Étude de document: Haunted by history's lively ghosts de Peter Newman (document en anglais)

This document is entitled, “Haunted by history’s lively ghosts” by Peter Newman and was printed in the Maclean’s weekly news magazine on August 6, 1990.

This document discusses the injustices that have been done to the Canadian Indian tribes in the past, and the fact that these crimes cannot be forgotten. Some form of retribution should be given to the Indians as a matter of dignity and pride. Throughout history the white Canadians have treated the Indians as unimportant and unwanted objects “...refusing to acknowledge their distinctiveness and their rightful claims to parts of a continent that once was fully their own”.

For centuries, the Canadian Indians have been taken advantage of for the profit of the white Canadians. It began with the Hudson’s Bay Co., which made fortunes off the backs of the Indians from selling their fur pelts. The Indians would hunt, kill and clean the fur pelts and bring them to the Hudson’s Bay Co., who would give them pots, pans and blankets in return. But hunting for the Indians was a spiritual experience. Their lives were intertwined with the animals, and they treated the animals as their relatives. They would only kill what they needed to eat, and they would even ask permission of the animal first to kill it. But the Hudson’s Bay Co. changed all that by asking them to kill all the animals in the forest, which upset the spiritual balance of the Indians.

Yet, the Hudson’s Bay Co. boasted that they were humane to the Indians because they kept them alive during times of famine or epidemics. But, this was merely for the Company’s own benefit because a sick or dying Indian could not hunt and kill animals for them.

The Indians land was taken from them because they had no written language and could not document their claims. The Indians only had their memories and tribal myths about the land they lived on and which belonged to them, but that was not good enough at that time for the white people.

The worst abuse against the Indians came in the early 1800s when alcohol was first introduced to them. Liquour became the currency of the fur trade. The white people made the alcohol very strong and caused the Indians to become dependent on it.

The time has come now to recognize the Canadian Indians for they are the living ghosts of the Canadian history. The will always be there. Their complaints and aspirations have to be taken seriously. It is time now to finally acknowledge them and to put them first in Canada’s national priorities.

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