The Canadian Indians History: the White Paper 1969 Essay

Introduction

The Canadian Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of the country. Before contact with the Europeans, these Aboriginal people occupied various parts of North America and they had diverse culture and spoke different tribes. The life of the First Nation tribes experienced significant disruption after contact with European settlers from the 16th Century. In the first decades, the relationship between the Europeans and the Indigenous tribes was friendly and the two groups coexisted peacefully with each other.

However, the Europeans were eager to acquire more resources in the land and this led to the colonization of the First Nation tribes. In 1763, King George III of England made a Royal Proclamation that officially claimed British territory in North America. In 1867, the British Parliament passed the “British North American Act”, which saw the beginning of earnest efforts to build a European Canada. Through this Act, the government was given responsibility over all the land in the territory, including land reserved for the Indians. In 1869, the Government passed the Indian Act which was meant to civilize, protect, and assimilate the Aboriginals.

While the Indian Act perpetuated the assimilation goals of the Government, it gave the First Nation tribes special rights and outlined some legal and fiduciary responsibilities that the federal government had to the Aboriginal people. The existence of this controversial Indian Act was threatened by the 1969 White Paper created by the Trudeau administration with the major intention of abolishing the act. This paper will talk about the purpose of this policy, what led to its creation, the reaction it elicited from the aboriginal people and how the paper would have affected the Native communities had it been passed.

Reasons for the Creation of the Policy

There were a number of significant factors that promoted the creation of the 1969 White paper. Historically, the European-Canadian society had held negative attitudes towards Aboriginal people. The white population regarded the First Nation people as uncivilized and it was believed that the Aborigines were incapable of self-governance.¹ The Colonial Government therefore engaged in the rampant dispossession and the displacing of the Indigenous people and policies were enacted to force them to adopt the mainstream European culture.

However, the attitude towards the Aboriginal people changed significantly after the end of the Second World War. During this crucial period, social scientists succeeded in discrediting pseudoscientific race theories that had been used to justify racial discrimination against certain races including the Indians. This pseudoscientific race theories that suggested that certain races were inherently inferior to others were conclusively refuted and they could no longer be used as the basis for discriminating against the Aboriginal people.

The Indian community also contributed to the creation of the White Paper. Since its inception, the Indian Act had been viewed by the Aboriginal peoples as an oppressive tool used by the federal government to infringe on the civil and personal rights of the Aboriginal. The Act had also been used to control the land and the resources of the Aboriginal people. For this reason, the Aboriginal population dedicated significant effort to challenging the legitimacy of this Act over from the late 19th century and up to the mid-20th century.² In the years following the Second World War, the Indian Association of Alberta lobbied aggressively for the Canadian Parliament to review the Indian Act.

Due to the positive attitude developed by Canadians towards Aboriginal people, church groups and Human Rights organizations assisted Aboriginal political leaders in their quest to have the Indian Act reviewed. This advocacy led to the revision of the Indian Act to relax the control that the Federal Government had over the Reserves. The rights of the Indians was also increased through the new revisions. However, the Indian Act was still disliked by the Indians since it limited their rights and attempted to assimilate the status Indian into mainstream society.

Another occurrence that led to the creation of the policy was the discovery by many Canadians that the First Nations lived in impoverished living conditions. Improvements in transport and communication in the post-World War II made all sections of Canada accessible. The media was able to provide elaborate reports on the living conditions of the northern First Nations.³ This sensitization to the plight of the Aboriginal made Canadians want to do something to improve the lives of the First Nation Tribes.

An important impetus to the creation of the 1969 White Paper was the findings of the federally appointed commission that had been tasked with studying the social conditions surrounding Native Canadians. This commission was headed by the anthropologist Harry B. Hawthorn and he was supposed to study the social conditions surrounding Native Canadians and give recommendations to the government from his findings. His report revealed that the Aboriginal occupied the lowest economic rung on Canada’s economic ladder.⁴ The report showed that the government policies of the day were not sufficient to alleviate the poor socioeconomic conditions of the Native communities. Hawthorn recommended that the Natives should be given incentives to seek economic futures of-reserves in cities. In essence, the report called for the Indians to join the non-Indian economy.

