Weekly Debrief Questions
What is one thing you learned from the terminology lecture this week?
One thing I did not know was how the Métis were a distinct group with deep roots primarily across the three Prairie provinces. In reading about the Métis history, I discovered that the UBC Indigenous Foundations website described how the term did originally apply to those whose “…cultures and ethnic identities resulted from unions between Aboriginal and European people in what is now Canada (where the term) Métis stems from the Latin verb miscére, ‘to mix’” (Ouellet). The UBC website also described how the Canadian legal decision, R v. Powely [2003], as representing “…the First major Aboriginal Rights case concerning Métis peoples. The Powley decision resulted in ‘the Powley Test,’ which laid out a set of criteria to not only define what might constitute a Métis right, but also who is entitled to those rights” (Salomons). I also found it fascinating how the Métis Nation of Ontario website described the symbolism of the Métis flag (ITEM 2.1 below) which features a “…horizontal or infinity symbol… originally carried by French ‘half-breeds’ with pride… (Specifically) the symbol, which represents the immortality of the Nation, in the centre of a blue field, represents the joining of two cultures” (Métis Nation of Ontario). This kind of acceptance however, was something not always seen across all Nations.
In Martin Scorsese’s 2023 film, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, the marriage between colonial settlers and members of the Osage Nation was at times viewed with suspicion, especially by elder members of the Nation, and by elder colonial settlers. For example, the character of Lizzie (Tantoo Cardinal), expresses to her daughter Mollie (Lily Gladstone) her disappointment with how her daughters have watered down their Osage culture and heritage by inviting in evil, colonial-settler white men through marriage. Specifically, their conversion, in Osage, goes as follows:
Lizzie: Did you see the Owl?
Mollie: No.
Lizzie: When you do it’s a sign we are dying. Because… of you. You all marry white men. Our blood is getting white (Killers of the Flower Moon 00:45:05-00:45:37).
In David Grann’s 2017 non-fiction book, upon which the film is based, Grann goes into further detail, using an omniscient narrator to dive further into Lizzie’s thoughts about white European settlers, describing how:
“During Lizzie’s lifetime, the Osage had become dramatically unmoored from their traditions. Louis E. Burns, an Osage historian, wrote that after oil was discovered, the tribe had been ‘set adrift in a strange world,’ adding, ‘There was nothing familiar to clutch and stay afloat in the world of white man’s wealth’” (Grann 25).
Grann continued, noting how the Osage had been essentially crippled by the greed of colonial settlers, as:
“To some Osage, especially elders like Lizzie, oil was a cursed blessing. ‘Some day this oil will go and there will be no more fat checks every few months from the Great White Father,’ a chief of the Osage said in 1928. ‘There’ll be no fine motorcars and new clothes. Then I know my people will be happier’” (26).
A colonial-settler aunt and uncle also expressed displeasure in the film, describing their grandchildren as ‘half-breeds’ who wouldn’t have the same advantages in life due to their mixed ethnicity. In the same scene, Scorsese shifts from Lizzie and Mollie’s conversation to showcase the children born from the mixed-raced couples. Aunt Annie (Jo Harvey Allen) talks to Uncle Jim (Terry Allen) about their niece and nephew, their own relations, as both watch them play:
Aunt Annie: This one’s whiter than that one. You’d never know this one’s a half-breed, would you?
Uncle Jim: They’re both a couple of little half-assed savages, as far as I’m concerned.
Aunt Annie: Bless their little hearts, now, they can’t help it.
Uncle Jim: One dark, and one light. It’s like an eclipse. The Lord put his hand over the Earth and made it shake for nothing (Killers of the Flower Moon 00:45:57-00:46:29).
In Grann’s book, the thoughts of the aunt are described to us by an omniscient narrator who reveals how:
One of Ernest’s aunts, who spewed racist notions about Indians, was also visiting, and the last thing Mollie needed was for Anna to stir up the old goat” (Grann 11).
And:
“Meanwhile, Ernest’s aunt was muttering, loud enough for all to hear, about how mortified she was that her nephew had married a redskin” (12).
Finally, Eastern Woodland Métis Nation website also describes a time when the Métis had been separated from their heritage, conveying how:
“The Métis infinity flag was temporarily forgotten, and remembered only in oral tradition. With the rebirth of Métis pride and consciousness the flag was brought back” (Eastern Woodland Métis Nation).
ITEM 2.1 > IMAGE > The Métis Flag.
For me, the deep roots that Métis maintained as a result of their diversity, as compared to the divisions seen by the diversity in the Osage, ties back to the ideal of Harmony, a concept Ojibwe author Richard Wagamese, in his book, ONE STORY, ONE SONG, teaches as being:
“According to the teachings of my people… (one of) the most difficult things to achieve in life… (but) in the Aboriginal way of seeing the world, everyone is divine. Everything exists in a never-ending state of relationship. If there is order to be found, it lies in the all-encompassing faith in this belief” (Wagamese 35).
In ONE DRUM, STORIES AND CEREMONIES FOR A PLANET, Wagamese further relays how:
“The spiritual blessing of respect is harmony and the spiritual byproduct is community… It starts with the recognition that all things exist on the Sacred Breath of Creation, and that because of that we are all related, all kin, all essential to the ongoing energy, the eternal heartbeat, the one song on the one drum that is the story of our time here” (Wagamese 181).
In short, I found Wagamese’s reminder to be nothing less than deeply profound, and a reminder about the importance of community and the idea that everyone and everything is connected.
After watching the '21 Things you didn't know about the Indian Act' video. What is something you already knew about the Indian Act and what is something new you learned about it?
