Anthropology, Public Policy, and Native Peoples in Canada

369 Pages·1993·18.71 MB·English

by  Noel Dyck, James B. Waldram

Anthropology, Public Policy, and Native Peoples in Canada
This page intentionally left blank
Anthropology,
Public Policy, and
Native Peoples
in Canada
Edited by
Noel Dyck and James B. Waldram
McGill-Queen's University Press
Montreal & Kingston • London • Buffalo
© McGill-Queen's University Press 1993
ISBN 0-7735-0961-5 (cloth)
ISBN 0-7735-0978-X (paper)
Legal deposit second quarter 1993
Bibliothéque nationale du Québec
Printed in the United States on acid-free paper
Publication of this book has been supported by
grants from The University of Saskatchewan
and the Publications Fund Committee of Simon
Fraser University.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Anthropology, public policy, and native
peoples in Canada
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-7735-0961-5 (bound) -
ISBN 0-7735-0978-X (pbk.)
1. Native peoples - Canada - Government
relations. 2. Native peoples - Canada - Ethnic
identity. 3. Anthropology - Canada. I. Dyck,
Noel. II. Waldram, James B. (James Burgess)
E78.C2A54 1993 323.1'197071 C92-090714-8
Contents
Abbreviations vii
1 NOEL DYCK and JAMES B. WALDRAM
Anthropology, Public Policy, and Native Peoples: An
Introduction to the Issues / 3
PART ONE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
ON NATIVE POLICY ISSUES / 39
2 DEREK G. SMITH
The Emergence of "Eskimo Status": An Examination of
the Eskimo Disk List System and Its Social
Consequences, 1925-1970/41
3 SALLY M. WEAVER
The Hawthorn Report: Its Use in the Making of
Canadian Indian Policy / 75
4 PETER J. USHER
Northern Development, Impact Assessment, and Social
Change / 98
PART TWO THE POLITICS OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL
RESEARCH / 131
5 JULIE CRUIKSHANK
The Politics of Ethnography in the Canadian North /
133
vi Contents
6 PEGGY MARTIN BRIZINSKI
The Summer Meddler: The Image of the
Anthropologist as Tool for Indigenous Formulations
of Culture/ 146
7 RON IGNACE, GEORGE SPECK, and RENEE TAYLOR
Some Native Perspectives on Anthropology and Public
Policy / 166
8 NOEL DYCK
"Telling it like it is": Some Dilemmas of Fourth World
Ethnography and Advocacy / 192
PART THREE ANTHROPOLOGICAL INVOLVEMENT
IN NATIVE POLICY ISSUES / 213
9 JOHN D. O'NEIL, JOSEPH M. KAUFERT, PATRICIA LEYLAND
KAUFERT, and WILLIAM W. KOOLAGE
Political Considerations in Health-Related Participatory
Research in Northern Canada / 215
10 PETER DOUGLAS ELIAS
Anthropology and Aboriginal Claims Research / 233
11 JOE SAWCHUK
Anthropology and Canadian Native Political
Organizations: Past and Future Trends / 271
12 JAMES B. WALDRAM
Some Limits to Advocacy Anthropology in the Native
Canadian Context / 293
13 COLIN H. SCOTT
Customs, Tradition, and the Politics of Culture:
Aboriginal Self-Government in Canada / 311
14 JULIA D. HARRISON
Completing a Circle: The Spirit Sings I 334
Contributors / 359
Abbreviations
ACND Advisory Council on Northern Development
AFN Assembly of First Nations
CAGSL Canadian Arctic Gas Study, Limited
CARC Canadian Arctic Resources Committee
CASCA Canadian Anthropological Society/La societe canadienne
d'anthropologie
CC commission counsel
CEARC Canadian Environment Assessment Research Council
CESCE Canadian Ethnology Society/La societe canadienne
d'ethnologie
CMA Canadian Museums Association
CMC Canadian Museum of Civilization
COPE Committee for Aboriginal Peoples Entitlement
CYI Council for Yukon Indians
DIAND Department of Indian Affairs and Northern
Development
DIANR Department of Indian Affairs and National Resources
DP Delta Gas Producers
DPMO Deputy Prime Minister's Office
EIA environmental impact assessment
FSIN Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations
IBNWT Indian Brotherhood of the Northwest Territories (now
Dene Nation)
ICA Indian Chiefs of Alberta
ICME International Committee for Museums of Ethnography
viii Abbreviations
ICOM International Council of Museums
I ODE Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire
ITC Inuit Tapirisat of Canada
JBNQ James Bay and Northern Quebec Native Harvesting
Research Committee
KIA Keewatin Inuit Association
MAA Metis Association of Alberta
MIB Manitoba Indian Brotherhood
MMF Manitoba Metis Federation
MNC Metis National Council
MNSI Metis and non-status Indian
MSB Medical Services Branch
NIB National Indian Brotherhood (after early 1980s,
Assembly of First Nations)
PCO Privy Council Office
PMO Prime Minister's Office
P-O participant-observation (research)
SAAC Society for Applied Anthropology in Canada
SIA social impact assessment
1 Anthropology, Public Policy,
and Native Peoples:
An Introduction to the Issues
NOEL DYCK and JAMES B. WALDRAM
INTRODUCTION
The issues that concern us in this volume can be conveniently
introduced by a familiar ethnographic device, the recounting of a
social situation - in this case, one that occurred while this volume
was being written. In the autumn of 1989 the attention of the news
media both in France and Canada focused for a few days on a crew
of Haida Indians from the Queen Charlotte Islands as they paddled
a magnificently carved war canoe up the River Seine to honour
Claude Levi-Strauss, France's world-renowned anthropologist.1 This
improbable episode had its beginnings in a request from the Musee
de Thomme in Paris to Bill Reid, a Haida artist, to display some of
his jewelry and larger works at a special exhibition to recognize
Levi-Strauss as he turned eighty. Reid, who had fantasized several
years earlier of passing under the Pont Neuf (the oldest bridge in
Paris) in a canoe, took this opportunity to offer the museum his
fifteen-metre war canoe (known as Lootaas or "wave eater" in
Haida), provided that it could be paddled up the Seine, into the
heart of Paris, by a Haida crew. Museum officials eagerly undertook
to raise the funds required for the expedition.
Near the end of its eventful voyage the Lootaas stopped to take
on Levi-Strauss before passing the Eiffel Tower and arriving for an
official reception at the city hall, where the delegation was met by
the mayor of Paris and the Canadian ambassador to France. Chang-
ing into traditional costumes, members of the crew performed