Racism

With the emergence of settler society, many of the social norms of Indigenous groups became seen as morally corrupt, or deviant. The idea of polygamous marriages was foreign to European settlers, was a stark contrast to the Christian marital norms and common law monogamy. Government actors took it upon themselves to discourage the practice of polygamy and eventually entrenched it in law by 1890. It was important for settlers to reinforce the idea of traditional, European, monogamous marriage because they feared it was being disintegrated by the industrial revolution and was a marker for 'de-civilization.' The arrival of the Mormons in the late 1800s further escalated fears held by the state, triggering them to take action against the practice of polygamous marriages.

In the 90s and early 2000s, the Saskatoon Police Service faced public and legal scrutiny for practicing what became colloquially known as the "Starlight Tours." In summary, a Starlight Tour happens when an Indigenous person, frequently Indigenous men, is picked up by the police at night and abandoned outside of the city limits in subzero termpatures. An egregious abuse of power, tours were carried out in winter, and the men were left to freeze. This practice came to public eye after one man, Darryl Night, survived an attempted tour and filed a complaint against the SPS officers.

It was only after Darryl Night came forward that the deaths of Neil Stonechild, Rodney Naistus, and Lawrence Wegner were deemed suspicious. Because of existing prejudice and racism within the police force, it was assumed that these men had 'gotten drunk' and wandered off into the night. When Darryl Night came forward with his complaint, it triggered a demand for an independent inquiry into the deaths of Stonechild, Naistus, and Wegner. The two officers implicated in the Darryl Night case were found guilty of unlawful confinement and were fired from the police force and sent to jail for a minimum sentence. The Wright Inquiry into the death of Neil Stonechild implicated the Saskatoon Police Service in the death of Stonechild. It found that their initial investigation was superficial and completely inadequate. Justice Wright also determined that Stonechild was in the care of the police the night of his murder and they were ultimately at fault for his death, though no officers have ever been formally charged. The inquiries into the deaths of Naistus and Wegner made no conclusive statements, but it is imperative to acknowledge they are victims of Starlight Tours as well. 

Unlike in the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, Saskatchewan did not have an official government policy of sterilization.

Forced and coerced sterilization of Indigenous women is not well documented in Saskatchewan except into recent years, however, there is substantive evidence that it did/does occur. The justification used to normalize the use of coercive sterilization was that it was a preventative measure to ensure that women who were incapable of raising a dependent child, or women who had severe “mental or physical defects” could not give birth. It was argued that this would not only help to eradicate poverty, but it would also lessen the “financial burden” on the federal government because less Indigenous children would be born. Indigenous women were often not consulted before the operation was performed, and/or it was often completed when she was having a different operation done - once it was completed there was no way to reverse it. This took away agency from many Indigenous women because they were no longer in control of their reproductive decisions once this operation was completed.

There were two hospitals in Saskatchewan with documentation of sterilizations performed, one in Fort Qu’Appelle and the other in North Battleford. The documented sterilizations, however, do not account for all of the sterilizations performed in the province. There is evidence that suggests that the government was aware that unsanctioned and undocumented sterilizations of Indigenous women were taking place in Saskatchewan, meaning that the true number of coerced sterilizations will never be completely accurate.

Bill C-31, otherwise known as An Act to Amend the Indian Act, resulted because of persistent activism on the part of Indigenous women who recognized and opposed the inherent gender bias within the Indian Act. This amendment reinstated status to Indigenous women, and their children, who had previously had their status revoked by the pre-1985 Indian Act due to marriage to a non-Indian. Losing status meant much more than no longer being viewed as an ‘Indian’, it resulted in a loss of access to rights, programs, and on reserve housing, ultimately isolating Indigenous women from their friends and family. This bill also shifted more responsibility on to band councils and away from the federal government in regards to band membership by allowing bands to create their own membership codes and make decisions on whether or not to allow reinstated women and their children into their bands. Bill C-31 created a more complicated formula when determining Indian status by creating what is known as the ‘second generation cut-off rule’. This rule states that status is revoked from individuals who have fewer than two grandparents with Indian status. This rule applies only to Indigenous women who married non-Indians prior to April 17, 1985 and their subsequent children. The new formula for status was also discriminatory towards the children of Indigenous women who had married non-Indians because they were placed in a category that essentially labelled them as ‘less Indian’. This lesser level of status is gender discriminatory because it applies only to the grandchildren of Indigenous women who married non-Indians, and not to Indigenous men who married non-Indians. Although Bill C-31 was created as a means to eliminate gender discrimination within the Indian Act, it resulted in the creation of residual gender bias towards Indigenous women and their children.

