The Case for Native Assimilation

The case for Native Assimilation
Winnipeg Free Press
Thursday, July 25, 2002
Page: A13
Section: Special Section 6
Byline: The View From The West / Meaghan Walker-Williams

IS it inevitable that smaller and less-successful cultures will be assimilated into mainstream human civilization?

It's ironic that the same Canadians who think aboriginal peoples should welcome assimilation into "mainstream Canada" are horrified at the prospect of Canada being assimilated into American culture. But 500 years from now, will French still be the dominant language in Quebec? Will there still be an international border running along the 49th parallel? And will there still be Indian reserves?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for assimilation so long as it's voluntary, not forced on people. But why does it seem that everyone assumes assimilation is a one-way street? Has it ever occurred to anyone that non-natives might benefit from adopting some aspects of the cultures of native people? Ever since First Contact, natives have been busy learning about the technology and culture of the newcomers. I won't say the non-natives have been slow learners, but they have learned very little of our traditions, so far. I think that will change.

When French and British ships arrived on our coasts, the founders of Canada's current "mainstream culture" had arrived. Their descendants imagine this to be the seminal event in the making of modern Canada and that native culture immediately began an irreversible process of being slowly replaced or assimilated, or just withering away.

It's understandable that people who had never experienced such a visitation would entertain this viewpoint. But it wasn't the first time natives had seen billowing sails on the horizon.

In 1543, more than 200 years before any British or French ship visited the Pacific Northwest, a Portuguese sea captain named Cabrilho sailed a Spanish ship to the Columbia River. In the following decades, more Spanish ships came further north, bringing conquistadors and the famous explorers Juan de Fuca and Bruno Hecate.

They began conquering natives and claiming land for Spain. They found gold on Vancouver Island and attempted to enslave natives to work in the mines, just as they had in Mexico and Peru.

But where are the Spanish now? Where is their mainstream culture? Why don't most Canadian people speak Spanish, as they do in South America?

The Spanish weren't the first of Canada's "boat people." Five centuries earlier, Viking ships arrived on the East Coast and set up colonies. Leif Ericsson and fleets of vessels loaded with warriors invaded Canada. Centuries later, there are barely any traces left. What happened to their mainstream culture?

Who were these invaders who came here while Caesars ruled Rome? No one really knows, but I don't think it's coincidental that Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands colonized Hawaii and New Zealand around 300 AD. It's hard to imagine that people who sailed across more than 5,000 kilometres of unexplored ocean to find the Hawaiian Islands and virtually every inhabitable island in the Pacific could somehow miss two entire continents lying within their reach.

There should be no doubt that Polynesian ships came to the Americas: The foreign influence at Musqueam began within a century of the Polynesians reaching Hawaii; it ended in 1200 AD, just as the Hawaiians and Marquesas islanders quit building seagoing ships. Recent DNA evidence indicates natives of the West Coast of Vancouver Island have some Polynesian ancestry.

Foreign culture

Whatever the source, for 800 years a technologically advanced culture equipped with sailing ships colonized and dominated the coast of British Columbia. Coast Salish culture almost disappeared but, ultimately, the foreign culture did not endure. Native people picked up some new ideas such as sailing ships and new burial practices, but continued our traditional culture.

In the year 2578, when eight centuries have passed since Captain Cook sailed the first British ship to B.C. (1778), will Canada's current British-French "mainstream culture" have stood the test of time? Or will it have vanished with hardly a trace, like all the others? If history is any indication of the longevity of Salish culture, I'm sure my people will be here to give commentary at that time.

My own people, the Cowichan tribes, still had a population of about 7,000 people in 1875, even after losing more than half our people to earlier epidemics. By 1900 or so, the total number of Cowichan Indians was down to a few hundred people, a loss of more than 90 per cent of the population in one generation. In the early 20th century, Coast Salish culture looked like it might not last another generation. Traditional practices were criminalized and conducted only in secret. Residential schools strove to replace native languages and religions with European ones. Hardly any Coast Salish people were left alive.

But around 1900, Indian populations stopped declining and started growing again. Native populations all across Canada are now increasing faster than the non-native populace. At current rates of growth, natives will be the majority by the year 2175, despite continuing immigration by non-natives.

In B.C., natives could become the majority sometime between 2057 and 2114 unless there is extensive non-native migration into the province.

Currently, economic difficulties related to the American softwood-lumber dispute and a general resource-industry downturn are resulting in more non-natives leaving B.C. than coming in. If that continues, natives almost certainly will become the majority here within my lifetime.

I don't expect British-French culture to disappear by 2175. But by that year, it will have been in B.C. for only 400 years, and would have to somehow remain dominant for another 400 years just to equal the influence of the Polynesians. Even after all that, the Polynesians were still assimilated by natives.

Coast Salish culture is at least 3,000 years old, when the pharoahs still ruled Egypt, and possibly 40,000 years old - eight times longer than all recorded history since writing was invented. If your nation has a short history, a couple of centuries seems like a long time. Not so if your people have stories that mention animals that have been extinct for 10,000 years. Or if you have stories more ancient than that.

The Coast Salish and other native traditional cultures have existed for millennia because they are so sustainable and so successful. Canada's mainstream culture is so unsustainable that it may not outlast trade disputes and (according to Heritage Minister Sheila Copps) the threat of American TV shows.

Sooner or later, non-native Canadians will realize the benefit of learning some things from native customs and culture.

As I said, I'm all for native assimilation