Multiple Jeopardy:

the Evolution of

A Native Women's Movement

ABSTRACT/RESUME

Cette prisentation traitera des dimen• sions politiques de la situation des femmes autoahtones. Les femmes autoch- tones se pergoivent comme dues victimes, non pas d'une double discrimination, mais bien d'une discrimination aux by multiples facettes, et leur prise de conscience du caract£re unique de cette oppression a iti un facteur important de I'ivolution d'un nouvement des fem• mes autochtone8 distinct du mouvement Kathleen Jamieson fiministe nord-amiricain et du mouve• ment autochtone.

Nous traitons des caractiristiques de I 'histoire du mouvement des femmes autoahtones ainsi que du role changeant de ces demi^res dans I 'action politique orientie vers le changement social, dans la derni§re decennie. II est Mary Two-Axe Earley, Vice-President of IRIW Courtesy, The Indian News DIAND Native Women's Association, 1978

Courtesy, The Indian News DIAND aussi question de la nature des rela• chise in 1960 that any meaningful tions de oe mouvement aveo les autres Indian political participation was grouves autoahtones, aveo le gouverne- possible,(2)Indian women's lack of ment fidiral et aveo les organisations representation is perhaps not alto• de femmes non autoohtones. gether surprising. But the perpetua• tion of a system excluding Indian women from access to political power was Preface probably the major impetus for the During the past decade Native communi• emergence in the seventies of a dy• ties in Canada have been in a continual namic social movement among Native state of political ferment. Vigorous women—status, non-status and Metis— new Native organizations have emerged, aimed at improving their social and expanded and divided around the key legal position and at obtaining im• issues of land claims and revisions to mediate improvements in living con• the Indian Act.(1) And Native and ditions at the community level. The government bureaucracies have burgeoned emergence of this force among Native in complexly symbiotic attempts to women which appears to transcend the manage and control these developments political, geographical and cultural and each other. schisms in the male-oriented organiza• tions has been largely invisible to non-Natives and most Native men. Native* women, however, have seldom been involved at the formal political** level in this process. Given that the The Native women's movement first Indian Act had denied Tndian women any tested its strength when an Ojibwa political participatioii at any level Indian, Jeannette Lavell, in a land• from 1869 to 1951 and that it was only mark case, contested in the courts after Indians had obtained the fran- between 1970 and 1973 a section of the Indian Act which rules that Indian *Native in this paper refers primarily women (but not Indian men) who marry to status (registered), non-status non-Indians lose their Indian rights (or non-registered) Indians and Metis. and status. Such occasional public The Inuit women's situation appears to protests from Native women, however, be rather different and they do not have until very recently been dismissed come under the jurisdiction of the as inspired by an alien non-Native Indian Act. Inuit women are, how• ever, associated with the Native Women's Association. Indian is used **Political is used in this paper in here to designate both registered its everyday sense of having to do Indians and those who identify them• with the policy formation of govern• selves as Indians. ing bodies. women's movement.(3) Buttressing this with these movements. The discussion position was the assumption that sex in this paper will therefore focus on discrimination in the Indian Act was two national Native women's organiza• either (or both) a manifestation of or tions, the Native Women's Association a necessary pre-condition for the of Canada and Indian Rights for preservation of Indian culture.(4) Indian Women, their emergence over the past decade and their relationships This paper argues that a Native Women's with the federal government, the Movement has evolved as a separate, Native brotherhoods and the non- distinct phenomenon which is a unique Native Canadian women's organizations. response to social and political In so doing the paper attempts to developments within and without Native locate and explore patterns and society. These developments which are changes in social behaviour which will seen here as having constrained and clarify and delineate the distinctive shaped the evolution of the Native nature of the Native women's movement. women's movement can be classified as A general framework for the paper is occurring in three separate areas: drawn from theoretical perspectives 1) government, 2) the Pan-Indian move• on social movements. The purpose of ment, 3) the Canadian women's movement. this discussion is to arrive at a better understanding of the political development, and the priorities and Theodorson and Theodorson provide a aspirations of Native women which concise working definition of a social appear to them at least to be very movement as: different from those of non-Native An important form of collective Canadian women.(6) behaviour in which large numbers of people are organized or alerted The Evolution of the Native Women's to support and bring about or to Movement resist social change. . . . Par• ticipation in a social movement The evolution in the past decade of is for most people only informal the two national Native women's or indirect.(5) organizations, the Native Women's Association and Indian Rights for Indian Support or identification with a so• Women, can be divided into three cial movement, then, does not of phases: 1) the formative years from necessity imply joining any formal 1968 to 1973; 2) a period of con• organization. But a convenient solidation, steady growth and in• method of analysis, and one which I visibility from 1973 to 1976; 3) the will adopt here, is that of examining recent past since 1976 which is the formal organizations associated characterized by increasing public political participation and confronta• the extensive discrimination which they tion and acceptance by outside groups. experience as Native women, and the be• lief that this must change. An editorial in a Native Women's Associa• The emergence of the Native women's tion Newsletter articulates this movement as reflected in these organi• position in observing that the "poli• zations seems to follow Mauss' model ticking" of government and Indian (see fig. 1) for the development of so• leaders had put Native women in a cial movements fairly closely.(7) It situation of multiple jeopardy and is likely, however, that phase three had, here is more of a transitional state . . . placed Native women across between phase two and phase three on Canada in a five front pentagon in the model. The movement has not yet their fight against discrimination. peaked. It may, in fact never do so They are women, they are Native, but it seems at present that it has they face deaf, ineffective govern• generated a momentum which will be hard ment, they face the politically to stop. Both national groups have motivated, male-dominated Native now developed a unifying ideology based organizations and they face the on a perception of the political sys• problems of living off their re• tem as a structure which perpetuates serves (8)

