All Things First Nations - CF help, protests, solutions, residential schools, etc. (merged)

[Colin Parkinson]

Look at the infant mortality rates from 1950 to now to see how far we have come

Canada Infant Mortality Rate 1950-2023

Chart and table of the Canada infant mortality rate from 1950 to 2023. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

www.macrotrends.net

This graph covers the infant mortality rates for most of the time that school was open

Canada: infant mortality rate 1900-2020| Statista

The infant mortality rate in Canada, for children under the age of one year old, was 187 deaths per thousand births in 1900.

www.statista.com

 

[FSTO]

Look at the infant mortality rates from 1950 to now to see how far we have come

Canada Infant Mortality Rate 1950-2023

Chart and table of the Canada infant mortality rate from 1950 to 2023. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

www.macrotrends.net

This graph covers the infant mortality rates for most of the time that school was open

Canada: infant mortality rate 1900-2020| Statista

The infant mortality rate in Canada, for children under the age of one year old, was 187 deaths per thousand births in 1900.

www.statista.com

Those stats will be inconvient truths that will be buried by the cries of "Colonialism" and "Genocide". And it was well known at the time that the schools were a deathtrap.

http://www.fnesc.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/IRSR11-12-DE-1906-1910.pdf

Excerpt
1906-1910 THE BRYCE REPORTMonarch: Edward VII
Prime Minister: Sir Wilfred Laurier
Premier: Richard McBride
Federal Ministryepartment of the Interior
In the News1906 Delegation of BC Chiefs travel to England to meet with King Edward to discuss the Indian Land Question.
Mar 24 1906 “Census of the British Empire” shows England rules 1/5 of the world .
1907 Nisga’a form Nisga’a Land Committee.
Feb 13 1907 English suffragettes storm British Parliament and 60 women are arrested.
Apr 19, 1907 11th Boston Marathon won by Aboriginal athlete Tom Longboat of Canada.
1908 BC government decides to make no more reserve allocations.1909 The group “Interior Tribes of British Columbia” is formed.
1910 BC refuses to submit question of Aboriginal Title in BC to British Privy Council.
BACKGROUNDER
Tuberculosis is a highly contagious disease, caused by bacteria that infects any organ, but most commonly affects the lungs. Today we have modern antibiotics to treat the disease, but in 1907 diet, rest, sunlight and fresh air were the main treatments. TB, also known as consumption, was at epidemic levels among Aboriginal communities in the early twentieth century. With hundreds of children living so close together in dormitories, it is no wonder that the Industrial Schools, and later the Residential Schools, were breeding grounds for spreading the disease. In 1907, Dr. Peter Bryce, the Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Indian Affairs conducted a study of the health of students in Industrial Schools in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. He found extremely high rates of death from tuberculosis in the schools. His findings were shocking, and his report received publicity across the country. Duncan Campbell Scott and the Department of Indian Affairs did very little to address the problem.Bryce continued to push the government to recognize the problem. He conducted another study and report in 1909. This report was circulated to medical, school and church officials for comment. However, there was minimal action taken. You will read part of Scott’s response in the documents.Bryce continued to criticise the department and ultimately he was removed from his position. In 1922, after years of inaction and no change in the death rates, he published The Story of a National Crime: An Appeal for Justice to the Indians of Canada to bring awareness to the issue.

 

[Remius]

Look at the infant mortality rates from 1950 to now to see how far we have come

Canada Infant Mortality Rate 1950-2023

Chart and table of the Canada infant mortality rate from 1950 to 2023. United Nations projections are also included through the year 2100.

www.macrotrends.net

This graph covers the infant mortality rates for most of the time that school was open

Canada: infant mortality rate 1900-2020| Statista

The infant mortality rate in Canada, for children under the age of one year old, was 187 deaths per thousand births in 1900.

www.statista.com

And yet aboriginal, Inuit and Métis child mortality rates remain disproportionately higher.

 

[Eaglelord17]

And yet aboriginal, Inuit and Métis child mortality rates remain disproportionately higher.