Not all Indigenous children were required to attend the Indian Residential School in Lebret - in "Relevant Resources" (listed below), James Tyman serves as an example of a visibly Indigenous Metis boy who was subjected to continual racism from his peers at the public elementary school in Lebret.

Metis women from La Ronge and area in Northern Saskatchewan were respondents interviewed by Doris and Irene Poelzer for their study on Metis women's experiences in their home-communities. Numerous respondents reported discrepancies in the types of work available for men and women. They also reported discrepancies in the wages of men and women, with men being paid more for the same work. For example, these respondents stated that the types of jobs available for women were those that restricted them to traditionally feminized work, such as caregiving/nurturing, feeding, serving or providing instruction. That is, although job opportunities are scarce in the northern part of the province, those that were available for women were typically concession work, cleaning, health-related, teaching and clerical. These women believed that they had the same intellectual capacities as men, and that they should not be restricted (Poelzer 1985, 21-22).

One stated, “Women need training for jobs...I don’t want women to have the kind of life I had before” (Poelzer 1985, 23).

There was also a need expressed for support from one’s community and romantic partner. For example, women who ran for public office positions such as the school board believed that they were discriminated against because of their gender, and thus received few votes. In another example, women found that men refused to take instruction from them because of their gender. Overall, some respondents felt that men ignored, underestimate or exploited their Metis female co-workers (Poelzer 1985, 24-26).-

Metis women in Poelzer’s study also spoke extensively on the impact of religion in their life and the community. This impact was construed as both positive and negative. One respondent noted, “The church has been so much a part of exploitation”, as it provided a variety of services including education, health, employment and welfare. However, this also provided church officials with a great degree of control over the community, in which they took advantage of their privileged position by humiliating some individuals and also keeping community members dependent and indebted to their services. For example, individuals in the community must be church members in order to access services (Poelzer 1985, 27-36).

As well, women as a demographic are more likely to live in poverty and are often perceived to be primarily responsible for child-rearing. The financial burden resulting from poverty and raising children often results in a greater degree of reliance on these services. Metis women in the communities surveyed noted that church control was exerted by shaming women who practiced family planning or separated from a violent spouse. They also noted that they would be shamed for living common-law, even though some women declared that cohabitation gave them a greater degree of control, equality and autonomy than marriage.

One woman described the social pressure (resulting from the internalization of Christian moral norms) this way:

“You don’t feel right when you stay with the man without marrying him. It is just that when you go to some places, somebody asks if he is your husband, and you have to lie most of the time. You say ‘yes’ and you are lying. So it hurts you that way...And when you get kids, somebody is going to tell (them) that ‘he is not your dad. That is not your mother’s husband.’ It is not very nice very much” (Poelzer 1985, 49).

Another woman reported a more direct form of religious pressure: “...The church feels that if you are living common-law, you are not following the religion...marriage is quite a big thing” (Poelzer 1985, 49).

In contrast, Metis women respondents reported that common-law arrangements allowed for an easier separation if men were discovered to be immature or abusive. They also reported that such an arrangement prevented male romantic partners from perceiving his wife as property, that is, of possessing rights of ownership over her body or labour. An arrangement of cohabitation, therefore, was perceived to prevent domestic violence as well as prevent men from becoming jealous or of forgetting their household responsibilities.

Overall, women who received social services through the church were made to feel obligated to meet the expectations of religious officials by adhering to their moral and purity ideals (Poelzer 1985, 31-49). 

