#WakeUp
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Unama'ki College
Stephen Augustine discusses the creation of reserves and governance under the Indian Act. He speaks about land distribution, traditional governance, women losing status, and tax.
through the British colonies of North America and so it was in 1830 1800s that they started establishing what we call the Indian reserve system they set aside large plots of land like 1,200 acres of land for my community in New Brunswick in eighteen to twenty thousand two hundred thousand acres of land for in Red Bank New Brunswick and on the mayor machine so there were big big swaths of land that were reserved for Indians and then when the loyalists what happened is they settled themselves on those reserves and because their their governments were relatives of theirs their uncle's there aren't and whatever what they called a loyalist compact the original settlers were disaffected loyalists from Boston New Hampshire New York and so on and so they they decided to give them their relatives lands that belong to the caelian people the French people then they gave themselves land that belonged to Indians parts of the reserve lands and so on and so forth so finally by by 1867 they had developed policies in the colonial areas of New Brunswick Nova Scotia Prince Rhode Island and they had a commissioners of Indian Affairs who are managing the reserve land they had Indian Act to determine how how they would provide survival sustenance for the Indians they were slowly being captured on small pieces of land and they were told don't trespass on those territories around you and so the Indian people couldn't could no longer sustain themselves from the birds plants animals and fish to be able to obtain their their food and medicine in their shelter their tools of survival their modes of travel and so when the Government of Canada formed in 1867 with the British North American Act which is really an act that belongs to England and it is a British law that created the Government of Canada a federal law section 91 24 in Section 90 92 1 are the responsibilities 91 is all the responsibilities of the federal government section 92 are all the responsibilities of the provincial governments including like education in the provinces they also deal with highways in the provinces roads bridges they also dealt with trees plants birds fish and certain laws and then the federal government took the responsibility because they were the closest to that to the British pound with the governor-general representing the British government they said well since those treaties are still unfulfilled promises of the British crown will take responsibility for the Indians will look after them so the province of state out out of looking after the Indians because they were slowly being into small pieces of land and so they were basically starving to death because they were not having the sustenance that they used to have before in terms of having the caribou the master moose and the deer populations going past and migrating here and in the winter in the summer and so on and so forth so they were slowly being corralled and by 1876 the Federal Government of Canada developed an Indian Act an act to protect the rights of indigenous peoples in Canada Indian people and the right to protect the Indian reserve set aside at lands for Indians Pacific love for the Indians and fifty years ago I used to see signs and our reserve saying no trespassing this is Indian land white people are not allowed to vote Indian reserves as early as 1950s 60s my Uncle Willie John Simon was a policeman and he was given the responsibility of enforcing those trespass trespassing laws of the federal government so the Department of Indian system whereby we will elect our power chiefs and so beginning in the 1880s our people were told now you have to do a democratic process in electing your leaders and so our people elected the traditional leaders that had been on the magma Grand Council from before from a long time ago in going back to the creation story these seven Chiefs heads of these Seven original clans and families so they they were the ones that are our traditional leaders but the federal Department of Indian Affairs said no no no you can't do that you can't you can't elect your traditional leaders there we said we're we're not recognizing the traditional forms of governance these call they were called life Chiefs when when the life chief dies where where no not longer than I have this so but the Indians kept electing their the respected elders and the respected leaders that they know as their leaders and there was lots of letter writing back and forth with lawyers and chiefs who hired lawyers to Indian Affairs telling them look our people elected us they nominated us they elected us and we're hereditary Chiefs and were elected Chiefs all in one so Minister Superintendent of Indian Minister of Indian Affairs or superintendent of Indian Affairs issued a letter to the chief saying you do not recognize you you're dismissed a chief under the Indian Act we're going to have another election and they had other elections and the people nominated the same people and elected them again and this happened three times over in some of those reserves and and so finally the federal Department of Indian Affairs since as well well let them be and as soon as they're these elders and leaders die off we'll we won't recognize the old system but guess what I'm still here as a hereditary chief I'm still recognized by my own people as a their traditional respected knowledge keeper holder of their traditional creation story a carrier of their sacred pipe and and so it is a wonder that our people survived in the middle of 1800s around 1850 there were only 1500 meghna people left in the Maritimes 1500 and we've managed to to intermarry with the Irish the Scottish the French and with our culture or magma society back to roughly around 40,000 today that's how many people are of nigma ancestry live in the Maritimes there's some living in Boston there's some living in in Maine and because of this course there's some we found out there someone in Texas some in California some in British Columbia's I'm in Vancouver and they're signing up for this course to learn more about their culture and traditions so so that brings us to the indian act system which is more or less a colonial istic way of founding the indians to count them to identify who they are this is Steuben Augustine with band number 337 who comes from the big Cove Reserve fifteen in New Brunswick and so we decide who is an Indian but guess what there was a la the Indian app which which said that any meghna person woman who marries a non native person she will have to give up her her status as a Mima she'll no longer be a Meghna but if I were to marry a white woman this is before 1985 she has an Indian and so there was a court case and I went to court it was called a Sandra lovely lady's case and it married up with Lavallee in Ontario and together they went to the Human Rights into the federal sub Canada finally the Supreme Court they recognized that this section of the Indian Act was was discriminatory against indigenous women and so our indigenous women who lost their status were invited to come back and and your your Magma now your indians now but under Section two c31 your your and then your children are c31 ac30 one one or two and so on it's to certain degrees but still this if we go maybe 150 more years will lose all status Indians in Canada you no longer an Indian problem in Canada because of of the way our society is laid out by by the governance structure by the Department of Indian Affairs by the Indian Act and by by the virtue of status Indians and non-status India and there are a lot of indigenous people with as much indigenous blood blood as I have because I have black in my culture I have Scottish and Irish in my culture and and if I go back on my other one side Dominique's were equal in in Prince Edward Island and so I am an amalgam of all those cultures but I I'm kind of ensconced in the magma culture and society and I have a status card I carry it with me all the time sometimes I can get away or to not pay taxes if I buy something in Sydney or in Halifax but not in New Brunswick cannot no longer in Ontario