I can't speak for the average Aboriginal and Metis children, but for the Inuit children we could solve much of those issues however we would be the evil white men if we dared to do so. Start requiring helmets on snowmachines and ATVs up North as well as adult driving or at least supervising ( https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/police-investigate-fatal-accident-rankin-inlet-1.5323827 ), remove the children from abusive households (currently they do what is best for the 'family' not the child), start enforcing the laws on the Inuit (pretty much the wild west up there, other than serious crime enforcement they are basically left to fend for themselves), etc. When you have a 50% truancy rate amongst kids in Grade 1 it isn't because the kids are skipping school, it is because the parents are refusing to send them to it. Almost starting to sound like Residential Schools isn't it?

But it is easier today to pretend the problem doesn't exist and ignore it. Do nothing you are the evil white man who is ignoring them. Do something you are the evil white man trying to destroy their culture and way of life. There is no winning until people are ready to have some serious talks and acknowledge both sides have roles to play.

 

[Good2Golf]

Or perhaps ‘white-ification’ isn’t the answer, and we look at a long-term model to reverse the wholesale community amalgamation/settlements we enforced on the Inuit in the 50s and 60s?

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Or perhaps ‘white-ification’ isn’t the answer, and we look at a long-term model to reverse the wholesale community amalgamation/settlements we enforced on the Inuit in the 50s and 60s?

Who are “we” and how do “we“ impose anything on those communities?

I‘ve been to Resolute Bay, where a whole bunch of Innuit got relocated in the 1950s and then starved, wholesale. It is about the worst place in the Arctic to put a Village for hunter/gatherers.

I am of the opinion at this point that solution is to raise the GST two points, give the resultant money every year to a panel of First Nations, no strings attached, and they distribute it under rules that they develop to each and every First Nation.

 

[Weinie]

Who are “we” and how do “we“ impose anything on those communities?

I‘ve been to Resolute Bay, where a whole bunch of Innuit got relocated in the 1950s and then starved, wholesale. It is about the worst place in the Arctic to put a Village for hunter/gatherers.

I am of the opinion at this point that solution is to raise the GST two points, give the resultant money every year to a panel of First Nations, no strings attached, and they distribute it under rules that they develop to each and every First Nation.

So a "pay to demonstrate and acknowledge' our presumptive collective guilt? Sorry, I don't buy that argument.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

So a "pay to demonstrate and acknowledge' our presumptive collective guilt? Sorry, I don't buy that argument.

Yes, actually.

But here is the kicker- nobody in Ottawa to blame if things go wrong. Self-Government means just that.

Oh and questions might start getting asked from below on just how the Band money is being spent.

 

[Brad Sallows]

remove the children from abusive households

Which ironically was among the purposes of the residential schools. With that done horribly, I wonder what options there are.

 

[OldSolduer]

TB was particularly rampant on FNTs back then and is still prevalent on some communities today

You are right on this. A few of our guests form up north arrive with active TB and need to be isolated.

 

[Brad Sallows]

The availability of modern ob/gyn care alone is probably worth more than all the land in the Americas. The door is open. I have no interest in preserving/stranding people in pseudo-traditional villages as some kind of living museum exhibits.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Some bands that signed treaties warn that treaties might not be such a good idea, because your very much more on your own. The majority of bands are "Wards of the State".

 

[Good2Golf]

‘We’ is certainly the Canadian federal government, certainly from the 1930s with the SCC’s 1939 Re Eskimo decision on the status of the Inuit to be considered as Indians per the Indian Act, onwards.

If one the time, I suggest this reference for reading.
CANADA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH INUIT: A History of Policy and Program Development (.pdf)

The section ‘ARCTIC SOVEREIGNTY AND INUIT RELOCATIONS’ is particularly interesting as it outlines the shift from Government subsistence relief in the 1920s into more deliberate resource and sovereignty-related forced relation in the 50s and 60s.

