Jules Sioui
Initiator of the North American Indian Nation Government
Huron-Wendat activist Jules Sioui (1906-1990) campaigned for the establishment of the North American Indian Nation Government in 1945, a bold political movement for the times. Seeking to assert its own international identity, this organization adopted its own Indian Act in 1947, at a time when the federal government was undertaking a revision the Indian Act. This affirmation of self-government would have its price. Jules Sioui, the organization's secretary-treasurer, and others were found guilty of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to two years in prison. These events led Jules Sioui to go on a hunger strike that would last 72 days.