According to his website, author and educator Bob Joseph is an Indigenous leader “…in the Gayaxala (Thunderbird) clan, the first clan of the Gwawa’enuxu, one of the first tribes that make up the Kwakwaka’wakw” (Indigenous Corporate Training). Joseph has been an Indigenous relations trainer since 1994. For his blog in 2015, Joseph wrote an article that explored the lesser known aspects of the Indian Act called, 21 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT THE INDIAN ACT. In 2016, the article was reworked for print media, appearing on site, such as CBC News. And in 2018, the article Had been expanded even further into a nonfiction book of the same name. Each iteration of Joseph’s work have been well received, and circulated widely. All iterations were a response to what Joseph described in the introduction to the book as representing a “…gap in knowledge regarding the history of Indigenous Peoples that spans from Confederation in 1867 to the 1960s.” (Joseph 10). Joseph also described his goals for the ongoing project these writings represented, which included how “… Non-Indigenous Canadians be aware of how deeply the Indian act penetrated, Controlled, and continues to control, most aspects of the lives of First Nations” (10). In short, Joseph explained how “…as an Indigenous Person I look for opportunities to build bridges of reconciliation by providing information about Indigenous Peoples” (10).
ITEM 2.2 > VIDEO > Bob Joseph. “21 Things You Didn’t Know About the Indian Act Presentation.” YouTube, 23 Jul 2018.
One aspect of the Indian Act I’ve been familiar with is how it has existed since the beginning of Canadian Confederation, which Wikipedia describes as:
“…the process by which three British North American provinces—the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick—were united into one federation called the Dominion of Canada, on July 1, 1867. Upon Confederation, Canada consisted of four provinces: Ontarioand Quebec, which had been split out from the Province of Canada, and the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Over the years since Confederation, Canada has seen numerous territorial changes and expansions, resulting in the current number of ten provinces and three territories” (“Canadian Confederation”).
One thing I didn’t know however, was how the Act is actually older than Canada itself. Specifically, Joseph notes how the:
The roots of the Indian Act lie in the Bagot Report of 1844 that recommended that control over Indian matters be centralized, that the children be sent to boarding schools away from the influence of their communities and culture, that the Indians be encouraged to assume the European concept of free enterprise, and that land be individually owned under an Indian land registry system in which they could sell to each other but not to non-Indians. The Bagot Report provided the framework for the Indian Act, 1876 (Joseph 13).
I also understood how the Act was created to manage the relationship between the Crown, the Government of Canada, and the Indigenous First Nations and Inuit upon whose land Canada now stood. I also knew how the Act treated Indigenous First Nations Peoples as children, where, as Joseph notes, the Canadian Department of the Interior in 1876 explained how: “Our Indian legislation generally rests on the principle, that the aborigines are to be kept in a condition of tutelage and treated as wards or children of the State...” (13). I also understood how the Act continuously restricted the rights of Indigenous First Nations Peoples over time. To this end, Joseph notes how:
“..,that paternalistic attitude gave way to increasingly punitive rules, prohibitions, and regulations that dehumanized Indians. By the 1920s, Indian policy took on a much darker tone. Duncan Campbell Scott, the Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, wrote: “I want to get rid of the Indian problem... Our objective is to continue until there is not an Indian that has not been absorbed into the body politic, and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department...” (13).
I have to admit that I wasn’t totally clear on how the elected chief and band council system was entrenched in the Indian Act, having nothing to do with the various systems of governance that each nation had. Joseph notes that this new system under the Indian Act mirrored:
“…municipal-style government in which a leader and council members are elected, based on the terms and conditions of the government. The role of the elected chief is to administer the Indian Act, and in no meaningful way does this reflect their former self-government” (19).
Joseph also makes clear that this:
“…dismissal of Indigenous forms of government in favour of the European-style municipal government displaced traditional political structures and did not reflect, consider, or honour Indigenous needs and values” (19).
In browsing YouTube, I was impressed at how much discussion has been generated by Joseph’s work. One Pastor in Guelph, Ontario, even did a series of video discussions about the book, which he encouraged all his parishioners to read. ITEM 2.3 features one of those discussions, in which the Pastor introduces Joseph’s book.
ITEM 2.3 > VIDEO > St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Guelph. “Introduction to the 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act.” YouTube, 29 Sep 2022.
WEEK 02 WORKS CITED
“Canadian Confederation.” Wikipedia, Wikipedia Foundation, 12 Dec 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Confederation.
Eastern Woodland Métis Nation. “The Métis Flag.” 2023. https://easternwoodlandmetisnation.ca/the-metis-flag/. Accessed 14 Sep 2023.
Grann, David. “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI.” Kindle ed., Doubleday, 2017.
Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. “Bob Joseph: Founder & President.” 2023. https://www.ictinc.ca/ict-team/bob-joseph. Accessed 14 Sep 2023.
Joseph, Bob. “21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality.” Kindle ed., Indigenous Relations Press, 2018.
Killers of the Flower Moon. Directed by Martin Scorsese, Apple Studios / Imperative Entertainment / Sikelia Productions / Appian Way Productions, 2023.
Métis Nation of Ontario. “Symbols and Traditions.” Métis Nations of Ontario. https://www.metisnation.org/culture-heritage/symbols-and-traditions/#:~:text=Métis%20Flag,the%20joining%20of%20two%20cultures.. Accessed 14 Sep 2023.
Oullet, Rick, and Erin Hansen. “Métis.” Indigenous Foundations UBC, 2009. https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/metis/. Accessed 14 Sep 2023.
Salomons, Tanisha, and Erin Hanson. “Powley Case.” Indigenous Foudations UBC, 2009. https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/powley_case/. Accessed 14 Sep 2023.
Wagamese, Richard. “One Drum: Stories and Ceremonies for a Planet.” Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 2019.
Wagamese, Richard. “One Story, One Song.” Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 2011.
This week’s assignment can also be viewed in PDF format.