IN DEPTH: ABORIGINAL CANADIANS
Timeline
CBC News Online | July 02, 2004
Major news events involving aboriginal Canadians have become a regular feature of Canadian life.
There was the dangerous standoff between police and Mohawks at Oka near Montreal, the threat of a breakaway partition by the Crees of northern Quebec if separatists take the province out of Canada, the Inuit and Innu in Labrador blocking development of Inco's massive nickel find at Voisey's Bay. And back, back in time, the plains rebellion led by Metis leader Louis Riel.
Here's a look at recent events.
November 2002
Government lawyers attempt to reverse a federal court ruling which exempts thousands of First Nations people from paying tax. The court ruled that members of Indian Treaty No. 8, signed in 1899, were entitled to live free of any kind of taxation.
July 2000
The Supreme Court of British Columbia upheld the Nisga'a treaty as constitutonally valid. This came after Liberals in British Columbia tried to quash the $487-million deal, which gives land, cash and legislative power to the Nisga'a.
November 2000
Residents of Sheshatshiu, an Innu community in Labrador, ask that their children be taken away to be treated for addiction of gas-sniffing.
July 2000
The Squamish Nation in British Columbia voted to end its claim to 600 hectares of prime West Coast real estate in exchange for cash amounting to $92.5 million. This ended a court battle that began 20 years earlier.
May 2000
A $1.4 billion lawsuit launched by the Samson Cree of Alberta against the federal government goes to court. The suit, which could take two years, alleges mismanagement of the band's petroleum resources.
February 2000
Two aboriginal men found frozen on the outskirts of Saskatoon. A third complains that Saskatoon police officers handcuffed him, then drove him out of the city and abandoned him in a field in freezing weather without a jacket. He survived by getting into a powerhouse. An RCMP inquiry follows, and two police officers are ultimately convicted of unlawful confinement and sentenced to eight months in jail.
Fall 1999
Tension between aboriginal and non-aboriginal fishermen resulted from a Supreme Court of Canada decision giving year-round fishing rights to Mi'kmaq and Maliseet people in Atlantic Canada. The Court based their judgment on a 100-year-old treaty.
1999
Nunavut, the first territory or province in Canada with an aboriginal majority, is created.
November 30, 1998
An event of political, historical and cultural significance occurred when Chief Joseph Gosnell led his Nisga'a people to the doors of the British Columbia legislature in Victoria. The Nisga'a delegation brought with them a canoe, which they placed on the steps of the legislature. "The canoe symbolizes a cargo of hope," one of the Nisga'a explained.
The last time they made the trek, in 1887, barricades blocked their way to "The Big House" and they were unable to sign the treaty they had been promised. The Nisga'a returned home empty-handed, after paddling 750 kilometres up the wild coast to the remote Nass River Valley.
The return trip in 1998 was far more than symbolic. This time, Premier Glen Clark escorted the the Nisga'a into the Big House where Chief Gosnell had been invited to make a speech, an honour reserved for visiting heads of state. The Nisga'a are expected to get their treaty, though it requires approval of both the British Columbia legislature and the House of Commons. The treaty gives the 6,000 Nisga'a title to 2,000 square kilometres of the lower Nass Valley, limited self-government, extensive fishing and logging rights, and $340 million.
It is the first treaty negotiated by the B.C. government in more than a century, a momentous event in the history of aboriginal Canadians. And there's more to come: 50 other aboriginal groups are waiting to negotiate other treaties with the B.C. government. Paul Tennant, professor of political science at the University of British Columbia, says the Nisga'a treaty marks a social shift in the province. "It means a new view of what it means to be a British Columbian," he said. "It really marks the death of the old white tribe."
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| QUICK FACTS: |
Total population of Canada: 31,414,000
Total people of aboriginal origin: 1,319,890
Origin
North American Indian:
957,650*
Métis:
266,020*
Inuit:
51,390*
More than one aboriginal origin:
44,835
Reserves
People of aboriginal origin living on reserve: 285,625
People of aboriginal origin living off reserve: 1,034,260
People of non-aboriginal origin living on reserve: 36,230
(Source: 2001 Census, Statistics Canada)
*includes people of a single aboriginal origin and those of a mix of one aboriginal origin with non-aboriginal origins
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