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_ THE OTHER PRESS

 

NATIVE WOMEN: DEFINING

Mary Two-Axe Early, a 73-year-old
grandmother who lives on Kahnawake
Indian reserve in Quebec, faces expul-
sion from her home, her reserve and

by KAREN HERLAND
reprinted from the LINK
by CANADIAN UNIVERSITY PRESS

 

her culture because the Canadian
government says she is not longer an
Indian.

Two-Axe Early, a Mohawk, has
lived on Kahnawake since her mar-
riage to a white American broke up
nearly ten years ago. She is one of
hundreds of native women who are
forced each year to leave their re-
serves. They say goodbye to their
families and friends, sell their prop-
erty and give up their right to return,
even to be buried on the reserve after
they die.

Their crime: marrying non-Native
men. ;

‘‘There are Indians in Nova Scotia
marrying their first cousins just to
keep their (Indian) status,’’ Two-Axe
Early said in a recent speech at
Montreal’s downtown YWCA.

Two-Axe Early and 30,000 other
Native women and their children are
victims of Canada’s Indian Act of 1869.
According to section 12(1)b of the Act,
any woman who marries a non-Native
immediately loses her Indian status.
Her children are also deprived of
Indian status and not even divorce,
widowhood or separation will return
~ her status.

In Two-Axe Early’s case, she mar-
ried and lived with her white husband

in the U.S. for many years, returning

 

 

to Kahnawake after the relationship
ended: The band council there turned
a blind eye to Two-Axe Early’s lack of
status until 1975, when she went to
speak about the issue at an Interna-
tional Women’s Year Conference in

Mexico City.
‘“Two women were sent to report on
anything that was said,’’ says

Two-Axe Early. ‘‘When | was to talk,
they phoned the police, who phoned
Ottawa, who phoned my Chief and an
eviction notice was given.’

Other Native women who _ had

accompanied Two-Axe Early to the.

conference were afraid to speak,
fearing the same treatment. When she
returned to Kahnawake, however, the
band

Other Native women who _ had
accompanied Two-Axe Early to the
conference were afraid to speak,
fearing the same treatment. When she
returned to Kahnawake, however, the
band Chief relented. ‘‘“My Chief said
he was sorry and would withdraw the
notice, but to keep quiet and not say
anything,’’ says Two-Axe Early. ‘‘I’m
still waiting to go to court.’’

Two-Axe Early did not keep quiet
and instead founded Indian Rights for
Indian Women. This Secretary of State
funded lobby group fights for changes
to the Indian Act. Nearly 40 women on
Kahnawake have lost their status and
face expulsion, but media attention
given to their case has temporarily
post-poned their eviction. These wo-
men are very careful, do not give out
their names and quietly live on the
edges of the reserve.

Before 1956, the Act defined Indians
as anyone married to an Indian, whose
parents on either side was Indian or

 

Graphic/ Ubyssey

was adopted by an Indian. Now a
woman can only have Indian status if
her father was one or if she marries
one. White women who marry Native
men are immediately considered
Indians as are the children of such
marriages.

Native women who marry non-
Natives however can no longer own
property or live on their reserves. They
cannot vote in band elections or be
buried on the reserve and lose all claim
to social, educational and _ health
benefits on the reserve.

Between 1973 and 1976, 99.32 per
cent of all women who lost their status
lost it through marriage. The other
0.68 per cent did so voluntarily.

For the women who lose their
status, the end of a marriage can mean
the end of their livelihood. ‘’1 know a
woman who can’t close her doors or
windows because it is so icy,’’ says
Two-Axe Early. ‘‘Her five children are
illiterate and she has no status. They
can’t go to the reserve school and the
white school says they have their own
school.’’

Many women who live near white
cities and meet white men do not want
to get married. According to the
department of Indian Affairs nearly 50
per cent of all Native births in 1977
were out of wedlock. That same year
the national average was less than 10
per cent.

Revisions made to the Indian Act
sealed the fate of these children born
to unmarried Native mothers. The
birth of any such child can be
questioned by a band member up to
twelve months later. If it can be proved
the child’s father was not Native, the
child immediately loses her or his
status.

The Indian Act makes Canada’s
Natives the only people in the North-
ern Hemisphere who do not determine
their own membership. The Dene
people of the North-West Territories do
not fall under the act, nor do the Inuit,
the Cree or the Nasaki. None of these
groups define a membership on the
basis of marital status or fatherhood.

According to Kathleen Jamieson,
who wrote a book on the issue less
than 10 years ago, the government
engineered the law so Native culture
would more directly conform to pat-
riachal European cultures. By defining
Indian status on male terms, Two-Axe
Early’s own tribe, the Mohawks,
underwent profound changes. Until
the introduction of the Indian Act it
defined power and property ‘rights
through the mother. There are only
400 people left out of the 5,800
residents of Kahnawake who still
practice the traditional Mohawk life-
style.

By taking a paternalistic attitude
and defining status for Natives, the
government can constantly narrow the
defintion and assimilate more people
into the mainstream. Changes made to
the act after 1956 made Indian status
more exclusive and easier fo lose.

The official term for loss of Native
rights is enfranchisement. ‘‘In the
1950’s, Native men were enfranchised

 

 

 

 

Dance of the Ravens

=

 

ay

simply by going to University,
Two-Axe Early.

says

The real issue is cultural, according
to a Secretary of State Women’s
Committee report released last year on
the status of Indian women. The paper
says culture is passed on through the
mother, who spends more time with
her children in a traditional nuclear
family. Thus Indian women forced to
take their children off the reserve have
no support system to fall back on in
trying to pass on their culture to them.
They cannot take their children to
Native celebrations or teach them their
language in a white urban Canadian
environment.

Children with Native fathers and white
mothers who live on a reserve may
have a support system, but if the
mothers do not understand the lan-
guage or traditions, it is unlikely that
they can teach them to their children.

The selectivity with which the act is
applied indicates that economics are
more important than culture for some
bands. In the West, where bands are
located on oil-rich land, women are
enfranchized immediately. This en-
sures that any profits from the land are
shared among fewer people. At least
in theory.

The department of Indian Affairs
reports that in 1977 more women
gained status by marrying Native men