Month: October 2016

When I was researching The Indian Act of 1876, I was hoping to read through the original, yet I could not find it. However, what I came across ended up being a little more disturbing than anticipated because it was the Indian Act of 1985 which is in effect today. I learned a lot about the Indian Act of 1876 a couple years ago in an anthropology course and it was gone over several times in various courses through my degree yet for some reason I no longer thought of it as being currently enforced. I am not sure why this didn’t click before as I have been on several reservations, one in Fort McMurray (where my British Father taught English in 1965 when he immigrated here), one south of Edmonton (Hobbema) and under Lions’ Gate Bridge (Squamish Nation).  I came across this blog post, The Ugly Face of the Squamish Nation  which I will return to in a bit along with the story of my father.

The major aspect of the Act that stuck out to me related to Indian women who married non-Indian men. I remember learning this in an Anthropology of Gender class.  We had a guest speaker, a lawyer, Aboriginal, a Woman. She spoke about how at first there had been peace but things really changed when this act was introduced. She told stories about how women lost their status but the really problematic change was that they lost their names which had profound effects as many followed maternal lines, not paternal as it became with the introduction of the Indian Act of 1876. When Indian women married non-Indian, the women lost all of their rights as an Indian. Benefits, the right to family property, and the right to be buried with the ancestors. Essentially, they became “civilized,” as Coleman puts it in relation to White Civility.

The women than became “white” and became assimilated to a new world. The children of these marriages would marry other people of European decent, they would have no choice as all ties are cut when the Indian woman married a non-Indian man. I am white, my mother is darker, my grandmother even more so. I never saw a photo of my great-grandmother, it never existed but I suspect she was even darker. Each of these women married a non-Indian and there is now no need to assimilate me as it was done over generations and through genetic manipulation which was the goal of colonization.

Even today, the wording of the act still includes:

Indian Register

• 5 (1)  There shall be maintained in the Department an Indian Register in which shall be recorded the name of every person who is entitled to be registered as an Indian under this Act.

This is the current terminology and it reminded me of what Trump is suggesting with keeping a registry of all Muslims in the United States. It is very unfortunate that this system still exists as it was established as form of control such as requiring permission slips to leave the reservation. The act prohibited alcohol consumption. The list of ways in which it controlled is endless.

So the above mentioned blog post discusses how the Squamish Nation Reservation is ugly and why can’t they just improve the area given how much money they have. Well, regardless of if they have money or not, money does not heal the destruction of your way of life. Some argue that was generations ago but it wasn’t. Residential schools were in operation during my lifetime. Unfortunately I believe that our society has a tendency to downplay the effect of trauma on people’s lives. Money doesn’t solve intergenerational trauma.

Regarding my British father was teaching English in 1965 in Alberta. He came here to escape a painful divorce. He arrived in Fort MacMurray and taught on a reservation in a one room school. He loved his students and they loved him. He had them draw and tell him their stories, it was English after all. But after about five years, he was fired. His methods were not English enough. They weren’t appropriate for teaching English. You can’t have your students drawing and having fun. He moved to Edmonton and was unable to find a job as a teacher in the Public School board, this was 1971. He instead married my mother, a student in University. He entered law school in 1975 and to this day works predominantly for Aboriginal women. He takes child welfare cases to help fight the systemic abuse that occurs.

I feel like sometimes we forget that even though the stories of “Canada” come from a perspective of colonization, not all people who were European supported to this view. My father exposed me to a world that most “white” people never get a chance to see (in all of its glory and suffering) and I am grateful because without it I would have zero connection to my ancestors dating back over 10,000 years in Canada.

I hope these stories provided support that Coleman’s argument isn’t just an argument, it is real. I am proof. I realize I went way over words allowed but I had to get it all out. If you got through it all, thank you! I guess in a way this is my creation story.  My only wish is that I knew my great-grandmother’s maiden name, or her mother’s name. My grandmother already had a Scottish last name. Now I have a very British last name, Fish. It is traced back to the 1500s. I have traced my grandfather’s line back to the 1500s in Prussia (Mennonite). Yet, my grandmother’s line is gone. All I know is that my maternal line is from Northern Manitoba.

I apologize for using “Indian” but it was difficult to escape. I would prefer First Nations or Aboriginal.

Colleen

Works Cited

Government of Canada http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-5/  Accessed October 28, 2016.

Bob Joseph (blog) http://www.ictinc.ca/blog/21-things-you-may-not-have-known-about-the-indian-act-

Leslie, John http://www.revparl.ca/english/issue.asp?art=255&param=83

“To raise the question of ‘authenticity’ is to challenge not only the narrative but also the ‘truth’ behind Salish ways of knowing” (Carlson 59). Explain why this is so according to Carlson, and explain why it is important to recognize this point.

