Protestantism and the First Nations

 

 

 

Useful links

About the First Nations

The Assembly of First Nations is the national representative organization of First Nations in Canada; there are over 630 First Nations communities. Phil Fontaine is national chief.

A history of organizations preceding the AFO, under contract from the Schoolnet Digital Collections program, Industry Canada

An overview of Indian status issues from Library and Archives Canada

A multimedia tutorial on Canada's First Nations, from the Applied History Research Group, University of Calgary

First Nations history theme page, from Community Learning Network, BC

First Nations profiles, from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada

CBC backgrounder on aboriginal peoples; another CBC backgrounder

A History of the Native People of Canada, from the Museum of Civilization

Manitoba First Nations history, from the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs

Saskatchewan First Nations history, from First Nations and Métis Relations, government of Saskatchewan

Yukon First Nations history, from the Yukon First Nations Tourism Association

Information on First Nations communities in Ontario, from Chiefs of Ontario

Les autochthones au Québec, du site touristique officiel du gouvernment du Québec

Mi'kmaq articles from Shunpiking Magazine, Halifax

Newfoundland First Nations history, from Ralph Pastore, Memorial University

Transcripts of interviews with Saskatchewan native elders

The website for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada

Language and other resources at "First Peoples on Schoolnet," from Industry Canada

Canadian First Nations directory

Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, representing métis and off-reserve Indians

Gwich'in of Alaska and Canada, from Norman Chance, Arctic Circle Virtual Classroom, University of Connecticut

A history of the northwest BC coast, from Bruce Hallman (whoever he is)

A huge number of links from the BC History Internet, Victoria Telecommunity Network

Teaching First Nations History, from Graham Reynolds, Cape Breton University

Guide to research, University College of the Fraser Valley library

A post-census Aboriginal Peoples Survey from Statistics Canada

The Library of Parliament précis of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1996

The First Nations Periodical Index (First Nations newspapers and journals are often not indexed in library systems)

About First Nations indigenous religion

Native American spirituality, mainly U.S., from the Religious Movements Homepage Project,University of Virginia

Native American religion links, from the Wabash Center

Native American spirituality, from the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance; likely author: Bruce Robinson

About First Nations and Christianity

Articles about the Mennonite Church's ministry with First Nations, from the Mennonite Central Committee

"The First Nations, the Churches, and Canada," from the Canadian Council of Churches

The Aboriginal Rights Covenant, signed in 1987 by the leaders of nine Canadian denominations, including Anglican, Presbyterian, and United

The Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples

The Presbyterian Church's chronological survey of healing and reconciliation.

Chris Harper ordained

Shingwauk Education Trust, for healing from residential schools, representing a partnership including the Anglican diocese of Algoma

Kairos: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, on aboriginal rights

Residential schools

An excellent overview by James Miller, University of Saskatchewan, 1999

Bibliography of many resources (including court judgments), with a few links, from the Native Law Center, University of Saskatchewan

A bibliography from Library and Archives Canada

The IANAC backgrounder

Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada

United Church residential schools homepage

Anglican Church residential schools homepage

Presbyterian Church residential schools homepage

 

 

Print bibliography

George Dorey et al., ed. No Vanishing Race: The Canadian Indian Today

John Webster Grant, Moon of Wintertime: Missionaries and the Indians of Canada in Encounter since 1534, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984

Terry Anderson, "Lessons from the Residential Schools," Touchstone 16 (May 1998): 22-28

J.R. Miller, "The State, the Church, and Indian Residential Schools in Canada," in Religion and Public Life in Canada: Historical and Comparative Perspectives, ed. Marguerite Van Die (2001)

J.R. Miller, Shingwauk's Vision : A History of Native Residential Schools, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996

Bruce Gregersen, "Dialogue at the Boundaries : An Exploration of the Native Apology (1986) and Its Relationship to an Understanding of Mission within The United Church of Canada," D. Min. thesis, Emmanuel College (1999)

Joint statement of churches, in Minutes and evidence of the joint Indian Affairs Committee, 1947, p. 443, Appendix DZ

Paige Raibman, "'In loco parentis': G.H. Raley and a Residential School Philosophy," JCCHS 38 (1996) 29-52

Edward Ahenakew, Voices of the Plains Cree, ed. Ruth M. Buck, Toronto: McClelland and Steward, 1973. (Ahenakew was an Anglican priest.)

Peter Bush, ' "…also our own people": Presbyterian Native Ministry on the Prairies" in Western Challenge

Lois Klempa & Rosemary Doran, Certain Women Amazed Us: The Women's Missionary Society, Their Story 1864-2002

 

 

 

Some context

Native peoples in Canada are divided into three groups (by the Constitution Act of 1982): Indian (more frequently self-described as First Nations), Inuit, and métis (the offspring of whites and Indians, having a distinctive culture). Under Canada's Indian Act, Indians are further divided into status (those who are registered as Indians under the terms of the Indian Act) and non-status. In 1867, it is thought that there were perhaps 125,000 Indians in what is now Canada, 10,000 métis in the Northwest, and 2,000 Inuit in the Arctic. Numbers declined until 1910, and since then have increased. Before 1996 census-takers did not directly ask whether respondents were Indians, but did ask respondents to indicate their ancestry, and used those figures to infer the numbers of Indians. From 1996 on there have been two census categories for aboriginal population, "Aboriginal Origin" (1,319,890 in the 2001 census) and "Aboriginal Identity" (976,305 in the 2001 census). Moreover, Statistics Canada defines "Indian" differently from the Indian Act, complicating population counts still further.

