Running their own show.

Since Confederation, the Indian Act has made the Minister of Indian Affairs the "Great White Father"--the person who oversaw almost every aspect of the lives of status Indians. The federal government provided shelter, health care, education, and the means to exist. It even extended beyond the grave: no Indian will is valid unless approved by the Indian Affairs Department.

The result, nearly everyone admits, has been disastrous. Aboriginal peoples, treated like children who can't look after themselves or make their own decisions, often lead lives of desperation. Many bands scrape along in grinding Third World poverty and are plagued by alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, and crime.

But passive acceptance by our First Nations of federal handouts and control has been replaced by active Native challenges from coast to coast. Land claims and the right to self-government are the chief ways in which aboriginal peoples are pressing their claims.

As this report deals with self-government, we should start by looking for a definition of it. Nonnative Canadians would probably define it as parliamentary democracy and go on to fill in the details of this system. Until lately, Canadian governments have wanted Native groups to provide that kind of precise description of what they mean by self-rule. But Native leaders such as Ovide Mercredi, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), refuses to be pinned down to such an exact and limiting definition.

Mr. Mercredi starts out by saying what self-rule would not be; his peoples are not interested in creating an army. "Our own monetary policy or our own currency are completely out of the question." Beyond that, the definition of a 'third order of government' within Canada becomes more vague. There would be elements of the traditional systems of Native government that existed centuries before Europeans arrived here. Aboriginals would want to run their own justice systems and control education, language, and culture. They would be in charge of health care and other social services.

Mr. Mercredi and other Indian leaders refuse to set exact limits on the features of self-governments. This is because the needs of 633 aboriginal bands differ so widely. Some are tiny groups and would be satisfied with a municipal style of government. Others, numbering many thousands, would be looking for governments which would give them almost provincial status. So, as Rudy Platiel, writing in the Globe and Mail, says, "Essentially what Natives want is an umbrella right to move to whatever level of self-government they feel is practical for their situation."

But apart from Natives on reserves, there are another half million Indians living in Canadian cities. Defining self-government for them would be no simple matter and would fall outside the scope of reserve governments. Urban Natives complain they are in danger of being ignored as negotiations on self-rule go on with reserve chiefs.

Natives, working with governments, have already blazed a considerable trail toward management of their own affairs. There are some notable markers along the path:

* Our 1982 patriated Constitution, in Clause 35, states: "(1) The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed. (2) In this Act, 'aboriginal peoples of Canada' includes the Indian, Inuit, and Metis peoples of Canada."

* In 1990, Elijah Harper, a Native member of the Manitoba legislature, voted no, and defeated the Meech Lake Constitutional Accord. Mr. Harper did so because Meech Lake didn't also recognize Native peoples as a "distinct society" with claims to special treatment within Canada.

* In 1992, the Charlottetown Accord would have changed the Constitution to grant Native peoples the inherent right to self-government. That bubble of hope burst when a national referendum defeated the Accord. Even a majority of Native people voted against the deal.

Yet, though Charlottetown was voted down, polls showed that Canadians favoured Native demands for self-rule. In Ottawa, Indian Affairs Minister Ronald Irwin has the same self-government goal in his sights. He goes far beyond that to say that he aims to dismantle his department, making the Indian Act irrelevant.

One three-syllable word, 'inherent,' has proved prickly in negotiations on self-rule -- it means inborn, always existing. Natives say they have always had the right to govern themselves and have never given it up in any treaties with the other two founding peoples. Ovide Mercredi is suspicious of any deals to grant governing powers piecemeal to bands or tribes. He argues that such agreements could be challenged in the courts or taken away by future governments. Only by entrenching 'inherent' in the Constitution can it be safe from attack.

Mr. Irwin sees the problem differently and, where he finds an opening which might lead to self-rule, takes it. Anyway, he argues, Clause 35 in the Constitution, by guaranteeing existing treaty rights, already protects the inherent right to self-government. As a major step toward his objective, he signed an agreement in 1994 with Manitoba Grand Chief Phil Fontaine. The deal will lead to self-rule for the province's 84,000 Indians. This, in turn, will dismantle the operations of the Department of Indian Affairs in Manitoba. "It's the beginning of the end for the Indian Act," said Mr. Fontaine.

In signing, Ottawa agreed to the creation of 60 band governments in Manitoba that will have all the legislative, executive, and judicial powers needed for self-government. Jurisdiction "will include but not be limited to" the promotion of culture, identities, institutions, traditions, citizenship, lands, water, economies, and languages. Financing for this program is a little vague. It will be done by balancing Native needs against federal obligations. The agreement will be in force for ten years and if its aims haven't then been realized it can be extended by mutual consent.

Mr. Irwin regards the Manitoba pact as a test of Native self-government; if it becomes a successful model for Natives elsewhere across the country, he thinks his department will eventually be scrapped, and with it the Indian Act.

Apart from the Manitoba experiment, there are more than a few other examples of Native peoples running their own show:

* By far the largest Native-run territory will be Nunavut (Inuit for "our land"). Carved out of the Northwest Territories in the eastern Arctic, Nunavut will contain one fifth of Canada's land area. It is scheduled to begin operating as an independent government in 1999 and will receive $1.14 billion in federal funding over 14 years

* In British Columbia, Kispiox Elementary is a school with a difference. Seven-to nine-year-olds are baking traditional bannock bread and taking classes in the Gitksan language. The little school, run by the Kispiox Indian Band, is ranked among the cream of the province's schools. It is part of a "hidden reality" of Native self-government which extends across Canada, says Frank Cassidy of the University of Victoria.

* The Lheit-Lit'en Nation of northeastern British Columbia has already cut the apron strings of the Indian Act and is being governed by a council of elders consisting of every Nation member over 50.

As Native peoples break the trail towards self-rule, where does their future path lie? It could follow the route Ronald Irwin plans for it; the Manitoba experiment might spread across Canada and both the Department of Indian Affairs and the Indian Act disappear. It could develop through a constitutional amendment which clearly defines and entrenches the inherent right to self-government. Perhaps, it will evolve through a rough and ready process as Native groups gradually negotiate their way out of the Indian Act.

Wherever the trail leads there can be no turning back: both Natives and governments are committed to some kind of solution.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. Financing Native self-rule is sure to have heavy costs for taxpayers. In Nunavut, for example, costs after 2008 will be $84 million a year more than it would cost to service the eastern Arctic from Yellowknife. Discuss the costs, how money could be saved, and what responsibility Natives might have for sharing the burden.

2. Through class discussion draw up a list of responsibilities you think should be in the hands of Native people and those you think should be retained by federal and provincial governments.

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