As explained by Carlson in Orality about Literacy: The ‘Black and White’ of Salish History, authenticity is considered differently than in the academic world where an individual who fabricates evidence, or is careless, loses their credibility and therefore, their academic standing (Carlson 57). It is significantly different for the Salish people as ‘authenticity’ refers to being “reliable sources of historical information” as well as what may happen if the information is conveyed less reliably. Unlike the white man who can easily deceive, if the story is altered, fabricated or inaccurate, for a Salish storyteller, this is not only going to ruin his reputation and his future as a storyteller but it may potentially hurt those who are listening.

As discussed previously by Lutz, the ‘contact zone’ involved attempting to communicate through song, dance, and symbolism which was connected to spiritual performance on the part of both parties, just different narratives. For the Salish people, they view the world through spirits, specifically, the spirits of their ancestors. If one were to deceive, it is not just a risk to themselves, but those around them, including ancestral spirits. The spirits will punish as it is their belief that the spirits are able to “cause ‘bad things’ to happen” (Carlson 59). If one is telling a story about the distant past, or “any story that involves deceased people, it is regarded as of interest to ancestors in the spirit world” (Carlson 58).  The ancestral spirits are very cognizant of “honour, integrity, and accuracy” (Carlson 59).

It is therefore important to consider when addressing Aboriginal people that the significance and implications of questions related to “authenticity” may “challenge not only the narrative but also the ‘truth’ behind Salish ways of knowing” (Carlson 59). If one is to consider how one feels when they are lying, if they are caught or not, most would admit that their is some level of guilt and I hope that this applies cross-culturally but that I can’t confirm. However, this article appears to indicate that there are similar words used depending on if one is being deceptive or not.  Granted this study is comprised of a relatively small cultural sample.

As explained by Carlson, the story becomes “sacrosanct” (59).  I was watching the news recently and the story about Dorothy’s Shoes in which $300,000 is being provided by the Smithsonian to preserve the shoes which are degrading due to humidity and light. They are attempting to raise more money to build a special containment unit that will protect the shoes from degrading further. Are these shoes really so valuable as to spend over $300,000 to maintain them? I find it rather unfathomable that someone believes it is, yet the European culture is now dominated by capitalism rather than spirituality and alternate realms. This capitalism leads to identifying with movies, celebrities and the shoes they wore rather than the land North Americans, aka European decedents stole to produce, distribute and consume the products of consumerism.

Work Cited

Carlson, Keith Thor. “Orality and Literacy: The ‘Black and White’ of Salish      History.” Orality & Literacy: Reflections Across Disciplines,  edited by Carlson, Kristina Fagna, & Natalia Khamemko-Frieson, U of Toronto Publishing, 2011, 43-72.

We began this unit by discussing assumptions and differences that we carry into our class. In “First Contact as Spiritual Performance,” Lutz makes an assumption about his readers (Lutz, “First Contact” 32). He asks us to begin with the assumption that comprehending the performances of the Indigenous participants is “one of the most obvious difficulties.” He explains that this is so because “one must of necessity enter a world that is distant in time and alien in culture, attempting to perceive indigenous performance through their eyes as well as those of the Europeans.” Here, Lutz is assuming either that his readers belong to the European tradition, or he is assuming that it is more difficult for a European to understand Indigenous performances – than the other way around. What do you make of this reading? Am I being fair when I point to this assumption? If so, is Lutz being fair when he makes this assumption?

It happened long ago when I was told “never assume, it makes an ass out of you and me,” yet, that lesson has stuck with me to this day. Another quote that stuck with me was Deepak Chopra, “People do the best they can with the awareness that they have.” I do believe this quote to my core, however, sometimes that awareness is based on erroneous information and unaware the information is erroneous. It has happened throughout time. We make assumptions all the time. For example, the DDT experiment that is still resulting in horrendous consequences. Another example is the use of asbestos.

I do think Lutz made an assumption in that most of his readers would be predominantly European. Is he being fair? That I do not know. However, what I do believe is that we are all prone to our assumptions and it doesn’t matter which ethnicity you identify with, “it is the consciousness of the past used for present purposes” (Lutz 7). For the present purposes, these stories are to educate those with European decent about the assumptions made on the European side more than the Indigenous as they certainly resulted in much more harm.