Purpose of the Policy

The White Paper of 1969 was published by the Trudeau administration to address the issues affecting the Native communities. The policy was presented by the Minister of Indian Affairs Jean Chretien and it was entitled “Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy, 1969”.⁵ The paper announced the end of the Indian Act and the dismantlement of the reserves. This was in line with the convictions by the Trudeau administration that the Canadian society could only advance if all its citizens were given equal rights and the past issues concerning the Indians were forgotten.

The first issue that the paper sought to address was the discrimination against the Indians by the rest of the society. The Trudeau administration was of the opinion that the injustices perpetrated against the Indians by the mainstream Canadian society were caused by the collective special status that the Aboriginal people enjoyed. By the mid-20th century, Indians were experiencing the problem of discrimination and non-acceptance by other Canadians in the society. Prime Minister Trudeau believed that this race-based non-acceptance of Indians emerged since the other Canadians viewed Indians as different due to their special status.⁶

The racial discrimination could be eradicated by abolishing the social status that the Indian Act gave the Aboriginal communities. With this abolishment all Canadians would enjoy similar equal rights. The White Paper proposed that the Indians give up their special status, land claims, and their aboriginal rights that were enshrined in the Indian Act. In exchange for this forfeitures, the Indians could have the opportunity to become equal citizens in the mainstream Canadian society. In essence, the policy would serve to decolonize the Indians by doing away with an Act that had served as a tool for colonization.

An important purpose of the White Paper was to exempt the Canadian Government from having to negotiate treaties with the Aboriginal people. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Indian Act of 1869 had established that the government needed to negotiate with the Natives before acquiring their land.⁷ The Aboriginal had been given special land right claims and their ownership of this land was recognized by the law. The White Paper argued that the government did not have to negotiate with the Natives since treaties could only exist between sovereign nations and the Native community was part of the larger Canadian society.

Another purpose of the policy was to wipe away the debts that the Canadian government owed the Indians for past injustices. The policy called upon the people of Canada to forget about past injustices and instead devote their efforts to being fair in present and future times. The Indian Act provided a platform for the Indians to seek redress for past injustices against them by the Canadian government. Through the act, they had a way to demonstrate the historical fraud and injustices that had been perpetrated against them. The First Nation tribes could use the Act to articulate their sense of historical injustices over loss of land, nationhood, and culture.⁸

Reaction of the Aboriginal

While the Trudeau administration had expected a favorable response from the Aboriginal, the White Paper elicited overwhelmingly negative reactions. Many First Nation leaders protested against the White Paper since they viewed it as an attempt at assimilating the Aboriginal population. The white paper proposal called for the abolishment of the Ministry of Indian Affairs and the abolishment of the special status granted to the Aboriginal people. This would essentially undermine the unique nature of the First Tribes and their culture. The White paper would have made Indians disappear as distinct cultural groups.⁹ For this reason, various Indian tribes engaged in vocal protests against the policy proposed by the Trudeau Administration.

The Natives were angry that the government had failed to engage them in intense consultation before creating the policy paper. The previous Prime Minister, Lester Pearson had promised that the Indian Act would be revised, but that this would only take place after intensive and extensive consultation with Indian people. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s Administration published the White Paper on Indian policy without carrying out any meaningful consultation with the Indian people. This White Paper made dramatic proposals that would have significant consequences on the lives of Indians in Canada.

The White Paper led to the political awakening of the Aboriginal community in Canada. Throughout the early decades of the 20th century, the First Nation Tribes had remained quiet and their engagement in political activism was all but absent. All this changed with the emergence of the White paper. The Aboriginal community was shocked into action as they realized that the policies in the White Paper would have an adverse impact on their existence as a unique people. The Native Canadians came together and collectively rejected the White Paper.