First Nations populations appear to be increasing at a significant rate. In 1981 Statistics Canada reported 293,000 status Indians, 75,000 nonstatus Indians, 25,000 Inuit, and 98,000 métis. In 2003 Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (in this Adobe Acrobat PDF file) reported 403,337 on-reserve status Indians and 301,514 off-reserve status Indians. In 2001, Statistics Canada reported 608,850 Indians (of whom 558,175 were status Indians), but recognized a significant under-reporting because of difficulties gaining access to reserves. It also reported 45,070 Inuit, 292,310 métis, and 30,075 aboriginals with multiple responses. About 40% of status Indians are under 19 years of age. About 50% of aboriginals live in cities. The aboriginal share of total Canadian population is 3.3% (compared to 1.5% in the U.S.A.). Specific statistical information is summarized by Statistics Canada.

The following table of total aboriginal population is provided by Statistics Canada. The upturn beginning about 1960 is attributed in large part to better access to health care.

There are about 2600 reserves and something over 600 First Nations bands. Bands can be grouped (a) geographically, (b) culturally, or (c) linguistically. In the last category, native languages are classified under 12 language groups representing approximately 50 languages. The language groups are Beothuk, Eskimoan, Athapaskan, Algonquian, Iroquoian, Siouan, Kutenal, Salishan, Wakashan, Tsimshian, Haida, and Tlingit. Algonquian languages are spoken by the largest number (about 100,000); these include Blackfoot, Cree, Ojibwa, and Mi'kmaq.

A few dates

1867 The British North America Act gives the federal government jurisdiction over aboriginal peoples.
1871 The series of numbered treaties begins; reserves are created in the Northwest. Missionaries, trusted by Indians, play an important part in the process. (Putting Indians on reserves will make mission work easier!) George M. Grant, sympathetic to the Indians, says ruefully (Ocean to Ocean, 1873, p. 36), "They sign their own death warrants."
1876 The first Indian Act gives the federal government huge powers over First Nations peoples.
1879 The Davin report to Parliament recommends federal funding of Indian schools to be run by the churches. (This system is implemented in 1883, and survives until 1969.)
1883 Protestant women's missionary societies begin Indian work (beginning with the Presbyterian Church).
1884 Potlatches are prohibited by law. There is little attempt at enforcement until the 1920s. The law is repealed in 1931, but missionaries keep the issue alive.
1885 Louis Riel is executed.
1899 Of 100,000 Indians counted by the government, 70,000 are listed with a denominational affiliation.
1907 A Pentecostal revival in Canada. Several Crees are converted and ordained for northern service.
1908 The Toronto lawyer S.H. Blake publishes an attack on sanitary conditions and educational policies at the residential schools, Don't You Hear the Red Man Calling? He recommends reserve schools (as opposed to off-reserve residential schools). He is outmaneuvered by the mission establishment.
1910 The churches and the government sign a memorandum of agreement, initially greeted as the dawn of a new era, partly because government grants to residential schools will be increased according to their grade. Duncan Campbell Scott is appointed first superintendent of Indian education.
1921 Compulsory education for Indian children is instituted.
1956 Status Indians receive Canadian citizenship, retroactive to 1947, when Canadian citizenship was legally defined
1966 The Hawthorn Report envisions Indians as "citizens plus" and recommends integrating Indian children into provincial schools.
1969

The federal government assumes full responsibility for the residential schools, and closes most of them over the next few years. (Residential schools have been on the decline since World War II.)

Harold Cardinal's The Unjust Society reflects a revival of Indian activist consciousness.

The Anglican General Synod receives Beyond Traplines.

1975 "Project North", involving six denominations, is established to advocate aboriginal rights. (This later became the Aboriginal Rights Coalition, and now is part of Kairos.)
1990 The Oka crisis.
1996 The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples reports (4000 pages, 440 recommendations). The federal response is disappointing. Probably as a result ...
1997 Law suits begin. Residential school survivors sue abusers and the federal government; typically the government files "third-party lawsuits" against the churches.
2003 The Anglican Church reaches an agreement with the federal government by which its liability is capped; the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples condemns it; the United and Presbyterian Churches distance themselves from it

"The Onset of Doubt"

This is the title of the chapter from John Webster Grant's Moon of Wintertime, our Document 30. Public expressions of doubt about mission policy towards the First Nations begin with S.H. Blake's 1908 publication (noted in the chart of dates above), and the resulting controversy "marked an important turning-point in the history of Indian missions" (p. 195). The chapter ends with Christian support for native land claims, environmental protests, and human rights activism in the 1970s.