FIGURE 1

Normal Pattern for the Natural History of a Social Movement

Acceptance

Rise \» Decline

Incipiency Coalescence Institutionalization Fragmenta• Demise tion

Source: Mauss (1975:66) — Phase 1 The Formative Period particularly evident in the four Prior to the appearance of the two western regions, for the women's national Native women's associations organizations "to ally themselves with a predecessor with rather different the Provincial Indian Associations now objectives and with a membership dominated by men."(12) Such an alli• limited to registered Indians existed ance could only be interpreted as evi• on many Indian reserves. This pre• dence of a growing political awareness decessor, Indian Homemakers Clubs, and the ensuing "Guidelines for Pos• was initiated in Saskatchewan in sible Policy Revision" in that memo 1937 by the Department of Indian are likely intended to curtail this Affairs with its first stated objec• development in recommending that "no tive: "To assist Indian women to support should be directed to organi• acquire sound and approved practices zations at the provincial or national for greater home efficiency."(9) level."(13) (Homemaker's associations had occasionally met annually at the By 1952 Indian Homemakers Clubs had provincial level.) And, despite the been set up in six other provinces seeming approval for the more broadly supplanting other women's groups on based membership of the VNWA, it also the reserves. By 1970, however, they recommended that "Departmental support were being rejected by both Indian for Indian Women's organizations Affairs and Native women. An Indian should be confined to organizations Affairs departmental memo commented formed and active at the band level," that there was, (14)that is open only to registered Indians. This emphasis could only . . . some evidence to suggest serve to perpetuate if not create that Indian women consider that divisions and tensions between status Homemakers Clubs do not really and non-status Indian women in the fulfill the particular and changing VNWA and other groups and this was needs of present-day Indian com• especially crucial since the Lavell munities . (10) case was then going through the It also commented that newer organiza• courts. tions such as the Voice of Native Women of Alberta (VNWA) formed in 1967 had, There still exists a strong Indian ... a wider outlook and concern Homemakers Association in B.C. but the and had a membership which included Homemakers associations have been al• Indian and Metis women as well as most entirely supplanted by the locals 'newly arrived immigrant women of of Native Women's Associations and various ethnic backgrounds.'(11) Indian Rights for Indian Women which, In addition the memo noted a tendency, in contrast to the Homemakers, are more urban than reserve based and have an interest in the establishment of the a membership open to all Native women RCSW but there were some reservations regardless of status. concerning its objectives. This was apparent in the comments of the key• Both the NWA and IRIW appear to have note speaker, a Native woman, who began their genesis in the First Alberta by noting that a Royal Commission on Native Women1s Conference which was the Status of Women had been estab• organized by the Voice of Native Women lished and by expressing her hope that of Alberta in 1968. If a single event the conference "should come up with can be pinpointed as launching the some suggestions and resolutions that Native Women's Movement then this Con• will benefit Indian woman and her . ference is probably it. The year 1968 everyday world."(16) She suggested was International Year for Human that Indian women1s primary concerns Rights. The federal government with a were different from those of non-- new vision of the "Just Society," Indian women which she outlined as established the Royal Commission on being equal pay, job opportunities and the Status of Women (RCSW) at the in• changes in abortion and divorce laws. stigation of a number of prominent Canadian women representing women's The degree to which this viewpoint was associations across Canada. This comr representative of those of the other mission was to provide Native women women at the conference is hard to with a public forum for expressing gauge but according to the conference their grievances and invited a newly- report these were not the concerns ex• formed Quebec Native women's associa• pressed. Problems mentioned by the < tion, Equal Rights for Indian Women, women mainly reflected the poor housing led by an Iroquois Indian woman, Mary and health conditions arising from the Two-Axe Earley, to present a brief to general poverty of Native people on the commission. Nine briefs in all and off reserves. Only two comments were presented by Native women who thus were made which were specifically re• brought to the public notice for the lated to women, one was concerned with first time the nature and extent of women's right "to have an equal voice discrimination against Native women.(15) in all affairs" and the other with wife-beating.(17) It was in March of the same year that the first Alberta Native Women's Con• The keynote speaker, however, clearly ference met in Edmonton. Delegates saw the Indian woman in a seriously were mainly from Alberta but there were disadvantaged position and commented a few Native women from Ontario, bitterly: Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Of all the people in this vast The Report of this conference indicated country, no one has been more downtrodden, has been more over• half to Prime Minister Pearson protest• looked and bypassed, has been more ing proposals to transfer federal maligned, than Indian woman who is responsibility for Indian health to the continuously classed as an object provinces. Manning complied imme• of scorn by modern society, who diately with their request. He sent is contemptuously referred to as the telegram to the Prime Minister, 'squaw,' and who is considered though the transfer of responsibility 'easy to get' by white men.(18) for health care continued. The women's action, however, was an important step Anything that might be termed "action" in a new direction. was deliberately rejected by this speaker who, despite her awareness of The women at this first provincial the need for change, counselled that: conference then, appear to have seen To blaze a trail of reform it is their problems as being primarily not necessary to shout and wave based on poverty rooted in racial dis• from the housetops. . . we must crimination; though they did not see encourage handicrafts and teach their condition as being in essence them to the younger people. . . we different from that of Native men, must use our wiles and our fem• they did define it as being somewhat ininity to get what we desire.(19) more severe. She emphasized as well the role of the Indian woman as mother: "There is no In the same year, 1968, the National greater or nobler calling on earth Indian Brotherhood was created from than the one of becoming a mother," the ashes of a weak national Native she said, and suggested as a broad group to coordinate political dialogue goal for Native women the improvement between government and Indians. The of the physical and mental health of National Indian Brotherhood, however, the whole community.