The 1969 White Paper led to the unification of the fragmented Indian communities all over Canada. Over the decades, the Canadian government had successfully fragmented Indians into hundreds of isolated communities.¹⁰ However, the 1969 White Paper called for a consultation process during which the Indian community would deliberate on the proposed abolishment of the Indian Act. This necessitated frequent meetings among Indian leaders to discuss the White Paper and this increased their interaction with each other. These interactions made them aware of their cultural commonalities and this created some solidarity. Historians agree that the 1969 White Paper was one of the real catalysts for native consciousness.¹¹

The Policy Paper prompted the writing of the “Red Paper” which essentially repudiated the 1969 White Paper and demanded for the reorganization of the Ministry of Indian Affairs.¹² This paper called for the Indian Act to be reviewed, but not abolished as the Government proposed to do. In addition to this, the paper demanded for the establishment of a new federal agency to take the place of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. This agency would investigate and respond to the needs of the Aboriginal people, especially with regard to the issue of treaties and land rights.

Projected Effect or White Paper Passage to the Aboriginal

Due to the widespread protests and negative reactions from the Indian community, the government was forced to withdraw the White Paper. However, if the White Paper had succeeded in becoming a bill, it would have affected the future of the Aboriginal people in a number of important ways. The first major effect would have been the forgetting of the injustices suffered by the Aboriginals in the hands of the Europeans. With the enactment of the policy the reality of Canadian injustice to Indians would have been forgotten within a generation or two. As noted, the policy advocated “amnesia” as the fact of Canadian injustices to Indians would be removed from Canadian history and memory.¹³ Without recognition of the past injustices, there would be no accountability for it.

The Aboriginal people would have lost all chances of ever achieving some level of self-governance if the White Paper had passed. Even though the Native communities are a part of the Canadian society, they believe that they achieve the best for themselves if they are allowed to control their social, political and economic life.¹⁴ For the Aboriginal to achieve these self-governance goals, they have to be recognized as a unique group existing in the country. Without the Indian Act, the native’s aspiration for autonomy would never be realized since the Aborigines would cease to exist as a unique and special group in the eyes of the Government.

Another effect of the White Paper is that it would have led to the eventual loss of the Indian culture. The Red Paper issued in response to the White paper declared that Indian culture could only be maintained if the Aborigines were allowed to remain status Indians. The Indian Act was a deliberate attempt by the government to ensure that Indians would always be recognized as an Indian.¹⁵ The act also empowered the Indian communities to decide who, among those who claimed to be Indians, would enjoy that status.

By abolishing the Indian Act, the Canadian government would have succeeded in removing the nation-to-nation relationship that currently exists between the Native community and the Canadian government. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 acknowledged that the Aboriginal people were the original owners of the land, and this resource could only be taken from them through treaties. The Indian Act did not overrule this proclamation and the government continued to regard the First Nations as land owners. The Indian Act recognized that the Native communities held a special position in the country. The White paper would have ended the arrangement between the government and the Natives. Historians document that the intention of the government were to eliminate the special arrangements between the federal government and the Aboriginal community.¹⁶

Since the policy required Canadians to stop devoting any effort to redressing past injustices to Indians, the aboriginal people would have lost the governmental benefits they are entitled to under the Indian Act. Status Indians are entitled to community infrastructure and social support under the Indian Act.¹⁷ The White Paper made it clear that the Aboriginal communities would be served though the same channels and government agencies that provided services to the rest of the Canadian society. With the abolishment of the Indian Act, the federal government’s responsibility for Indian affairs would come to an end. Instead, the Indians would be served by the provinces, which have fewer resources at their disposal compared to the federal government and as such the move would have disadvantaged the Indian community.

