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Political Revitalization in Canadian Native Indian Societies*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

J. Anthony Long
J. Anthony Long
Affiliation:
University of Lethbridge
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Abstract

At present, the federal government is engaged in community-based self-government negotiations with a number of Indian bands and tribal groups across Canada with the objective of bringing about legislative arrangements for a limited form of self-government outside the Indian Act. An important part of these negotiations involves the federal government's promise to allow the incorporation of “customary or traditional structures,” where desired, into redesigned Indian governments. This article explores the difficulties confronting Indian leaders in their attempts to revitalize traditional governing practices within their respective communities. Through a comparison of traditional and contemporary governing practices in two plains Indian societies, the Blood and Peigan Nations, this article addresses the question of whether present Indian government, which represents an externally imposed form based on the Indian Act, has been institutionalized within these communities. If institutionalization has occurred, then a return to traditional governing practices, the author argues, is effectively precluded. After analyzing traditional and contemporary governing practices the author concludes that strong traditionalist orientations remain within these Indian communities, thus providing the opportunity for political revitalization.

Résumé

Le gouvernement fédéral est en train de négocier une autonomie à base communautaire avec un certain nombre de bandes et tribus autochtones au Canada dans le but d'implanter des mesures législatives permettant une forme restreinte d'autonomie en dehors de la Loi sur les Indiens. Une partie importante de ces négotiations provient d'une promesse du gouvernement fédéral de permettre l'incorporation de « structures traditionnelles ou coutumières » dans des gouvernements autochtones replanifiés. Cet article étudie les difficultés auxquelles doivent faire face les dirigeants autochtones dans leurs tentatives de revitaliser les façons traditionnelles de gouverner leurs communautés respectives. En comparant les façons traditionnelles et contemporaines de gouverner deux sociétés autochtones des Prairies, les Nations Blood et Peigan, cet article tente de découvrir s'il y a eu institutionnalisation du gouvernement autochtone actuel—imposé de l'extérieur par la Loi sur les Indiens—dans ces communautés. S'il y a eu institutionnalisation, alors, selon l'auteur, un retour aux façons traditionnelles de gouverner se trouve effectivement impossible. Après avoir analysé les façons traditionnelles et contemporaines de gouverner, l'auteur arrive à la conclusion que des orientations traditionnalistes continuent d'exister dans ces communautés autochtones, ce qui donne l'occasion d'une revitalisation politique.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , December 1990 , pp. 751 - 773
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1990

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References

1 Indian Self-Government Community Negotiations (Ottawa: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, July 1988) and A Commitment to Progress (Ottawa: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 1989), 4. To carry out this policy initiative a self-government sector was incorporated in 1986 into the DIAND organizational structure and given responsibility for community-based self-government negotiations.

2 Currently, 219 out of 570 Indian bands in Canada are involved in some stage of the community-based self-government negotiations process. Of this number, 67 proposals, encompassing 183 bands, are in the developmental stage of this process, which involves preparatory research and community consultation (Community Negotiations Directorate, Self-Government Sector, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Ottawa, February 20, 1990).

3 At the time of writing, 10 proposals involving 25 bands were at the stage of framework negotiations and 5 proposals involving 11 bands were at the substantive negotiation phase (Community Negotiations Directorate, February 20, 1990). Examples include the Alexander and Sawridge bands in Alberta, the Gitksan-Wet'suwet'en tribal group, which includes nine reserves, in British Columbia, the Whitefish Bay band in Ontario and the Caughnawaga tribe in Quebec. The Teslin Lake, Mayo and Old Crow tribal groups in the Yukon are also involved in the community-based negotiations process, although the parameters for their negotiations are related to comprehensive claims settlements.

4 Indian Self-Government Community Negotiations, 3.

5 The desire to restore traditional political values and processes into contemporary Indian governments is regularly asserted by Indian leaders in provincial and national Indian organization conferences on self-government and in written representations to the federal government dealing with Indian self-government. For example, see Indian Government: Toward an Indian Future (Regina: Federation of Saskatchewan Indians, 1982); Assembly of First Nations, Proposals for Amendments and Additions to the Constitution Act, 1982, presented at the First Ministers Constitutional Conference on Aboriginal Rights, Ottawa, March 15, 1983Google Scholar; Tribe, Blood, The Constitutional Position of the Blood Tribe (Ottawa: Assembly of First Nations, March 15–16, 1983)Google Scholar; Indian Nations of Hobbema, Presentation of the Indian Nations of Hobbema to the S. 37(1) Conference on Aboriginal and Treaty Rights (Ottawa: Assembly of First Nations, March 15–16, 1983)Google Scholar; Proceedings of a Conference on Indian Government of the National Indian Brotherhood (Montreal, 1980); and Report of the Special Committee on Indian Self-Government in Canada (Ottawa: House of Commons, 1983), 56.

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9 This literature is too extensive to list here. I refer to specific aspects of it in my subsequent discussion of traditional practices among plains Indians.

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17 Ibid., 192. See also Ewers, Blackfeet Indians, and Thomas, A Blackfoot Source Book.

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21 The size and composition of town councils in the adjacent towns of Pincher Creek, Fort Macleod and Cardston are specified by the Alberta Municipal Government Act. The Act provides for an elected council of six members, a separately elected mayor, and a chief administrative council appointed by the elected council. Although there are no legal impediments to the promotion of candidates by political parties in local elections, municipal politics in Alberta have remained non-partisan. All three towns have agrarian-based economies and have socially homogeneous populations mainly of retired farmers, small business owners and their employees, and local and provincial government workers. Town revenues are derived from general per capita and conditional grants from the province, local property taxes, and licensing and other fees.

22 Boldt, Menno and Long, J. Anthony, “Tribal Traditions and European-Western Political Ideologies: The Dilemma of Canada's Native Indians,” this Journal 17 (1984), 541–45Google Scholar. See also Cornell, Stephen, “Transformation of the Tribe: Organization and Self-Concept in Native American Ethnicities,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 11 (1988), 28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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