and at other times a revised edition of truths that show the identity of Indigenous peoples and how these identities have been affected by popular culture. In fact herein lies King's main theme of The Inconvenient Indian, how the stories and narratives by which legal…
Through the progression of this course, various aspects of history were viewed, in addition to concepts that are still associated to the lives of Aboriginal peoples today. While carrying some previous, biased knowledge on the topics discussed, First Nations Studies allowed the development of many ideas as well as the differing perspectives on each. Via the use of assorted reading selections, tutorial discussions, guest speakers, lectures, and a variety of other forms, I was able to take away a unique understanding, different to the one I had prior, which in turn educated me on Indigenous communities. This course attempted to bypass the anger that has been accumulated over the years, and portray information in order to avoid further issues…
Thomas King’s short story “Borders” explores the idea of pride and its power to strengthen the Indigenous identity through the erasure of physical borders. The protagonist’s mother teaches him that he should not have to abide by the physical borders of countries to be living on the land because something as deeply personal as one’s cultural identity is worth more than “a legal technicality” (King 292). Her disregard of the American-Canadian border grants the protagonist the knowledge that when they do not recognize the border, the border will not recognize them. Thomas learns this cultural pride by witnessing his mother's unapologetic display of her Blackfoot identity, discovering the power of resilience and media, and learning the stories…