Humainologie creative dialogue Indigenous Ways of Knowing Wednesday March 24

“Before our white brothers arrived to make us civilized men, we didn’t have any kind of prison. Because of this, we had no delinquents. Without a prison, there can be no delinquents. We had no locks nor keys and therefore among us there were no thieves. When someone was so poor that he couldn’t afford a horse, a tent, or a blanket, he would, in that case, receive it all as a gift. We were too uncivilized to give great importance to private property. We didn’t know any kind of money and consequently, the value of a human being was not determined by his wealth. We had no written laws laid down, no lawyers, no politicians, therefore we were not able to cheat and swindle one another. We were really in bad shape before the white men arrived and I don’t know how to explain how we were able to manage without these fundamental things that (so they tell us) are so necessary for a civilized society.” - John Fire Lame Deer, Native Indian Chief https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fire_Lame_Deer Hello Dialogue Artists! At our creative dialogue yesterday, the possibility of a book club was suggested (I think by Laurie Lin and Zenia Mulhern). We could do this in various ways, but I wanted to mention right away that any of you could read a book, do a synopsis, and facilitate a dialogue on the topic of the book. Just raise your hand! Our topic for next Wednesday, March 24, is Indigenous Ways of Knowing. Chantal Chagnon will facilitate. Before Wednesday, I will send more information. I have appended herewith my synopsis of Don Smith’s very recent book Seen but Not Seen: Influential Canadians and the First Nations from the 1840s to Today Arthur Book: (Donald B. Smith) Seen but Not Seen: Influential Canadians and the First Nations from the 1840s to Today(2021) The narrative depth and detail of this somber and marvelous history make it a valuable contemporary resource. We learn that prior to about 1960 it was widely assumed that the Indigenous people and cultures of Canada would simply disappear as they were assimilated into the dominant Canadian population and culture. Don Smith, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Calgary, shows in depth and breadth how the familiar figures of “Canadian history” were influencing and being influenced by the resilience and resurgence of Indigenous cultures. “From the 1840s onward, Canadian Indian policy sought the First Nations’ abandonment of their land, traditional activities, communal values and ancient rights in exchange for the privileges and opportunities of British, later Canadian citizenship. …The integrationist perspective continued into the late 1960s…” This culminated in a “White Paper” put forth by the Canadian government in 1969. “The National Indian Brotherhood, founded in 1968 and reorganized in 1982 as the Assembly of First Nations, described the White Paper as a document designed to bring about ‘the destruction of a Nation of People by legislation and genocide.’” It galvanized Indigenous political resistance in Canada and led to a “Red Paper” response from First Nations (June 4, 1970) – and official retraction of the White Paper in March 1971 by the Government of Canada. Nine chapters carry us forward from a time when even people like John McDougall (1842-1917) - who was bilingual and bicultural and had once described himself as “nine-tenths Indian” – made Anglo-Canadian assumptions of cultural superiority. In Chapter One, “John A. Macdonald and the Indians,” we learn that Macdonald (1815-1891), Canada’s first prime minister, sought assimilation not only of Indigenous cultures but also those of non-British and non-French ancestry. In 1876, the Indian Act came into effect, and still is today. In the 1870s, Treaties 1 through 7 also came into effect and remain so today. We are on Treaty 7 land here in Calgary. “Depressing though it is from today’s vantage point,” writes the author, “the reality remains that in Canada in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s assimilation or ‘civilization’ as it was termed at the time, was the universally accepted approach.” It is Chapter Two, “John McDougall and the Stoney Nakoda” that introduces us to this remarkable Methodist minister who may have spoken Ojibwe and Cree better than he spoke English. He was often with Ojibwe friends as a child. Later, when he moved west, he lived for a time with his second wife Lizzie at 230 6th Avenue E in Calgary, which they had named “Nekenon,” a Cree word meaning “our home.” He was deeply impressed as a young man by “the totally self-sufficient Plains Indians.” His first wife Abigail was the daughter of a Methodist minister and a Cree woman. The couple had three children and spoke Cree at home. “John McDougall truly lived in two worlds. …He championed the right of First Nations to participate in the Banff Indian Days and the Calgary Exhibition (and Stampede). He advocated for Stoney Nakoda hunting rights. Yet, ultimately [he] had the same blind spot as the others of his time. …Like virtually everyone else of Anglo-Canadian background in Western Canada in his day, McDougall believed the First Nations, the French Canadians, and all immigrants must conform to the already