(20) was unlike its predecessor in that it was set up to represent only registered Nevertheless the women present at this Indians and no-one, least of all the conference demonstrated that for them federal government, questioned whether motherhood did not preclude organizing women were represented by the brother• to demand change. The very fact that hoods who were the bodies which the they had for the first time managed to NIB represented. It is important to meet together was exhilarating and a remember here that only Indian men first taste of the power in numbers. (not women) had the right to a politi• They decided to take immediate action- cal voice in band council until 1951 political action—and to march to the and also that both male and female legislature and lobby Premier Manning registered Indians had only recently into sending a telegram on their be• received the federal franchise in 1960. The question of the political on reserves documented in the Hawthorn powerlessness, or lack of representa• Report of 1967 and widely publicized tion, of women was in such a context did nothing to diminish this view.(24) not even an issue and indeed it is only in the past year that this point Between 1970 and the Supreme Court de• is becoming clear to government.(21) cision in 1973 against Lavell and Yvonne Bedard, whose case was heard at Indian women, however, seemed to be• the same time, the political power of lieve that justice in the "just so• Native organizations increased. The ciety" was available for both sexes. oil crisis loomed and in turn the In 1970, as Indian and women's con• pressure to recognize Native claims sciousness rapidly expanded and the increased. The concept of "Citizens new pride in Indian identity took Plus," that Native people were not only hold, Jeannette Lavell, decided to entitled to all the advantages of Can• contest section 12(1)(b) of the adian citizens but also were entitled Indian Act which declares women to be to additional privileges by virtue of non-Indians when they "marry out" on aboriginal status, began to have some the grounds that it discriminated meaning. against Indian women on the basis of race and sex and thus contravened the In 1971 when the first National Native Canadian Bill of Rights.(22) Women's Conference was held in Edmon• ton these stirrings were only just Until this time an Indian woman who beginning to be felt. Women came from married a non-Indian was generally every province and the Territories. thought to have not simply "married- Government attitudes toward Native out" but "married-up" and this belief women appeared to be undergoing change; was reflected in Judge Grossberg's there was a telegram of good wishes dismissal of Lavell's appeal in the from Prime Minister Trudeau and an lower court. In Jeannette Lavell's opening address from Robert Stanbury, own words: c the Minister for Citizenship and Immi• ... he believed I was better off gration (and Indian Affairs) who felt marrying a white man. In fact it necessary to reassure his audience according to his readings this was both at the beginning and end of his the thinking of all intelligent address that: native people.(23) Native Canadians are citizens; Indeed, the importance placed by women are citizens, with human Indians on the retention of their rights and responsibilities of cultural identity was at this time citizens. . . The Branch. . . has still incomprehensible to most other long been accustomed to the ideas, Canadians. The appalling conditions new to some Canadians, that women are in every respect of citizen• at the meeting on this issue there ship the equals of men.(25) seemed to be unanimous support for the This surprising statement was untrue recommendation, except from Alberta. and demonstrated the total blindness Despite what appears to have been the of the Minister and his staff to the beginnings of a schism in the women's unequal situation of all women with ranks, a steering committee for a men under the Citizenship Act and the National Native Women's Association unequal situation of Indian women with was set up. Many of the delegates ex• Indian men under the Indian Act.(26) pressed their intention of pressing for the formation of a provincial From the Report of the proceedings it Native Women's Association if there is evident that, despite some regional was no such organization in their differences, a strong feeling of Pan- province. Indian identity already existed. Com• bined with this, however, there was Whatever the women's ambitions or in• another new element—a strong percep• tentions, George Manuel, then president tion and pride among the delegates of of the National Indian Brotherhood, themselves as women. "We must make made his position on the role of women our children proud that we were the quite plain in the course of a speech first Canadians, and today we are the at a banquet ending the conference: First Ladies of the Land who are "You as women, will have to support gathered here," said one delegate.(27) the other Indian organizations,"(29)he Another delegate said greater organi• said, clearly indicating that the zational strength was required so that women should regard themselves as "we as women will not be pushed around auxiliaries of the brotherhoods. any longer as we have been in the past."(28) All were concerned with In the two years following this con• women's loss of rights on "marrying- ference the issue of Indian women's out" and this was mentioned by all loss of status through marriage to a groups in small group discussions. non-Indian became an increasingly divisive one for all Native people. Following a plenary session on Indian The crux of the issue as it was pre• women's rights, a request for a recom• sented in 1972 and 1973 by Indian mendation that an Indian woman should leaders such as Harold Cardinal and be allowed to retain her status on by the Attorney General for the marriage to a non-Indian was postponed federal government was not that of until the following day when a special discrimination against Indian women; committee was set up to deal with the instead, it was argued that if question. Though no decision was made Lavell won on the basis of the Can- adian Bill of Rights that bill could Women. They were joined by those few subsequently be used to invalidate women who felt independent enough to the whole Indian Act.(30) Most take a stand against what had eventual• Indians were and are very ambivalent ly become a joint enterprise of the about the Indian Act*. It is a long Indian brotherhoods and the federal and complex document, the accretion government. Indian women were not of more than a hundred years of surprised, therefore, when the Supreme legislation, (supplemented by innumer• Court decided five to four against able regulations) and is very imper• Lavell and Bedard.