Our Indian Reserves: Too Sad for Words

The more I see and hear about life on our Indian reserves, the more appalled and heartsick I am. It seems to me the reserves are a way to shunt their inhabitants out of our way. Out of sight, out of mind.  It’s a good thing we have activists and keen eyed journalists to direct our attention back sometimes.

The hypocrisy of Canadians in our self-righteous condemnation of old South Africa’s apartheid system was like a sad joke to any of us who had been on Indian reserves and also to South Africa. The South African system was no worse than ours. The difference was that the Blacks accounted for over 80% of the population, while the Coloreds, Whites, and Indians of South Asia extraction) accounted for the other 20%. If in Canada the indigenous peoples accounted for 80% of the population, and we had the reserve system, I cannot see how our treatment of our native population would have been any more socially conscionable then South Africa’s.

We judge our first nations people by the state of the reserves, but frankly, when you can’t even build a house with any sure knowledge that the band council won’t take it away to give to some favorite, what improvements or maintenance would you do to it?  When you are bribed with payments to stay on the reserve, what effort would you make to productively assimilate into life off the reserve?

I think we are the only modern developed country with racist legislation --- the Indian Act.  And I think it’s the oldest federal statute still existing in this country. And what are the fruits of it? Look at the suicide rates, the overall mortality rates, the morbidity rates. But I suppose morbidity rates are hard to establish if the population don’t even have access to medical assessment, so maybe I’m wrong about that.