Indigenous People of Canada
...vernment, attempted to protect the remaining Aleuts from further aggression from the Japanese , through the forced relocation of 803 Inuit. When the war was over everyone was returned home, but their life would never be the same again. The Second World War brought the construction of multiple airstrips and military posts. The once beautiful islands had been brutally neglected for years, making them virtually unrecognizable. During this time of extreme stress and hardship the United States government believed they were helping their ancient citizens, but “in 1988, the Aleuts who had suffered forcible displacement were offered an official apology by the United States government and given $12,000 each in damages” . This compensation demonstrates that the government made the wrong decision and hurt the Inuit people more then they helped. Unfortunately, the Canadian government did not learn from their neighbour’s experience, and chose to relocate Inuit settlements to undesirable lands throughout the 1950’s. This movement began when military posts became commonplace in the Arctic.. The perfect example of this misguided decision is the Girise Fjord communities’ relocation in 1953. One disturbing fact involved with the relocation was when the government assigned each Inuit person a number in place of their name, to better track the relocation. The RCMP relocated the Girise Fjord community from Northern Quebec. The fishing and game birds had disappeared from these lands so the government wanted to move them to a place rich in resources. The settlement was relocated to a completely different kind of environment with walrus, seals and polar bears. The Inuit had no experience in hunting these animals and felt completely foreign. One settler is quoted as saying, “It was like landing on the moon” . The government did not take the time to consider the most appropriate placement for each specific settlement of Inuit. These Inuit groups were left without sufficient supplies to hunt and were also left to their own devices. “In spite of good intentions, the governments presence in the communities only served to further debilitate the native population” . The Inuit culture in North America is significantly different from that of a few hundred years ago solely because of the white man. Their involvement and interference in the Inuit’s life and culture has drastically changed the native people. Specifically, misguided attempts by the governments of both Canada and the United States to improve the lives of the Inuit have in fact seriously threatened the possible future of these people. Due to a lack of thought, preparation and consideration, the government has been more of a hindrance then a help. The ancient inhabitants of the north have been hurt not only by the governments misguided attempts at help, but also the near assimilation of their special people. Webster’s dictionary defines assimilate as “to make similar; bring into conformity; adapt”. This correctly portrays the treatment of Inuit in North America by Caucasian outsiders. The near assimilation of their people has destroyed the Inuit way of life. Missionaries, residential schools, and the wage economy all forced the assimilation of the Inuit to a more western/southern lifestyle. Anglican and Catholic missionaries went to the Arctic seeking converts. Evangelical religions wanted to spread the word and “save” the people. This is why the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches sent priests to the Arctic to gather converts. Initially the Inuit were not receptive, already having a spiritual belief they tended to steer away. Before Christian conversion, the shaman was the Inuit’s spiritual advisor, healer and mystical leader. Although the Inuit did not initially wish to convert they decided upon conversion after missionaries gave shelter, food and prayer. Once there, the “missionaries began their assault on the Inuit. This was the beginning of the end of traditional Inuit ideology”. After mass conversion the Inuit were baptized and given Christian names. However, problems arose from this seemingly harmful practice of conversion. Many Christian ideas conflicted with traditional Inuit beliefs. The Inuit were familiar with wife-swapping, suicide, and shamanism, but these actions were not accepted by the church. “Until the ancient beliefs could be replaced by ‘civilized’ ideology, the Inuit experienced confusion”. Following the conversion of many, indigenous peoples’ unique identity had been largely replaced by the persona of southerners. Ancient beliefs were thrown aside and therefore a part of the Inuit culture had been lost. When people are all brought under one form of thinking many valuable things are lost. This was the case when the government forced Inuit children to attend residential schools, hundreds of miles away from home. The goal of the residential schools was to educate the Inuit population so they could get well paying jobs, and be able to sustain an acceptable lifestyle. The goal being sought after was far from eventual end. At these schools children were forced to speak English, were kept away from their parents, and beaten. Inuit children would be gathered from thousands of square miles of land and taken to a single school. Here they were forced to speak English, and could not even communicate with one another because there is over two hundred dialects of Inuktitut. Lack of communication was a severe problem for the students. These residential schools were hundreds of miles from the child’s home and families. Sometimes the schools “forced many Inuit to congregate for months at a time” . Not only were they taken away from their homes, and forced to speak a foreign language but also if they misbehaved they could be beaten, in some cases even molested. Residential schools proved to be a tool to instill within these young Inuit a culture that resembled that of southern Canada. Historically the Inuit were nomadic. They followed the caribou herds and once something was caught they used the entire animal. With the arrival of fur traders in the Arctic the Inuit were enthralled and began to copy their lifestyle. Multiple times throughout history outsiders have come to the Arctic and changed or disturbed the life of the Inuit. These people introduced the Inuit to the wage economy, in place of the Inuit’s traditional ‘hunting what you need’ mindset. Mining in the late nineteenth century, whaling, and fishing industries, and the fur traders initiated this change. By the middle of the twentieth century many natives were living in Government designed lifestyles such as modern houses with modern day conveniences, and the independence they once had, had almost disappeared. Their old life of hunting, fishing, and trapping was left behind for government jobs, and education, but the work was not steady. “The displaced Inuit found themselves dependent on welfare payments and other government support programs” . The interference of the white man, and his wage system displaced Inuit and permanently changed a culture. The destruction of a culture is a very extreme occurrence, and is not highly looked upon in present society, but only fifty years ago we ourselves assimilated the Inuit peoples of our country. Missionaries, residential school, and wage economies led to the disappearance of a culture and people. Without these events the Inuit people would still have the ancient culture that history has assigned to them. The Inuit have a very special relationship with the land. They believe that you should give back to the land what you have taken. Traditionally an Inuit’s diet consists solely of meat, largely because no fruits, vegetables, or any vegetation exists above the tree line. When Europeans disrupted the life of the Inuit to find furs, here began the over-hunting and destruction of a sacred land. The Europeans enticed the Inuit to help them on their destructive course by offering shelter, food and modern conveniences. The fur trade, commercial fishing, and whaling caused the over-hunting of the Arctic. During the late eighteenth century the large demand for fur in Europe provided a lucrative market. Spain, Russian, Britain, and France wer...