(31) fectly understood by most Indians. Treaty rights are often held to be Phase II; Consolidation synonymous with or embodied in the The emerging Native women's movement Indian Act. The Indian Act, however, had suffered a severe setback but was in place before all the treaties though the women were temporarily in the West were negotiated and was silenced and still somewhat disorgan• never intended to be more than an ad• ized they remained apparently uncon• ministrative device reflecting suc• vinced by the powerful hegemony of ceeding government policy which had government, Brotherhoods and Supreme one unifying thread—the goal of Court. The need for women to build a eventually phasing out Indian status power base was clearly evident to many by assimilation. Native women. In 1972 Jeannette Lavell was herself a founding member of the Many Indian organizations, then, were Native Women's Association of Ontario also somewhat suspicious of the Indian (ONWA). By 1976 ONWA had 34 'locals' Act and hesitated in taking a stand (clubs) across Ontario. In other against Lavell. Nevertheless most of provinces and the Yukon where no the male-oriented organizations even• provincial Native women's associations tually did so. They were supported in existed they were quickly formed be• this stand morally and financially by the federal government. And, despite tween 1972 and 1975. Membership was, the fact that some women who had lost unlike the male organizations, drawn their status through marriage to a from status Indians, non-status non-Indian were on the executive com• Indians and Mitis and had close ties mittee, the Voice of Alberta Native to Native communities. The split be• Women's Society (VANW) also came out tween the VANW and Indian Rights for against Lavell. Most of the non-status Indian Women remained. IRIW continued Indian women thereupon split away from to attract the more politically aware the VANW and established a separate Native women and expand on a National organization to support Lavell which basis so that what it lacked in mem• they called Indian Rights for Indian bership it tended to compensate for in motivation and assertiveness. and continued the contact with human rights and non-Native women's groups The Lavell case had indeed not only that had been initiated during the served as a catalyst for disparate Lavell case. All the Native women's male Indian groups and created a organizations concentrated on gather• temporary bond with government but it ing strength and set out to consolidate had a not wholly unexpected conse• their position by concentrating on pro• quence: it profoundly affected the viding services at the community level perception of all concerned with the as had the Homemakers. They also con• relationship between Indian men and centrated on developing leadership and women. became increasingly issue-oriented as well as concerned with problems Phase III: Confrontation specific to women. It became clear to most Native women A natural outcome of the latter, and a for the first time that there was a reflection of the generally higher connection between their personal migration rate of women than men from situation and the structure of power reserves,(33)has been the emergence and privilege from which they had been of Native Women's Centres. The oldest systematically excluded, first by of these, Anduhyuan in Toronto, was Europeans and now unexpectedly by many initially sponsored by the YMCA and Native men. Max Weber has observed funded by the Department of Indian that this awareness of the exclusionary Affairs. Its stated purpose is "to structure is necessary for the emergence develop in Native girls between the of political action among disprivileged ages of 16 and 26 a feeling of self- groups. He suggested that what he worth, dignity, identity and responsi• calls the "degree of the transparency" bility. "(34) The centre runs a hostel of the exploiting group or groups is a and an alcohol and drug counselling prerequisite to reaction "not only programme. through acts of an intermittent and irrational protest but in the form of rational association."(32) The seven other Native Women's Centres which have developed in the past six years in Alberta, Saskatchewan and The members of IRIW had come to under• Ontario all have similar objectives stand the changing structure of oppres• but have varying degrees of success sion through personal experience. Un• in their implementation. Funding til the Lavell case other Native women problems are endemic. In at least did not. IRIW had, in the meantime, one case this appears to be due to an maintained an unremitting and unwel• inability to deal with the documenta• come pressure on the Federal Government tion necessary to obtain funding. A 1977 Secretary of State report noted the turning point in our relations somewhat ingenuously, "their reluc• with the government.(37) tance to do the necessary paper work is peculiar."(35) But such problems She presented recommendations on what with funding run deeper as will be had by then become the fundamental discussed further on. issues for Native women: the abolition of the enfranchisement sections of the In the meantime International Women's Indian Act, the immediate suspension Year arrived. It served to raise the of all deletions and additions to the consciousness of Canadian women (if list of registered Indians and the not of Canadian men) but did not retroactive reinstatement of Indian achieve much for Native women. Mary status to all Native women and their Two-Axe Earley attended the Interna• descendants who had lost their status tional Women's Year Conference at as a consequence of section 12(1)(b) Mexico City representing IRIW. While of the Indian Act. She asked that in Mexico, she, along with some 60 Indian women be consulted on changes other women, was served with an evic• to the Indian Act: that Native women tion notice by the band council of be allowed to have representatives on Caughnawaga reserve. She is still the joint NIB-Cabinet Committee set up fighting her eviction in the courts. in 1975 to revise the Indian Act; that Other women, however, continue to be Native women's rights be protected in evicted from reserves.(36) legislation and that they not be ex• cluded from the proposed federal Human In 1976 the representatives of the Rights legislation then being drafted. Native Women's Association and Indian Finally, she asked for a Royal Commis• Rights for Indian Women came together sion to look into the present status and make a joint presentation to the of Indian matters. The other Native Standing Committee on Indian Affairs women emphasized the same points with and Northern Development. Margaret equal eloquence. The Standing Commit• Thomson, the President of NWA, made an tee listened politely and then appar• eloquent introductory presentation: ently felt its duty was done. Nothing We come here today united in the changed. interest of all Native women. Mr. Chairman. . . the struggle for Both Native women's associations, how• equality among Canada's native ever, continued to press on all these women has been to date a futile fronts, united in their objectives if effort. . . we have found ourselves not in strategy. By December 1977 the neglected, unheard and put down on joint NIB-Cabinet meetings on the all fronts. But we come here op• Indian Act which had been in action timistic that this meeting will be since 1975 and on which both national Native women's associations had asked In June 1978, rather indecently soon to be represented were in trouble. The after the breakdown of the joint NIB- government chose this time to support Cabinet revision process, the Minister the Native women's requests to be in• of Indian Affairs announced proposals cluded in the joint negotiating pro• for revisions to the Indian Act which cess but the NIB at an executive were to be presented to Parliament by meeting denied the request. Except late 1978. These proposals suggest for the President, Noel Starblanket, the elimination of loss of status they were unanimous in so doing.