Fig. 1. A class in penmanship at the Red Deer Indian School, Red Deer, Alta. 1914-19.  (Wade 2013)

It is now up to the Europeans to learn of the cultures that they colonized, or at the very least see the Indigenous as a people who were colonized and are without their culture due to it being ripped away from them. The exploration into the supernatural within both stories, European and Indigenous, was very important as the religious connotations have been downplayed by the European commentator today but it wouldn’t have been back then. This is important in my view as when one considers the supernatural in both stories, it becomes more about learning to see through the eyes of someone who lived during that time, Indigenous and European. Both were infused with the supernatural, spiritual and realms beyond the human.

I noticed this many years ago as I found that Indigenous stories were looked down upon while the European stories were accepted as fact, which Lutz mentions. I often wondered why this was the case as to myself, both of the creation stories seemed to be difficult to understand. I do believe in the story of evolution which of course is part of the European story that began during the 18th Century however, I also do believe in something beyond that story. I feel that there are many things that science and evolution cannot explain. Therefore, in my view, it is presumptuous to believe in some things while not exploring other options.  My questioning of science began when I saw a ghost. I can’t explain it to this day but I know what I saw. It was beyond the realm of European understanding. I am okay with that.

Works Cited

Critical Thinking Community. “Distinguishing Between Inferences and Assumptions.” criticalthinking.org, www.criticalthinking.org/pages/critical-thinking-distinguishing-between-inferences-and-assumptions/484. Accessed 10 October 2016.

Lutz, John Sutton. “First Contact as a Spiritual Performance: Encounters on the North American West Coast.” Myth and Memory: Rethinking Stories of Indigenous-European Contact. Edited by John Lutz, University of British Colubia P, 2007, 30-45.

— “Myth Understandings: First Contact, Over and Over Again.” Myth and Memory: Rethinking Stories of Indigeous-European Contact. Edited by John Lutz, University of British Columbia Publisher, 2007, 1-15.

Pesticide Action Network. “The DDT Story.” panna.org, www.panna.org/resources/ddt-story. Accessed 10 October 2016.

Ward, Kevin James. “To Break Residential Schools’ Dark Legacy, Understand Why.” thetyee.ca, thetyee.ca/Opinion/2013/09/18/Break-Residential-Schools-Dark-Legacy-Understand-Why/. Accessed 9 October 12016.

 

After reading various stories about ‘home,’ I found it rather interesting that for the most part, people’s assumptions and values were similar however, the details of the stories differed greatly.

Several assumptions related to home included the notion that it was an idea that changes and evolves. Some assumptions mentioned included the idea that ‘home’ is more than just being a physical location. It involves emotions, language, security, and a repeated value was that there are friends and family nearby that support and love unconditionally.  One assumption I found throughout that wasn’t necessarily labelled but was present was the idea of searching for ‘home’ and that regardless where one is physically, as long as loved ones are nearby, one may feel safe and secure and thus feel at ‘home.’

There were some unique assumptions and values however that differed greatly from my own and others. One individual mentioned being close to home through art and music.  I found this to be different as rather than ‘home’ being a location or place, it is an activity.  Another individual spoke about feeling homesick while being on vacation. The idea of emotions being tied to ‘home’ came up several times including being happy, confident and loved, however, being homesick was only mentioned once out of the student’s blogs that I read. I was somewhat surprised by the absence of people mentioning homesick and then I wondered why I never mentioned it as I have experienced a number of times such as when I was living in California for six months. I wondered if this was common so I ‘googled’ it and sure enough I found many articles written on the subject such as one discussing how to tell if you are homesick.

The major difference was the fact that every story was different. The details of each story were drastically different ranging from discussing how they immigrated to Canada while others discussed living in one place for almost all of their life. Another difference was the pursuit of reality as mentioned by one individual and although I certainly do engage in this pursuit, I have never thought of it in terms of how it would be connected to ‘home.’

The last value that was mentioned that I figured was different from my own was having a ‘home-cooked meal.’ Although this used to be part of what I considered home when I was younger, it certainly isn’t now and I barely cook in my own kitchen. For the most part, I eat out or purchase ready-to-cook meals from the grocery store. I often feel very nostalgic when I think of my Sunday family dinners at my grandparent’s house but today, in many ways I try to avoid those memories as I have lost touch with most of the family I would have been surrounded by in those days. I am not sure why but I often think it is because I haven’t married and had children like all my cousins did. We have little in common. It has been years since I spoke to these people which is sad but yet I wonder what would we talk about. That certainly made me wonder what home is in relation to how each new generation keeps the spark of connection alive.

Works Cited

Chandler, Abigail. “14 Signs that you’re feeling homesick.” Metro UK, 13 Jun. 2015, metro.co.uk/2015/06/13/13-signs-that-youre-homesick-5237381/. Accessed 4 Oct. 2016.