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Topic: 'Extinct' First Nation gets ancestral bones back
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April
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 7882
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posted 27 April 2005 01:59 PM
It is in this article:[QUOTE] In March, the bones of two people were found near a traditional burial ground of the Sinixt First Nation in the West Kootenay region. The federal Department of Indian Affairs declared the Sinixt people extinct in 1956 for the purposes of the Indian Act, so the provincial government asked two neighbouring First Nations if they wanted the remains. But Marilyn James, the appointed spokesperson for the Sinixt or Arrow Lakes Indians, stepped forward to claim the bones instead. "Because of our distinction of extinction, it's very hard for people to officially make contact with us," said James, who estimates there are still 6,800 Sinixt descendants alive in British Columbia and Washington state.
[QUOTE]
From: Montreal | Registered: Jan 2005
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Contrarian
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6477
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posted 27 April 2005 03:10 PM
Hugh Dempsey's book The Gentle Persuader, about the life of James Gladstone, talks about the events in Alberta. A new Indian Act was passed in 1951. Indian political groups had worked to get rid of some proposed measures for the Act, but it still contained a clause allowing the Minister to expel people from reserves if there was doubt that they belonged on the band list. In 1956-57 one judge ruled that over 100 people living on the reserves at Hobbema could be expelled; this was eventually overturned on appeal. Meanwhile it was a big political football with the Conservatives attacking the Liberal governmen for being callous, breaking promises, etc., and may have contributed to the Conservative election victory.Over the years Indians have always had the ability to become enfranchised, that is to choose to cease to be status Indians and to vote, pay taxes etc. Some have chosen this, most have not. But there was always some movement back and forth; people ceasing to be Indians and taking half-breed scrip, and vice versa. Sometimes the Indian Act also allowed the Dept of Indian Affairs to enfranchise Indians against their will, though I do not think that was exercised very much. And sometimes an Indian band would become extinct, if the members became enfranchised, or transferred membership to a different band. I don't know just what happened with the Sinixt. [ 27 April 2005: Message edited by: Contrarian ]
From: pretty far west | Registered: Jul 2004
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