(38) through marriage but do not contemplate the reinstatement of those women and When the federal Human Rights Act came their children who lost their status in into force on March 1st of this year the past. In other words no retro• excluding the Indian Act from its activity is envisaged. This means the jurisdiction, Indian women discrimin• creation of a permanent group of ated against under the Indian Act were Native people who will continue to left with no legal recourse.(39) It have specific claims against the seemed that the Native women were fur• government. At the same time this ther than ever away from their goals. legislation represents a major break• Both symbolically as well as materially through for Native women who still have their demand for equality was being Indian status. It seems unlikely, how• rejected. In April there was a total ever, that the revisions will be brought breakdown of the joint NIB-Cabinet before this parliament. It is also un• negotiations which had provided the likely that the IRIW will allow this rationale for the exclusion of the matter to rest for long. Moreover, Indian Act from the reach of the Human Native women cannot continue to be ex• Rights Act. The rationale was then cluded from policy formation. Indeed exposed as the political expediency in August of 1978, a Native woman was that it was from its inception.(40) appointed to represent Native Women's Associations on the policy committee of Indian Affairs and also to a new tri• In 1978, Native women denied any legal partite Federal-Provincial-Indian Ad• recourse in Canada, began to make em• visory Committee which had not contem• barrassing representations to the plated including women.(43) United Nations concerning discrimina- tion under the Indian Act. (41) The admission by Noel Starblanket that the Analysis of Relationships with "Sig• NIB does not represent women's groups nificant Others" has also confused the government which has always insisted that it did Despite the recent proliferation of despite Native Women's Association's studies on women and other disadvan• assertions to the contrary.(42) taged groups in Canadian society there has been a remarkable absence of in• Issues discussed in 1978 by Native terest in the collection or analysis women's organizations have focused on of data on the contemporary situation the Indian Act, health, education, of Native women. Even those govern• human rights, funding problems, land ment agencies which are charged with claims, urban immigration, battered the collection of data on income, em• wives and children's rights.(45) There ployment and educational attainment seems to be little interest in the have omitted to obtain such data on major planks of the non-Native women's Native women. The general lack of movement—jobs and control over interest may be in part a reflection reproduction. Though interest in of the very low level of Canadian labour force participation appears to public awareness of Native concerns be growing, concern over the much noted in two recent studies.(44) Yet, higher rate of infant and maternal there are many indications that Native mortality among Indians and problems women occupy a particularly oppressed of child abuse apparently are not seen position in Canadian society. as a function of job availability and family size. Studies suggest that control by women over reproduction is, Of course, Native women have for some in industrialized societies, a neces• time clearly perceived themselves as sary condition for entry into the occupying a position in the "vertical labour force. It is therefore likely mosaic" inferior to both Native men and that concern in this area will increase other Canadian women. They, themselves, as the urban migration of Native women have begun to take the initiative in causes them to become interested in documenting their position. They have further education and labour force at the same time become aware that, participation.(46) though this is essential to argue the case for social change, it does not re• A recent Department of Employment and solve the problem of lack of interest Immigration discussion paper on the on the part of the Canadian public or employment situation of Native people resistance from some Native men. There• contains two paragraphs on Native fore, in the past two years Native women.(47) It noted that the National women have developed fairly effective Native Women's Association was one of strategies to advance their cause at six national native organizations par• the public level. The Native women's ticipating in an advisory task force movement is now a political movement whose findings and conclusions formed actively seeking change with a grass• the basis for the discussion paper. In roots support that the brotherhoods addition interest is expressed in the as well as the non-Native women's move• fact that the national Native Women's ment might well envy. Association (NWAC) had passed several resolutions in 1976 asking for oppor• zations , the Native women's associa• tunities for Native women to train for tions are dependent on government skilled occupations. It comments non- bodies for survival. It could fairly committally that "the concerns of be claimed that the Native women's Native women are well founded and will movement, depending as it does on be supported."(48) There is no plan government grants for bringing to• of action suggested. The government gether Native women from across the paper also estimates a Native women's country, would not exist without labour force participation rate of 23% government aid. This dependence gives but does not say how this figure was the government wide potential for arrived at. Since no unemployment diverting, controlling and curtailing statistics are kept for Indians on re• political activity. It is not sur• serves it is very difficult to verify prising that IRIW, doubtless because statistics on Native women.(49) of its overtly political stance and confrontational approach on Indian Generally speaking, the women's asso• women's rights, has encountered ciations' objectives are very similar greater government animosity than other to those of the brotherhoods. There Native women's groups.(51) is an emphasis on the doctrine of "Citizens Plus" and a desire for a Until late 1977 IRIW was a thorn-in- fairer share of the power, rewards and the-flesh to the federal government. privileges in Canadian society. But The Department of Indian Affairs and while the brotherhoods have concen• Northern Development refused to have trated their efforts on interaction any contact with IRIW and absolved with government on the Indian Act, itself of funding responsibility since the Constitution on land claims the the members of IRIW were almost en• women's associations have built up tirely women who had lost their strength at the community level and Indian status. DIAND, in 1978, apar- are now also preparing for intervention ently changed its position and is now in the other more high profile issues funding special workshops by IRIW on with a thorough documentation of com• the Indian Act. This new direction is munity wishes on these other matters. dictated by pragmatic considerations— primarily the pressure of external It might be thought that in this they events such as repercussions from the are "complementing" the work of the federal Human Rights legislation and brotherhoods but such grassroots in• the break-down of the NIB-Cabinet volvement does not appear to have been negotiations. In addition, the personal of concern or to be very welcome to determination of the Minister (Hugh male Indian leaders.