Generations of betrayal: Mishkeegogamang, called "Mish" by those who live there, is a community that sums up all that is wrong with Canada's treatment of Native people. (Native People--The Ojibway Of Mishkeegogamang).
By Treaty 9 of 1905, the Ojibway of northwestern Ontario were to receive $4.00 each, every year, forever. Each family of five was given 2.6 [km.sup.2] and a school was to be built. The Treaty was signed with an "X" by Chief Daniel Missabay. He was blind and did not speak the language of the treaty commissioners with whom he dealt. Duncan Campbell Scott led the treaty team on behalf of Canada. Mr. Scott believed that white people were a superior race to Indians and that the latter would disappear through death from disease and assimilation through intermarriage.The details of the treaty were worked out between Ottawa and the Ontario government; they were presented by Mr. Scott to Chief Missabay. The Ojibway had no input into the terms and conditions, and Chief Missabay seems to have misunderstood the deal.
The traditional life of the Ojibway was nomadic. They lived off moose, beaver, wildfowl, fish, and whatever else the bush provided for them. Duncan Scott reassured the Chief that the treaty would not affect the tribe's ancient ways; he recorded Chief Missabay's response: "Our answer is Yes. We know that you are good men sent by our great father the King to bring us help and strength in our weakness."
The treaty was signed and the Ojibway agreed to share their land. In 1928, the federal government and Ontario Hydro moved in and announced they were building a dam to produce power. By 1934, a second hydro dam had been built. That meant a lot of the and the Ojibway agreed to share was now flooded, but nobody thought to tell the Native people that this was going to happen. The land couldn't be used for traplines, or hunting, or any of the traditional pursuits of the Ojibway. Also flooded was an ancient burial ground; later, the bones of ancestors would begin washing ashore.
The Native people could no longer live on the land as they had done for thousands of years. They were forced to settle in Mishkeegogamang. The reserve is 320 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ontario, and today is home to almost 900 people.
The living conditions of the Ojibway changed swiftly and dramatically after they settled in the community. From the space and freedom of living off the land to an average of 13 people per household. Sometimes more than 20 people are shoehorned into a home built for four people. There is a 20-year waiting list for new homes.
They were squeezed too by the white peoples' laws. It became illegal for Native children to not attend school during the normal Canadian school year--September to June--even though this interfered with the traditional Ojibway trapping season.
Many of the kids from Mish went to the Poplar Hill Residential School. It was 300 kilometres away by air, near the Manitoba border. Poplar Hill has the distinction of being the last residential school in Canada to close; that was in 1989.
Cut off from the only lives they wanted and understood, the people of Mish went into a horrible decline. As one generation of defeated, dispossessed Ojibway led to another, the social problems grew. Alcoholism, substance abuse, and family violence affect just about everybody.
The unemployment rate is close to 90%. Half the children suffer from clinical depression, and only a quarter of them attend elementary school full-time. There is no high school. The small number of students who make it to the secondary level have to leave the reserve and board out to complete their education.
One of the major reasons children drop out is alcohol. Mish has an abnormally high rate of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and fetal alcohol effect (FAE). Both are the result of mothers drinking alcohol while pregnant. FAS is more serious than FAE, but both are associated with learning disabilities. And, according to a 1996 report in the Ottawa Sun, "The problem of pregnant Mishkeegogamang women drinking seems to be getting worse, not better, says Judy Kay, coordinator of the FAS/FAE Prevention and Support Services Program in Sioux Lookout. `People who are drinking heavily before pregnancy are not going to be able to just stop during pregnancy,' she explains, adding that children with FAS are likely to become alcoholic themselves."
Mish is not an isolated case of a dysfunctional community in the process of destroying itself.
Pikangikum, is an Ontario Native community of 2,100 people 300 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. It has an eight-year average of 213 suicides per 100,000 people between 1992 and 2000. A rash of suicides in 2000 sent that year's rate soaring to 470 deaths per 100,000. That's 36 times the national average of 13 per 100,000. Most of the suicides in 2000 were of young women.