fixed values and institutions of British Canada.” In Chapter Three we are introduced to Canadian polymaths Silas Rand (1810-1889) and George M. Grant (1835-1902). Rand’s astonishing facility with languages led to mastery of many including several Indigenous languages, as well as Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, and modern Greek. Grant, who for many years served as principal of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, “stands out as one of the most open-minded Canadians of his era.” He “believed in Canada as a British nation, but one of ethnic and religious diversity.” Reverend Rand, a missionary to the Mi’kmaq, was a stronger advocate for Indigenous rights, and “called for the recognition of the Indigenous Title in Nova Scotia, and for compensation for lands lost.” The Eurocentric “Doctrine of Discovery,” held that Europeans who “discover” a land would have sovereignty over the land and the Indigenous people who had lived there for centuries. We learn, in Chapter Four, of the contrast between an expectation of familial obedience held, for example, by legal expert John Alexander Boyd (1837-1916); and the expectation of Ojibwe culture, with an ethic of non-interference, whereby parents “encourage their children to make their own decisions.” The virulent conflict between settlers and Indigenous peoples in the latter half of the nineteenth century is manifest in the life and ultimate execution (1885) of Métis leader Louis Riel (b. 1844). Franz Boaz (1858-1942) was born and educated in Germany, the son of liberal Jewish parents, and first turned his attention to Canadian Indigenous cultures with a German expedition to Baffin Island 1883-1884, subsequently to the Indigenous cultures of British Columbia. As “one of the most influential North American anthropologists of the twentieth century,” he emphasized that anthropologists “must avoid judging foreign cultures by the standards of their own culture.” Other stories from Chapter 8, “Attitudes on the Pacific Coast,” include those of artist and writer Emily Carr (1871-1945); and Maisie Hurley (1887-1964), who became a leading activist for Indigenous rights. In Chapter 9, “Alberta Perspectives,” we learn of the prolific journalist Chief Buffalo Long Lance (1890-1932) who in fact had spun a yarn that he was of Indigenous Alberta roots. In fact, he was of mixed European, Native, and African American ancestry and had been raised in Winston Salem, North Carolina. John Laurie (1899-1959), an advocate for Indigenous rights, was one of many Anglo-Canadians strongly drawn to Indigenous cultures. Hugh Dempsey, who married an Indigenous woman, became a prolific author and served the Glenbow Foundation in Calgary initially as archivist (from 1956) and then as curator-director (1967-1991). The modern, authentic, and outspoken Indigenous voice emerges, in the person of Harold Cardinal, 22 years old in 1967, who was then president of the Canadian Indian Youth Council. Cardinal subsequently (June 4, 1970), as President of the Indian Association of Alberta, was among those presenting the Red Paper in Ottawa, in response to the Canadian government’s White Paper. He “represented a whole new generation of young Indigenous people who spoke English and/or French well, who had travelled and read widely, and who were prepared to speak out on issues of concern. These young leaders wanted to see the First Nations take control of their own lives.” From Harold Cardinal’s 1969 book The Unjust Society, Don Smith quotes: “Now, at a time when our fellow Canadians consider the promise of the Just Society, once more the Indians of Canada are betrayed by a programme which offers nothing better than cultural genocide.” In his Epilogue, Don Smith carries us right up to spring and summer of 2020, (by which time the Canadian government was responding to the pandemic and taking Indigenous community needs into account as it did so). One outcome of the Second World War had been a setback for ideas of racial superiority. In Canada, this trend gained momentum and “Over the past half-century the values, attitudes, and assumptions of many non-Indigenous Canadians towards the First Nations have undergone radical and extraordinary change.” Don provides bullet point, milestone-by-milestone summaries of more than twenty key events from 1970 onward, from which we can see in historical perspective such things as the founding of the Native Law Centre at the University of Saskatchewan (1973), the passage of Bill C-31 (28 June 1985), the Meech Lake Accord (June 1990), the Residential School Settlements Agreement (2006), and Stephen Harper’s issuing a full apology for the Government of Canada’s support of Indian residential schools (11 June 2008). Perhaps we of European ancestry should turn to Indigenous cultures for ways of thinking that we urgently need for our future as human beings. The savagery of the European invaders came close to extinguishing that source of existential wisdom. Yet even popular culture has long been aware of Indigenous wisdom. Originally from a 1995 Disney film “Pocahontas,” these lyrics are one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB8EZBj9w7o We should keep our options, our minds, and our hearts open. Don Smith’s book can help with that.