  • Even before Blake's publication, what were the signs (according to Grant) that things weren't all well?
  • What was Blake's protest about, and how was it handled?
  • What were generally the goals and strategies of the missionaries in the 1910s?
  • On pp. 198-199, Grant skips quickly to the 1960s. What were the new missionary goals? What explains the change?
  • On p. 201, what evidence does Grant see that Christianity could be important to First Nations people outside the traditional mission system?
  • How did Indian activism revive during the 1960s? What forms did it take? (Pictured here: Harold Cardinal.)
  • How does Grant describe "the alienation of many Indians from the traditional churches" on pp. 205ff.?
  • What were new examples of "working with, not for Indians" (pp. 206ff.)?
  • What's the shape of Christianity on the reserves today (i.e., when Grant was writing in 1984)?

Residential schools

Document 31, also available online, is James Miller's fine concise overview of the history of the residential schools. (His book on the same subject, Shingwauk's Vision, University of Toronto Press, 1996, is very highly recommended for a longer account.)

What were the origins of the residentials schools?

What were their purposes? (Hint: assimilation played a big role.) How did the government and churches differ in their objectives? (This is the major theme of the article.)

What was the educational philosophy of the IRS's? What were the differing tendencies of the government and churches with regard to the use of native languages?

What was the role of denominational rivalry?

Here are some general questions on the residential schools:

  • How and why did the churches and the government become partners in providing residential schooling?
  • Many of the earlier documents describe the residential schools in glowing terms. What do they see as their achievements? Can you find hints of attitudes and practices that we now find troubling?
  • What theological and cultural developments account for our different view of residential schools? How do the documents present the relationship between conversion to Christianity and cultural assimilation? Can you detect any differences in denominational strategies for missions?

Document 32 is the report of the Anglican Indian Residential School Commissioner in the triennial report to General Synod from the Missionary Society of the Church of England in Canada, 1931. His perspective would have been seen at the time by liberal whites as enlightened and progressive.

  • It begins with descriptions and population numbers of the Indians, arranged geographically (pp. 39-43).
  • There is a brief history of the system (pp. 43-47), with an emphasis on administration and finance.
  • Then comes a review of the work of the previous four years (pp. 48-56). Note the things that the Commissioner thinks it important to discuss, and the order in which he discusses them.
  • On pp. 56-58 is a clear, and rather chilling, statement of the purpose of the schools.
  • Finally there is some information on the Arctic mission.

Document 33 is the chapter "Indian Education Today," from George Dorey et al., No Vanishing Race: The Canadian Indian Today (Toronto, 1955).

The author, A.E. Caldwell, now deceased, was principal of the United Church residential school in Alberni, BC, from 1944 to 1959. (Left: from BC Archives, Alberni IRS junior school, ca. 1930.) He was a defendant in the case cited as Blackwater v. Plint, 2001 BC Supreme Court 997; this case was reviewed by the BC Court of Appeal, 2003 BCCA 671. Some parts of the testimony were reported in The United Church Observer, October 1998 (and other months). Caldwell was accused by a Ms. M.J. of sexual abuse and rape. (Since Caldwell was dead, the case was a civil lawsuit against his estate.) The judge dismissed the charges on the basis of conflicting testimony from another witness. The Court of Appeal, however, reversed this decision on the ground that the trial judge had overlooked a significant defect in the conflicting testimony, and ordered a new trial. Independently, a residential school survivor speaking in 1998 at Simon Fraser University accused Caldwell of being frequently drunk and abusive, and, on one occasion, of kicking a little girl down the stairs, which resulted in her death.

In this chapter, residential schools appear to be directed mainly towards orphans and disadvantaged children (p. 64); most Indian children are beginning to go to day schools. Caldwell would like to see Indian children integrated into the public system (p. 62). Why?

What is his description of the Alberni school (pp. 65-66)? What are his success stories (pp. 66-68)?

What is Caldwell's picture of the Indian people and of the white race? How does he understand education? What great advancement in his school administration gives him pride (p. 61)?

Document 34 comprises two brief excerpts from a report by Charles E. Hendry, a professor of social work at the University of Toronto, commissioned by the Anglican Church of Canada: Beyond Traplines, 1969 (2nd ed. 1998). It was distributed before General Synod of 1969, and influenced discussions there.

The first few paragraphs, p. 9, indicate how and why the work was commissioned. What are the "implications" for the Church (pp. 71-74)? What is Hendry's view of First Nations people, and what is his view of the Church? What appear to be his criticisms and recommendations?

Document 35 relates to the agreement between the Anglican Church of Canada and the government of Canada, drafted in November 2002, limiting the Church's liability in law suits on grounds of abuse. The Anglican Church accepted several conditions that may unsettle us.

  • a) The Church's "primer" summarizing what the agreement says. This agreement was passed by General Synod and by all the diocesan synods of the Church, and signed in March 2003.
  • b) The protest of the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples.
  • c) In August 2000, the United Church had withdrawn an expression of support for staff laid off by the Anglican General Synod partly for financial repercussions from IRS lawsuits.