Overall, the Government, on behalf of the people, showed and to a fair degree continues to show a disconnectedness from how the Inuit got to where they are now and how Canada support (or doesn’t) them in their stagnated (vice nomadic) subsistence.

Regards
G2G

 

[Weinie]

Yes, actually.

But here is the kicker- nobody in Ottawa to blame if things go wrong. Self-Government means just that.

Oh and questions might start getting asked from below on just how the Band money is being spent.

Ummm. OK. Self government means just what the local government determines/means what self government means. Too many shyte examples to post.

And so there have been multiple examinations on how band money has been spent, much like municipalities, which is good, from an accountability standpoint. The results have been mixed, with recommendations made.

 

[brihard]

Make no mistake: the residential schools were a significant manifestation of deliberate government policies towards indigenous populations that, were they to be repeated today, would absolutely constitute the crime of “genocide” under both international and domestic criminal law.

The explicit and deliberate intent was to destroy the culture of “the Indian”. Forcible transfer of children, at the hands of both the Church and by Canadian government agents - Indian Agents and the RCMP - was a part of this. It was a deliberate effort to stamp out the culture and destroy the bonds between communities and their children. They did a pretty good job, and the damage to this day is tremendous.

I have no idea how to make it right.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

I have no idea how to make it right.

It can't be "made right"....it happened, nothing changes that. All that can be done is to make sure it never happens again.......

 

[MilEME09]

It can't be "made right"....it happened, nothing changes that. All that can be done is to make sure it never happens again.......

And try to forge a better path forward together, which is easier said then done. Personally I think a good Gauntlet to pick up would be clean drinking water. It would take decades of hard work but if we start improving quality of life and the basics in FN communities it could go a long way.

 

[Weinie]

Make no mistake: the residential schools were a significant manifestation of deliberate government policies towards indigenous populations that, were they to be repeated today, would absolutely constitute the crime of “genocide” under both international and domestic criminal law.

The explicit and deliberate intent was to destroy the culture of “the Indian”. Forcible transfer of children, at the hands of both the Church and by Canadian government agents - Indian Agents and the RCMP - was a part of this. It was a deliberate effort to stamp out the culture and destroy the bonds between communities and their children. They did a pretty good job, and the damage to this day is tremendous.

I have no idea how to make it right.

Bri,

You are attempting to apply 2021 cultural "normalcies" to 19th and early 20th century realities. Make no mistake, the schools and the Catholic church, at that time, were not considering the eradication of native populations. Rather, they were focused on mass proselytization.

 

[brihard]

Bri,

You are attempting to apply 2021 cultural "normalcies" to 19th and early 20th century realities. Make no mistake, the schools and the Catholic church, at that time, were not considering the eradication of native populations. Rather, they were focused on mass proselytization.

Genocide is not limited to physical eradication. Other mechanisms that serve the ends of reducing or eliminating an identifiable group fit within it too. In this instance there are a couple of different manifestations that would fit legal definitions, forcible transfer of children being one of them.

Daniel Holdhagen wrote a really solid book on the multiple manifestations of genocide a few years back, Worse than War. It’s a bit of a tome, but a good read. On the legal side, Canada criminalizes Genocide under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, which codifies both treaty and customary international law, not least the ‘Rome Statute’. The ICC’s publication Elements of Offences is both useful and persuasive in understanding these definitions.

The intent absolutely was to reduce our native population and to convert them into something else from how settlers found them, through forced assimilation, and a multitude of abusive practices. It was genocide. The fact that, at that time in history, our ancestors were the ones who were generally ok with it doesn’t minimize what it was.

When our nation’s erstwhile practices towards the indigenous were first described as ‘genocide’ I scoffed at it, like many. As I’ve continued to learn, and particularly as I’ve become increasingly versed in crimes against humanity, I have reluctantly had to change my views.

 

[Remius]

And the last residential schools closed in the 1990s. They even knew that in the early 1900s that this was bad, the fact that went late into the 20th century is unbelievable. We have survivors that disagree about how acceptable this was.

Stop minimizing this and making excuses. That would be a good start.