Issues in Indian Country

Hi Friends
As you are all well aware, there are a myriad of issues facing the First Nations in Canada, not the least being legislated genocide.
If the Canadian Government has its way, in a few short generations, there will be no more native people left. Oh we will still be here, we just won't be recognized.
Lets for one minute imagine that.

In the year 1876 with the birth of the Indian Act, Duncan Campbell Scott, then deputy minister of Indian Affairs said: " I want to get rid of the Indian problem, our object is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic."
Assimilation is and has always been the ultimate goal of the Canadian Government. So much for the double wampum treaty of "Sharing the land and not interfering in the lives of the each others citizens."

We all know what happened next. Racist polices, genocidal acts, and Government sanctioned internment.
In 1946 Canada amended the Indian Act to allow Aboriginal people the right to retain a lawyer. Prior to this it was unlawful for a lawyer to represent First Nation people.
It wasn't until the Constitution Act of 1982 that Aboriginal people were recognized. Section 25 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the so called non-derogation clause which recognizes Aboriginal rights and freedoms in the Royal Proclamation exist in land claims.
Aboriginal people are also recognized in Section 35 of the Constitution Act itself, which affirms the existing Aboriginal and treaty rights. The Indian Act is comprehensive in that it covers all aspects of Indian lives, including Section 6 which defines who qualifies to be an Indian.

The Indian Act under Sections 2-14 has never replaced Aboriginal Peoples rights to determine citizenship. Section 6 ( which identifies who is entitled to be registered as an Indian) is yet more Government interference, and clearly an attempt to "solve the Indian problem."

First Nations people have been challenged to sort out their citizenship, and present the Government with a membership/citizenship code to be filed in the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada offices in Ottawa.

So can the Aboriginal people of Canada exercise their right to self determination as put forth by Section 35 of the Constitution Act? Existing Aboriginal rights, which have never been extinguished, include the right to self government, and also include the right to determine citizenship.

Until the true significance of the Nation to Nation treaties are under stood by all, this promises to be herculean task facing the nations. We are a Nation within a Nation. Understanding the rights to self determination is difficult to say the least. Any First Nation who attempts to exercise their right will have to fight the government to create their own citizenship codes and have them recognized.
Each First Nation person in Canada is by law a citizen of Canada so the argument then is that, as a result each, individual is entitled to the rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the law of the Constitution of Canada.

Deciding citizenship codes promises to lead to fighting internally and externally. Governments will fight to keep the numbers down, and the First Nations may fall into this same trap. The only way is for the Nations to separate benefits from citizenship. It is of the utmost importance to be careful of what is requested from the courts and what is accepted.The validity of the treaties rests on the self determination and inherent authority of the first nation people. These treaties are what have seeded the land upon which all of Canada rests.

Assimilation, genocide...a rose by any other name...
regards Debra