by Noel Dyck
Simon Fraser University
Manitoba History, Number 4, 1982
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Although this book is intended as “an elementary atlas of the socio-political terrain of Indian affairs” in Canada, it deals primarily with relations between the National Indian Brotherhood (NIB) and the federal government during the 1970s. According to the authors, an examination of this, “the apex of Indian-government relations”, comprises not only a convenient means “to get a handle on” the significant issues that involve registered Indians and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs (DIAND), but, indeed, a necessary first step to comprehend the current struggle for authority within Canadian Indian administration. Ponting and Gibbins term their approach as “historical, contextual and data-based,” contrasting it with “rhetorical” and “uninformed” critiques of federal Indian administration made by other academics whom they invoke, but do not identify.
The first section of the book summarizes the evolution of the Indian Act and federal Indian policy, the socio-demographic status of the Indian population, and the results of a recent survey of Canadians’ perceptions of Indians. The strongest of these preliminary chapters is the socio-demographic profile which was prepared by the senior demographer of DIAND’s Indian and Inuit Affairs Programme (IIAP); the weakest is the historical overview of Indian-government relations, a chapter which relies upon a curiously limited selection of secondary sources.
The core of the book—a description of the respective structures and policies of the IIAP and NIB—is based upon some two hundred hours of interviews with key officials in these and other agencies. The main conclusions that emerge from this investigation seem to be that contemporary Indian administration constitutes an exceedingly complex and difficult field and that Indian organizations such as the NIB are gradually gaining authority and influence in Indian affairs. Following a brief consideration of the actual and potential involvement of churches, philanthropic foundations and groups such as the Canadian Association in Support of Native Peoples in the field, the book concludes with recommendations for further research and some theoretical speculations about the position of Indians within Canadian society.
Source: Western Canada Pictorial Index
The book’s principal contribution will be to provide readers who are unfamiliar with the administrative structures of DIAND and the NIB some indication of the form of these organizations during the 1970s. It does not however, suffice either as an introduction to Indian affairs in Canada or as a useful analysis of national-level Indian-government relations during the past decade. It simply fails to meet the standards established by the existing literature on Indian affairs administration in Canada.
Since the publication of the Hawthorn Report (1966-7), [1] Indian affairs administration has become one of the more extensively studied aspects of Canadian society. Ponting and Gibbins, nonetheless, proceed from the assumption, “that there is in the social science literature a dearth of baseline descriptive data about Canadian society” and, thus, set out to discuss the events of the 1970s as though the sophisticated analysis of the Hawthorn Report was no longer relevant and as though the recent writings, for instance, of R. W. Dunning, Doug Elias and James Burke had never been published. [2]
The blandness of Ponting and Gibbins’ conclusions raises a further suspicion that the interviews conducted with government officials and Indian leaders seldom penetrated the posture and rhetoric of psuedo-confidentiality so typical of political style in the national capital. A fuller appreciation of the implications of former NIB president George Manuel’s comment that, “We’re powerless, but we’re doing a damn good job of bluffing” and a familiarity with existing writings that deal with much, though by no means all, of the same ground covered in this book might have rendered this a more incisive and revealing study than it is.
1. H. B. Hawthorn (ed.) A Surrey of the Contemporary Indians of Canada. Vol. 1 and 2. Ottawa: 1966, 1967.
2. R. W. Dunning, “Some Speculations on the Canadian Indian Socio-Political Reality”, in M. A. Tremblay (ed.) The Patterns of “Amerindian” Identity, Quebec: 1967; Doug Elias, “Indian Politics in the Canadian Political System” in M. A. Tremblay (ed.) The Patterns of “Amerindian” Identity, Quebec: 1976; James Burke. Paper Tomahawks From Red Tape to Red Power Winnipeg: 1976.
Page revised: 1 January 2011
