Suchergebnisse

The present is a period of rapid changes in admin'ive arrangements & program planning for the Indians & Eskimos of Canada. However, these people still suffer a considerable degree of prejudice or public indifference. If new official policies were to begin to sanction very costly developments, the current public indifference could quickly change to resentment. Most of the native peoples have to be assisted into self-support & have only very recently acquired a modest measure of self-determination. The danger is that the authorities may engage in an elaborate series of helpful gestures in order to convince the native peoples of their good will while limiting the practical importance of these gestures so as to escape the charge of helping those who will not help themselves. Background on the situation is given which indicates that during the last cent a fairly close correspondence has existed between the white Canadian attitude to the native peoples & the official policy toward them. The reserves have become centers of shiftlessness & inertia. The complications of the citizenship & special legal categories set aside for these people are explained. These legal & constitutional peculiarities have made impossible a uniform policy towards the native peoples. Integration of the native peoples is the official aim of gov policy. However, many Indians are so ill-equipped for change that they become fast casualties of Ur civilization, & emigration to the cities does not cancel the problem of increase of pop on the reserves. In these circumstances the development of Indians in their own communities becomes absolutely necessary. Recent developments of this nature are outlined on the federal & provincial levels & in the areas of the war on poverty, housing, soc services, technical & vocational training, industr development on the reserves, & Eskimo cooperatives. It is concluded that though programs must increasingly be directed towards integrating all the native groups within the nation, & towards making available to them the general services which other Canadians receive, special permissive services must meanwhile be provided & some of these must be special to particular groups of the native people. A uniform official policy for Indians & Eskimos is not at present feasible. E. Weiman.