Self-Government: An Alternative to Guardianship

As we have seen, Indians had only one way of keeping their identity: government guardianship. The only other possibility was to apply for enfranchisement and be assimilated. This regressive provision of the Act, which treated Indians like children, was abolished in 1985, as was the provision that permitted discrimination on the basis of sex by removing the Indian status of Indian women who married non-Indian men.

Aboriginal self-government, now under discussion, represents a new path, providing hope that Indians would be able to survive, develop and thrive as communities. At long last, this represents the opportunity for First Nations to be in charge of their own destiny and to preserve their collective dignity. The creation of Aboriginal governments is all the more justified in that the Aboriginal peoples of Canada were granted the status of peoples in the Canadian Constitution. For its part, even though it did not recognize the 1982 constitutional agreement, the National Assembly of Québec passed a motion in 1985 stating that Aboriginal peoples were nations; this meant that self-government agreements had to be entered into. The motion went on to affirm that not only were assimilation policies no longer valid, but they were also prohibited.

Despite the persistence of federal guardianship, fortunately long gone are the days when Indian Affairs agents acted like “kings and masters” on the reserves. Significant steps toward autonomy and self-government have been taken. In the early 1970s, the National Indian Brotherhood chose the area of education to spearhead the “take charge” movement, publishing Indian Control of Indian Education. Today, elementary and secondary education is almost entirely administered by band councils, as are health and social services, recreation, housing, public security and economic development, which are covered by self-government agreements. Since the signing of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement and the Northeastern Quebec Agreement, the Cree and Naskapi have no longer been governed by the Indian Act, but are governed by the Cree–Naskapi (of Quebec) Act, which gives them much more autonomy.