(50) Faulkner) to effect radical changes to the Indian Act during his term of As is true of almost all Native organi• office has played a crucial part in tional funding to women's groups which effecting this reversal in policy. It would give associations a stable ad• is also possible that through funding ministrative base.(54) Out of fifteen DIAND seeks to channel and control provincial women's associations eight IRIW—an accolade to their success as reported to the Secretary of State dissidents which they might be better that they were totally dependent on without. Negotiation is necessary for federal funding. the accomplishment of goals but co- optation of leadership is a familiar The stated objectives of these asso• strategy for eliminating dissent. The ciations as much as the criteria for federal government at times also has membership tend to be affected by aggravated divisions between associa• governmental requirements; it is no tions through the use of funding cri• surprise that in a table listing the teria and procedures which compel in• five objectives of these associations compatible groups to combine to obtain only four out of the fifteen are funding.(52) listed as having 'status of women' as an objective. These were the two as• An in-house Secretary of State report sociations in Quebec, the Yukon Indian on the Native Women1s Centres found Women's Association and IRIW. It is that the competition to obtain neces• possible that the description 'status sary funding resulted in conflict be• of women' was rejected for termino• tween the Native women1s centres and logical reasons but more probable that the Native friendship centres which are it was rejected because it could be meant to serve the whole Native commun• labelled a political objective; its ity. (53) These predicaments have had omission as an objective by so many serious implications for the stability of the associations may represent a of Native women's groups which rely on fear of alienating the grant givers.(55) funding for specific projects to keep going and do not receive operational Where To Now? funding as do the major male-oriented The Native women's movement is a groups. And, although all but Quebec great step forward. (Native Women's and the Maritime associations received Conference, 1971) (56) some provincial funding, the federal government is the primary source. There can be no doubt in 1978 that most Native women are united by a sense of A recent evaluation by an outside con• shared oppression. They are organized sultant of Secretary of State's funding in every province across Canada in a policies for Native women identified widespread movement pressing with in• the major weakness as being the pro• creasing insistence for social change. gramme's inability to provide opera• The main objectives of this movement are to improve the position of Native some extent has forced Native women's women within and without Native society, organizations to go underground, a and to improve social and economic con• development which has led to greater ditions in Native communities. Native unity and militancy. As a consequence, women see these goals as requiring they are now being listened to by the legislative change but they do not federal government with at least a appear to have consciously evolved modicum of respect. long-term strategies for achieving structural change. However, in their In discussing the "career" or "natural endeavour to obtain greater control history" of the Native women's movement over their own destinies as Native in its historical context, I have at• women, they have come to realize that tempted to demonstrate that the move• this control can only be obtained ment has developed autonomously and through active participation in the apart from the North American women's public domain and that their efforts movement and the Indian movement. The to obtain access to power are being existence of both of these, however, obstructed by Native men as well as generated the climate of rising ex• government. pectations and structural conduciveness which gave impetus to the Native In the early stages of the Native women's movement. It remains to be women's movement, discrimination on seen whether these developments the basis of sex was not perceived as represent an irreversible process of being separate from that based on politicization of Native women or racial or cultural differences and whether the removal of the gender- thus not different in kind from that based discrimination in the Indian encountered by Native men. Now most Act, which seems imminent, will result Native women see themselves as a in the women's organizations losing minority within a minority subject to their momentum and distinctive focus. multiple discrimination on the basis of race, sex, marital status, cultural Closer contacts with non-Native women's differences and social class. organizations does not seem likely from the evidence available at present. Though the Native women's organizations Native women ally with Native men have developed parallel to the male- rather than non-Native women on the oriented organizations, they have not basis of shared oppression. When they enjoyed the same government commitment do associate with the latter they tend to financial support or recognition as to do so in order to gain access to negotiating bodies. Neither have they resources and skills which they tem• received support from male Native porarily require in order to achieve organizations. This obstruction, to specific ends. It is difficult to find a parallel for present situation under the Indian Act the position of Native women in Canada is, in part, a relic of legislation today. It seems most closely analogous that affected all Canadian women. Al• not with the situation of other women though legislative and other improve• in Canada or Black women in the U.S. ments in the position of Canadian but with women in a colonized third women have barely touched Native women, world country struggling for autonomy. their endeavours to improve their Sheila Rowbotham, using the "colonial" position clearly depend on the seri• model has described such women as "a ousness with which government and so• colony within a colony."(57) And in• ciety deal with all women's demands deed Canadian Native women are caught for equality. in the bitter dilemma of the doubly colonized. In struggling to achieve Native women, as a distinctly neglected their own independence as women they minority, require the assistance of are limited in their effectiveness by others to force change and their long the fear that their demands will cause term strategy must surely include internal dissension and that they will generating public support. Inasmuch as jeopardize the outcome of the battle the fate of Native women is tied to that with the outside colonizer. of all other women in Canada, as well as to that of Native men, it does not Native women, however, do not live in appear that their situation will im• the third world. Their fate is linked prove much in the immediate future. not only to that of Native men but, Indeed, in retrospect, it now appears however tenuously, to that of all that International Women's Year was the other women in Canada. Indian women's final fling of the "Just Society."

