NCJ Number
166862
Date Published
1995
Length
31 pages
Annotation
Presented from the perspective of one of the protestors, this paper details the issues and events of the Indian summer of 1990 in Northern Ontario, when the aboriginals of Long Lake Reserve 58 blocked the Canadian National Railway in frustration at Federal Government inaction over their land claims.
Abstract
In the end, the Province and municipal officials assisted in making a breakthrough with Ottawa that enabled the Indians to make their point (that the Federal Government may have been trespassing on Indian land), while allowing the normal commerce of the country to return to its movement. The protest derived from various government actions that showed a lack of respect for and appreciation of the validity of Indian claims to much of the land the government was selling or planning to sell for developments of various kinds. The author notes that the expressions of resistance to the prevailing trend of Indian dispossession were spontaneous, since no one coordinated the actions as part of a master plan. It was also a time when tribal members were critical of the whole structure of their elected chiefs, band councils, and Indian organizations. They charged that these structures of decision-making are rooted in the Federal Parliament's Indian Act rather than in true aboriginal tradition. The background of Long Lake 58's blockade illustrates the kind of hopes and frustrations that had been fermenting in many native individuals and communities during the summer of 1990. At the heart of the protest was the absence of Indian representation and power in the framing of treaties and accords that have impacted the Indians' land and culture. The protests set in motion a process for dealing with the unresolved issues of land ownership. The Federal Government would have to be involved both on the side of the Indians and on the side of the Crown Corporation in any land disputes and claims. 31 notes