One of Canada’s most significant modern-era Indigenous leaders was born on this date in the Northwest Territories in 1948. George Erasmus would go on to serve as National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations between 1985 and 1991. Earlier, he was leader of the Dene Nation and famously fought against the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. In 1991 Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed Erasmus as co-chair of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. In 1990, Erasmus famously delivered an address on Indigenous self-government that has stood the test of time.
“This country was not settled like the United States. I’m a Dene. No conquering army came to the Dene and defeated us,” he said. “No conquering army came to the Mohawks and defeated them, or any other of the people across this country. We willingly, consciously, with our eyes open, thought we had enough resources. Being a peaceful people, we arrived at an agreement that provided for our institutions to continue on part of our land and for the institutions of the people coming in to also be placed on our lands. Never in our worst nightmares did we ever imagine what was going to take place.”
You can read his address in its entirety below.
George Erasmus: Last summer, Native people in this country took a very firm stand against the Meech Lake Accord. It was not a stand against Canada. It was not a stand against Quebec. We took a look at the agreement, and as Native people we found the agreement wanting. We were going to put into the Canadian Constitution the concept that there were two fundamental characteristics of Canada that should be entrenched, embedded in the Constitution. It was following from the concept that there are two founding nations, and one of those was not the original Native people. That was something we could not live with. We could not have further entrenched rights for other people in this country that would make us even less able to compete and try to protect our language and our culture. In Quebec, Native people could not live with a situation where Quebec was being recognized as a distinct society and there was no ability for the Native people there to be able to also protect and have their language and culture flourish. The balance was not there . . .
We have come to a fork in the road, where if we are going to continue to be immersed in a status quo, we’re just not going to be together very much longer. Or else we are going to be so disgruntled across this country we’re not going to be able to live with each other. We have the ability to create a country that will be envied. We have the potential, but we also have the potential to fragment and create many smaller states, and that’s absolutely not necessary. What we have here is the ability to bring together two European peoples, complemented by cultures from all around the world, with an indigenous population that has been here for tens of thousands of years. We have the ability to create a culture that will be different from others because we will take from each other and we will give to each other, but we will not have to crush each other. We will not have to make beggars of any of us. We will not have to make people orphans from their culture . . .
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
You can read his address in its entirety below.
George Erasmus: Last summer, Native people in this country took a very firm stand against the Meech Lake Accord. It was not a stand against Canada. It was not a stand against Quebec. We took a look at the agreement, and as Native people we found the agreement wanting. We were going to put into the Canadian Constitution the concept that there were two fundamental characteristics of Canada that should be entrenched, embedded in the Constitution. It was following from the concept that there are two founding nations, and one of those was not the original Native people. That was something we could not live with. We could not have further entrenched rights for other people in this country that would make us even less able to compete and try to protect our language and our culture. In Quebec, Native people could not live with a situation where Quebec was being recognized as a distinct society and there was no ability for the Native people there to be able to also protect and have their language and culture flourish. The balance was not there . . .
We have come to a fork in the road, where if we are going to continue to be immersed in a status quo, we’re just not going to be together very much longer. Or else we are going to be so disgruntled across this country we’re not going to be able to live with each other. We have the ability to create a country that will be envied. We have the potential, but we also have the potential to fragment and create many smaller states, and that’s absolutely not necessary. What we have here is the ability to bring together two European peoples, complemented by cultures from all around the world, with an indigenous population that has been here for tens of thousands of years. We have the ability to create a culture that will be different from others because we will take from each other and we will give to each other, but we will not have to crush each other. We will not have to make beggars of any of us. We will not have to make people orphans from their culture . . .
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.