NOTES 4. See for example D.E. Sanders, The Bill of Rights and Indian Status, U.B.C. Acknowledgements and thanks for assis• Law Review, vol. 7, no.' 1, p. 104. Also John D. whyte,"The Lavell Case and tance with sources for this paper are Equality in Canada,"Queen's Quarterly, vol. XXXI no. 1, p. 30. due to Nellie Carlson of IRIW, Pris- cilla Simard of ONWA and Patrice 5. George A. Theodorson and Achilles G. Theodorson, Modern Dictionary of Heloshe and Doris Woods of Secretary Sociology (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1969). of State. 6. A variety of unpublished documents and reports made available by the Depart• Acknowledgements and thanks for assistance with sources for this paper are ment of Secretary of State and Indian Rights for Indian women are the main due to Nellie Carlson of IRIW, Priscilla Simard of ONWA and Patrics Meloshe sources for this paper. These data are very fragmentary and are supplemented and Doris Woods of Secretary of State. by observations made while associated with Native and other Canadian women's associations from 1974 to 1978. The paper is exploratory and analysis is 1. Indian Act, R.S.C., 1970. somewhat limited since there is virtually a complete absence of data on the present socio-economic situation of Native women, though data now being 2. For background on legislation relating to Indian women see Kathleen Jamiason, collected by Native women's associations will probably permit a more Indian Women and the Law in Canada; Citizens Minus (Ottawa: Advisory Council systematic approach when they are available. This data is presently being on the Status of women, 1978). gathered by Native women's Associations in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. 3. Harold cardinal. The Rebirth of Canada's Indians (Edmonton: Kurtig, 1977), pp. 109-111. 7. Armand L. Mauss, Social Problems as Social Movements (New York: J.B. Lippin- 27. First National Natiye Women's Conference, Report (Edmonton, 1971), p. 15. cott, 1975). 28. Ibid., p. 13. 8. Ontario Native Women's Association, Newsletter, vol. 2, no. 2-3, June-August, 1978. 29. Ibid., p. iii.