Arnold Devlin, of Dilico Child and Family Services in Thunder Bay calculated those numbers. He is quoted in the Vancouver Sun as saying: "When young women who are the bearers of life start to kill themselves, it's a real reflection on the health of the community." He added that the increase in female suicide is related to Third World conditions now common on Canadian reserves such as Pikangikum. "Recent studies on Aboriginal female suicide link them to the lack of necessities of good health--such as education and clean water--which Pikangikum doesn't have."
Sandy Lake is another reserve in northwestern Ontario with severe problems. A study in 1996 found that approximately 26% of the 1,600 residents had symptoms of type II diabetes. This puts Sandy Lake in third place in the world for the incidence of type II diabetes in a community. Unlike type I diabetes that generally develops at an early age, this form of diabetes can emerge at a later age as a result of obesity, inactivity, and poor eating habits.
University of Western Ontario professor Stewart Harris took part in the study. He was quoted in the University's daily newspaper, The Gazette, as citing a change of lifestyle as a major factor: "(The Native people) have gone from a semi-nomadic existence with a diet low in fat to a diet high in fat. They have gone from high activity to low activity."
This form of diabetes is causing concern for other reasons as well, Professor Harris said. "We normally see this type in an aging population, now we are seeing it in kids of eight."
In March 2000, James Masakeyash of Mishkeegogamang died. At 104, he was the last living witness to the signing of Treaty 9 in 1905. A month before his death, Mr. Masakeyash told a Toronto Star reporter: "When I think of the current problems my people are facing, I can't help but think of how it all started--with betrayal."
The World Health Organizations has ranked the health and social conditions of on-reserve Native people in Canada as 63rd in the world--below that of Thailand and Mexico.
"I want to get rid of the Indian problem ... Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question."
Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent-General of the Indian Department, 1920.
RELATED ARTICLE: Health crisis.
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a scathing report on Canada's reserves in 1999. It said that Canada's "750,000 Native people suffer poor health conditions and indicators show they are at greater risk of tuberculosis, diabetes, suicide, violent death, and alcohol-related illness and injury than the general population."
Willie Littlechild, Chief of Canada's four Cree Nations, commented on the WHO report: "In many areas," he told the Canadian Press, "conditions are worsening, as demonstrated by rising rates of diseases such as diabetes, cancer, alcoholism, critical levels of infant mortality, and decreasing life expectancies."
Infant mortality in the Northwest Territories, for example, is three times higher than the national average for Canada.
Among the Inuit of Nunavut, 63% of adults smoke (the rate for non-Natives is 43%), accounting for a dramatic increase in the rate of lung cancer.
In Saskatchewan, 43% of the new cases of HIV-AIDS are among First Nations people, although Native people make up less than 10% of the population.
Researchers reported in June 2001 that nearly one in two infants under six months of age required hospital admission for respiratory illness on Baffin Island, Nunavut.
RELATED ARTICLE: Guinea pigs.
Aboriginal children in eight residential schools were denied access to specialized dental care in the 1940s and 50s. Doctors working for the federal government wanted to find out what effect the removal of preventive dentistry would have on the children's teeth and overall health. During the five years of the study, filling and extractions were allowed but no professional cleaning, fluoride treatments, or other preventive measures were carried out. Parents were not asked to give their consent for the experiment on the children.
RELATED ARTICLE: A Few facts.
Life expectancy for a Canadian Status Indian male: 68.2 For a non-Native Canadian male: 75.7
Life expectancy for a Canadian Status Indian female: 75.9 For a non-Native Canadian female: 81.5
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| Publication: | Canada and the World Backgrounder |
|---|---|
| Geographic Code: | 1CANA |
| Date: | May 1, 2002 |
| Words: | 1503 |
| Previous Article: | Nation to nation. (Native People--The Cree Of Northern Quebec). |
| Next Article: | The forgotten people: approximately 210,000 people in Canada identify themselves as Metis. (Native People--The Metis). |
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