The dominance of maleness is deeply embedded in Western/European cultures as a result of centuries of philosophical, literary and religious traditions which position the supposed superiority of the male gender as a result of irrefutable conditions of biology. That is, male dominance, as evidenced in both the public and private sphere, and in political, social and religious organization, is premised on men being intellectually, morally and physically advantaged. (One practical example being women's natural confinement to the private realm and subsequent exclusion from the physically, intellectually and morally demanding conditions of decision-making in the public sphere, such as those experienced in politics, thus resulting in their lower numbers of representation in this field). The hegemony of male dominance has also resulted in differing expectations for parenting. For example, women are subjected to much more intensive surveillance and scrutiny as it relates to their parenting styles and level of engagement than men. Men who are involved in parenting are praised for their exceptionality, whereas if the same standards were applied to women, they would be considered abnormal and morally deficient. Biologically speaking, there is no known scientific evidence to support the belief that men are intellectually or morally superior to women. Nor is there any scientific evidence to support the belief that women are better suited or more necessary to parenting or caregiving than men. If one were to strictly speak along the lines of the gender binary, caregiving is no more a woman's job than breadwinning is a man's. Rather, caregiving is a necessary condition for the propagation of the human species - a condition which is socially, not biologically conditioned. However, the socialization of caregiving activities as a woman's responsibility, combined with male dominance in the public and private sphere, has resulted in a high propensity for men's neglect of parenting responsibilities and abandonment of children in western societies, as well as in societies where such structures of patriarchy have been imposed. That is, men are able to escape their parenting responsibilities with minimal social or legal consequences, but women cannot. In addition to the socialization of gender, the socialization of ethnicity has historically played a role in acceptable notions of fatherhood, particularly in mixed marriages. Beginning shortly after Contact, European men formed unions with Indigenous women, often resulting in children. This also allowed such men to form alliances with the nations from which these women originated, better ensuring the survival of ill-equipped European fur-traders and voyageurs. However, because their children were mixed-race, they were also considered inferior to white children, and thus these families could be (and many were) abandoned with little to no negative repercussions for the father. (Note: this is not to ignore the colonial construction of gender, of which common beliefs perpetrated by media and religion were that European men had irrepressible sexual needs. The simultaneous construction of Indigenous women in the new country as immoral and sexually licentious "squaws" presented such men with a convenient outlet for sexual expression. However, the belief that these women always desired sexual activity, and, like the land, were "there for the taking", rendered mute any consideration of consent, resulting in widespread sexual violence. These beliefs are deeply entrenched in the colonial Canadian psyche and continue to affect perceptions of Indigenous women today.) Black feminist theorist bell hooks argues that without a lack of positive male role modelling, men who experienced father neglect or absenteeism internalize and perpetuate the patriarchal narrative that male parental absenteeism is a normal and even essential component of masculinity (hooks 2003, 95-108). Please also see related entry titled "History of Racist and Gendered Perceptions of Indigenous Women."

The provincial government (Department of Natural Resources) demanded that Malcom Norris resign as Executive Director of the Prince Albert Indian-Metis Service Council (Parent Organization for the Prince Albert Friendship Centre) after he criticized them for cutting funding to Indigenous programs.

The Gabriel Dumont Institute, an institute for the preservation of Metis culture and education defines Mitchif (also known as Michif, Mechif, Michif-Cree, Métif, Métchif, French Cree, Michif/Mitchif-French and Métis-French) as "a very distinct dialect of Canadian French which has Cree and Ojibway syntax. Michif-French was once the object of fierce ridicule by Francophones—Breton French and French Canadians (Canayens)—who considered it as a “bad” form of French" (see "relevant resources" below). Primary source interviews (excerpted below in "relevant resources") describe many Metis languages, in addition to Mitchif, being spoken in Metis homes. These languages include French, Cree, Saulteaux, Dakota and Chipewyan. English became more commonplace in Metis homes as Metis children began to attend public and residential schools. Although, Metis people (particularly older speakers) have also adapted English to their own uses, creating a unique Metis dialect of English. There is also a history of loss of Metis languages due to a combination of factors. Experiences of racism both in schools and the larger community fostered an internalization of shame regarding Metis ethnic identity. This furthered the government's goals of assimilation of Indigenous people, as some Metis people hid their identity and learned to speak English in order to better integrate into mainstream, non-Indigenous society (please see related entry on cultural dislocation of Metis people through education and the related entry on general Metis experiences of racism). This was done to avoid discrimination - especially in education and employment (related entry on general Metis experiences of racism provides some evidence of this).

Joe Amyotte worked to raise the living standards for Metis people in Saskatchewan, focusing specifically on creating access to education and housing. 

In an interview with Joe Amyotte (attached under Resources below), he notes that housing conditions of the Metis were worse in Northern Saskatchewan. He also describes how previous experiences attemping Metis political organization made it difficult to engage in grassroots mobilization (i.e., receiving racism/mockery from white settlers for their past efforts), and in turn advocate for improvements that would allow them to attain a higher quality of living conditions. He also describes the low level of educational attainment amongst the Metis, which is corroborated by several testimonies of Metis individuals in Saskatchewan who cite lack of access to a school within their area as the barrier which prevented them from obtaining an education. Some of these individuals also cite that family circumstances of poverty required them to begin working and end their school career early. In another section of the interview, Amyotte says that because of the intiatives of the Metis Society of Saskatchewan, schools were established in Green Lake, Beauval, La Ronge, La Loche, Qu'Appelle, to name a few. There were 35 schools that he initiated across the province in total. These schools were discontinued in 1969 when the leadership of the Metis Society of Saskatchewan changed. Mr. Amyotte does not disclose the reasons why.