9. Government of Canada, Department of Citizenship and Immigration, Indian 30. See Harold Cardinal, The Rebirth of Canada's Indians (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1977) Affairs Branch, Constitution and Regulations of Indian Homemakers Associa• for a full explication of this position and the initial reluctance to take tions (Ottawa: Queen's Printer: 1952), p. 5. a stand against Lavell and Bedard.

10. Copy of undated memorandum. Secretary of State, Native Citizens Programme. 31. Attorney General v. Lavell, Supreme Court Judgement (Ottawa: August, 1973).

11. Ibid. 32. H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, From Max Weber (London, 1948), p. 684, cited in Frank Parkin, Class, Inequality and Political Order (st- Albans: Granada 12. ibid. Publishing, 1972), p. 161. 13. ibid. 33. Linda M. Gerber, Trends in Out-Migration from Indian Communities Across 14. Ibid. Canada (Canada, Department of Secretary of State, 1977), p. 9.

15. The subsequent recommendations are to be found in: Royal Conmission on the 34. Canada, Secretary of State, Report on the Native Women's Centres (Ottawa: Status of Women, Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women 1977) p. 27. (Ottawa: information Canada, 1970), pp. 237-38. 35. Ibid., p. 12. 16. First Alberta Native Women's Conference, Report: Past, Present and Future (Edmonton, 1968), p. 4. 36. See Kathleen Jamieson, op. cit., p. 12.

17. Ibid., p. 4. 37. Canada, House of Commons, Minutes of Proceedings and Evidence of the Standing Committee on Indian Affairs and Northern Development, May 25, 1976, 18. Ibid., p. 36. 53.4.

19. Ibid., p. 7. 38. Information obtained in interviews with government officials.

20. Ibid., p. 7. 39. Canadian Human Rights Act, S.63(2), 1976-77.

21. For example in December 1977 the federal government asked the NIB to allow 40. The rationale for excluding the Indian Act from the reach of the Human representation from Native women's organizations in the joint NIB-government Rights Act was an undertaking made by the federal government to the NIB that negotiating process which existed from 1975 till April 1978. (The NIB re• it would not change any section of the Indian Act while these discussions fused). Since then the government has made some efforts to obtain input were in progress. See Cardinal, The Rebirth of Canada's Indians, for an from Native women's organizations on revisions to the membership section of elucidation of the basis of the negotiations. the Indian Act. 41. In April 1978, Sandra Lovelace from the Tobique Reserve in New Brusnwick made a formal complaint to the United Nations. In December 1978, the U.N. 22. Attorney General for Canada v. Jeannette Vivian Corbiere Lavell, Factum of informed Lovelace that a reply from the Canadian government Was awaited and the Respondent, 3.4 N.B. Lavell here argues that she has "been denied her overdue. right to equality before the law and the protection of the law without dis• crimination by reason of race and sex contrary to the Canadian Bill of Rights," (1973). (The emphasis is added since only the claim of sex dis• 42. Panel Discussion at ONWA annual meeting, Toronto, August 3, 1978. crimination is mentioned in analyses of this case and the issue of race is crucial.) 43. Personal communication.

23. Government of Canada, secretary of State, Speaking Together: Canada's Native 44. 1) Native Council of Canada, Pilot Study of Canadian Public Perceptions and Women (Ottawa, 1975), p. 94. Attitudes Concerning Aboriginal Rights and Land 2) Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, Canadians' Opinions and Attitudes Towards Indians and 24. H.B. Hawthorn, ed., A Survey of the Contemporary Indians of Canada, 2 vol. Indian Issues: Findings of a National Study, by Roger Gibbins and J. Rick (Ottawa: Information Canada, 1966/67). Ponting (Ottawa: 1978).

25. Two examples will suffice here: 45. This information was inferred from Newsletters and discussions with organi• 1) until the Citizenship Act, R.S.C. 33 (1977) only male not female Canadian zation members. citizens who had been immigrants could apply for citizenship for their foreign-born children. 46. Linda M. Gerber, op. cit. 2) Canadian women who carried a citizen of a foreign country prior to 1947 lost their Canadian .citizenship (whereas Canadian men did not) and could 47. Government of Canada, Employment and Immigration Canada, The Development not regain it until the Citizenship Act of 1977. of an Employment Policy for Indian, Inuit and Metis People (Ottawa. 1978) p. 24. 26. Section 12(1)(b) of the Indian Act was then being challenged as contrary to the Canadian Bill of Rights in the courts by Lavell. 48. Ibid., p. 24. 53. Report on Native Women's Centres, op. cit., p. 49. 49. Ibid., p. 2. Unemployment on reserves has been estimated as anywhere from 48% to 95%. 54. Government of Canada, Secretary of State, Final Report Native Women's programme Review, by Gordon R. Lee (Ottawa, 1978). 50. See for example, Harold Cardinal, The Rebirth of Canada's Indians, op. cit. 55. Ibid., Table A. 51. This statement is based on personal observation while engaged in research for ACSW and IRIW. 56. Consents of this kind ere often made by Native women to the writer am appear to be a real barrier to effective communication between women. 52. For example, although the Department of Indian Affairs has refused until this year to fund any project relating to non-registered Indians, the 57. Sheila Rowbotham, Women, Resistance and Revolution (Hannoridsworth: Department of the Secretary of state has insisted that a group must be Penguin Books, 1972). composed of both registered and non-registered Indians before it can qualify for funding from its Native Citizens Programme. IRIW and the VANW who took opposite sides in the Lavell case were shortly afterwards forced into applying for joint funding by Secretary of State and much acrimonious dispute resulted. Canada, Secretary of State, Evaluation of Native Women's Programme (Ottawa: 1976), p. 78.