4 - Friday, October 2, 1992 - North Shore News Yes for other reasons I KNOV,, it’s a frivolous thought. But I wonder what would happen if, when native Indian leaders showed up at a meeting with federal or provincial government politi- cians, the white folks clapped three-piece suits on them, replaced their footwear with Gucci shoes, and honored them by playing Elizabethan madrigals, dancing to minu- ets, jiving to Glenn Miller music, or singing the music of the Beatles or Bruce Springsteen? And would Indians with distinc- tive names like Milton Born With a Tooth feel pleased by being honored with a European name — ““We hereby name you Sam Miller’’? : And then dinner catered by a French restaurateur, followed by brandy and ceremonial Havana cigars as a gesture of peace? In short, would Indian leaders like being immersed in the emblems of European-American culture on such occasions, rather than vice-versa? As I said — a frivolous thought. Maybe my gentle humor would annoy Indians, most of whom of course on non-ceremionial occa- sions dress indistinguishably from other people, including male In- dian lawyers who do indeed dress in three-piece suits, and Indian women leaders like Wendy Grant, who showed up at a recent meeting with editors and reporters dressed in a smashingly fashion- able outfit — a remark made, by the way, by one of the female edi- tors. It is politically very incorrect for males to make any reference to the appearance of females these days. All this came to mind when I stared at the excellent color photograph on the front page of the Sept. 23 North Shore News. It showed Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, clad in Indian style, at the signing of the land claims commission (treaty at the Squamish Nation Capilano Reserve. This is one of the most predict- able of photo ops. I’ve just been looking at a 1984 picture of Pierre Elfiott Trudeau, a man known for his icy intellectualism, sporting a very sharp Indian hat while here in British Cotumbia. And he’s smiling. It occurs to me that, frivolity aside, there is a very significant psychological/cultural thing going on when one culture, when it meets another on such formal oc- casions, adopts that culture’s culture, so to speak. Isn’t it a kind of surrender? A recognition of the superiority of that culture — a point not lost on the peopie who, in this in- stance, call themselves the First Nations? Or is it exactly the opposite? Is the culture that ceremonially adopts the accoutrements of the other culture in effect saying, condescendingly: ‘‘You see, we are so sure of the superiority of our culture that we can make this gesture without in any way feeling threatened’’? Or is it merely evidence of the In- dians’ farnously great sense of humor? Because politicians like Mr. Mulroney and Mr. Trudeau look, to my eye, a bit unserious, even a little sheepish, out of their business-class uniforms. Which is not to say that Indians dressed in their traditional mode of dress look anything but perfectly all right. Well, that was a long bit of musing. More to the point, I was fasci- nated by two other things in that edition of the North Shore News. One was a very sensitive report on the Capilano ceremony by Paul Hughes, who writes seriously and supportively on Indian issues — and is a most funny fellow writing about other aspects of the (non- Indian) passing scene. The other was my esteemed col- Trevor Lautens Li ied GARDEN OF BIASES league Bob Hunter’s column that day. Robert can only be described as highly sympathetic to Indian culture and issues. He shared a Governor-Gene- ral’s Award for a co-authored book that argued, among other things, that American democracy and even the Declaration of In- dependence were mightily influ- enced not by European thought of the time but by the political in- stitutions of the Six Nations. So it was a shock to read that Robert, after a three-day meeting with native and white en- vironmentalists in the foothills of the Rockies, came away shaken from his prior assumption that “Indian leaders speak for all In- dians."’ . This was the conclusion ina column that among other things mulled the basic division between Indian traditionalists who support the hereditary — non-democratic —- chiefs, who form an aristocracy by any name, and those who sup- port elected chiefs — who the traditionalists say are imposed by white governments. “‘There was no ‘grand chief” in the old days,’’ writes Hunter — meaning someone like Ovide Mer- credi. **How could he speak for all the nations when it would be impossible even to know all their languages, let alone their dreams and wants?"* Robert hits at, or close to, the heart of the matter. He would not say, or even think, the following. But I do. Which is: That that diversity makes a mockery of any notion that the Indians of Canada are a single people with anything resembling even very broad cultural and po- litical assumptions held in non- aboriginal Canada — like the su- premacy of democracy. Of course non-aboriginals too disagree about a great deal — as the Yes-No factions in the great constitutional referendum clearly attest. But I would guess that the native people share scarcely any “Indian consciousness” at all. Their languages, geography, historical experience, their tr: tional diets and clothing vary im- mensely from coast to coast. For better or worse, and no doubt some of each, Indian cultures today touch each other most readily at the points of their mutual touching of the white — non-native — culture. An Ovide Mercredi, and other national Indian leaders, would be unimaginable in the 18th or 19th century, or indeed until recent de- cades. I conclude that the extreme of disparities, in precisely the histori- cal cultures that such leaders evoke and claim to represent, make the official assumptions in the constitutional package as they pertain to Indians something very close to nonsense. Thus I predict that native self- government, as proclaimed without definition or detail in the constitutional package, in countless years to come will be as great a source of friction and litigation as Quebec’s ‘‘distinct society.”' The Indian self-government provisions of the deal seem to me the most suspect part of the deal — though, paradoxically it might seem, I'll be voting ‘yes’ on Oct. 26 for other reasons. And as for land claims: natural- ly no one was so rude to mention it at that ceremony marking the creation of the land claims task force attended by Brian Mulroney, Mike Harcourt, and others, but you do know, don’t you, that the Musqueam, Squamish and Bur- rard Indians all have conflicting claims that cover much of the Lower Mainiand? COTES £7 eee LINDA WAGNER AN EXHIBITION AND SALE OF RECENT INTINGS OCTOBER 3 - 14, 1992 OPENING RECEPTION SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3 10:30 A.M. TO 5:00 PM. 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