An important motivation for the creation of the White Paper was to remove the special rights enjoyed by the Indian community in the country. Prime Minister Trudeau was a strong opponent of the provision of special rights to any group of Canadians and the White Paper would therefore have ended the unique position that Indians hold.¹⁸ The additional rights and privileges given to the Aboriginals as a result of various treaties signed over the centuries would have been lost.

The passing of the White Paper would have moved ownership of Indigenous land to Aboriginal individuals. In essence, this would have erased or greatly reduce Indian tribes/First Nations land holdings.¹⁹ If this was done, the government would have prepared the deeds to individual allotment and issued them out to the individual Indians. This would lead to the availability of reservation lands not needed for allotment and the government would proceed to sell this land or exploit it for natural resources. The boundaries that currently demarcate indigenous territory would have been destroyed, therefore erasing Indian tribe’s land. At the present, the government has to negotiate with the Indigenous peoples before accessing the lands and resources that lie within the territory owned by the Natives. If the White Paper had been passed, the government would not have to negotiate with the Indigenous nations since the resources would be owned by individuals or the provincial or Federal government.

Conclusion

This paper set out to discuss the 1969 White paper with special focus on the purpose of this policy paper and the reaction it elicited from the Aboriginal community. The paper began by noting that the Canadian government set out to re-examine its treatment of the Natives in the years following the Second World War. The White Paper was created to address some of the issues relevant to the Aboriginal community. However, this policy was aggressively rejected by the native community since it would have revoked some of their historic rights and threatened the existence of the Indian culture. Due to the negative reaction, the Trudeau administration withdrew the paper and no subsequent administration has attempted to abolish the Indian Act.

Bibliography

Binnema, Ted. “Protecting Indian Lands by Defining Indian: 1850-76.” Journal of Canadian Studies 48, no.2 (2014): 5-39.

Boldt, Menno. Surviving as Indians: The Challenge of Self-government. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993.

Bumsted, John. Canada’s Diverse Peoples. NY: ABC-CLIO, 2003.

Coates, Ken. The Indian Act and the Future of Aboriginal Governance in Canada. Toronto: National Center for First Nations Governance, 2008.

Douglas, Francis. Journeys: A History of Canada. NY: Cengage Learning, 2009.

Nguyen, Mai. “Consulting No One: Is Democratic Administration the Answer for First Nations?” The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal 19, no.1 (2014): 1-15.

Nichols, Roger. “The Canada-US Border and Indigenous Peoples in the Nineteenth Century.” American Review of Canadian Studies 40, no. 3 (2010), 416-428.

Norman, William. Native American Issues: A Reference Handbook. Boston: ABC-CLIO, 2005.

Footnotes

1. John Bumsted, Canada’s Diverse Peoples, (NY: ABC-CLIO, 2003), 251.
2. Roger Nichols, “The Canada-US Border and Indigenous Peoples in the Nineteenth Century,” American Review of Canadian Studies 40, no.3 (2010), 424.
3. Bumsted 250.
4. Francis Douglas, Journeys: A History of Canada, (NY: Cengage Learning, 2009), 497.
5. William Norman, Native American Issues: A Reference Handbook, (Boston: ABC-CLIO, 2005), 93.
6. Menno Boldt, Surviving as Indians: The Challenge of Self-government, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993), 22.
7. Bumsted 251.
8. Boldt 22.
9. Nichols 426.
10. Boldt 85.
11. Bumsted 251.
12. Ken Coates, The Indian Act and the Future of Aboriginal Governance in Canada, (Toronto: National Center for First Nations Governance, 2008), 7.
13. Boldt 22.
14. Coates 8.
15. Ted Binnema, “Protecting Indian Lands by Defining Indian: 1850-76,” Journal of Canadian Studies 48, no. 2 (2014), 31.
16. Coates 12.
17. Mai Nguyen, “Consulting No One: Is Democratic Administration the Answer for First Nations?” The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal 19, no.1, (2014), 7.
18. Coates 6.
19. Nichols 424.