Metis People in Canada: History and Challenges
It is no secret that Native Canadians have struggled greatly throughout Canada’s history. They have suffered discrimination from people who felt like they were less than others. In this essay, I will be talking about the hardships that the Metis people in Canada faced and how the perception and treatment of them has changed over time.
The Emergence of the Metis and Early Hardships
Firstly, I would like to talk about the beginning and how the Metis were treated when they first emerged. When the Metis were first formed as a colony, they started off fine. They were outcomes of the fur trade. But as time passed and the Europeans needed more land, things got ugly. They were horribly tortured and berated. From land being forcibly taken to children being forcibly removed from their mother’s arms and placed in residential schools. The innocent being brutally hunted down and murdered while their leader was charged for crimes he did not commit and executed wrongly. All of this cruelty for two things: land and the need for the unique Metis to assimilate into the new Canadian society.
The Past (1900 Onwards) and the Present
Secondly, I would like to talk about the past (1900 onwards) and the present. Native people have always been a minority in modern Canada. In the early years, European Canadians wished to turn Native people from “savages to civilized people.” Native dances were banned, as were spiritual ceremonies such as Sun Dances and Potlatches. This was all an attempt to get Native people to abandon their traditions and roots and merge into a white society. Over the years, the government has finally come to terms with what they have done. After the slow conversion of the Indian Act was finally actually in favor of the Aboriginals, we truly realized how unfair and cruel the settlers before us were. Therefore, because of our realization, Canada has chosen to take action for what we have done and try to rebuild Metis and Aboriginal culture, language, land, and people. Canada has officially changed the Constitution a number of times to try to reverse the damage, but not much has been healed yet. There is still much work to do.
Remaining Challenges and the Path to Reconciliation
Lastly, I would like to talk about the damage that is still left to fix. People think that after only a decade of realization that everything is normal, but it is truly not. Life on the reserve isn’t exactly luxurious:
- Housing is inadequate.
- Homes are very small and typically very crowded.
- Water is very dangerous to drink too.
I know the reserve close to Park Royal is great, but rarely is a reserve that good. Reserves also tend to be far away from areas like cities, which says something about what the government thinks of Native people. Restrictions are put on reserve lands so that the Native people living there do not own the land, and resources such as fish and timber are limited. My dad volunteers in a community center near the reserve, and he told me that he noticed Native people’s health rates are usually worse than others as well. Native children tend to be obese and unhealthy. The reserves are also full of drugs and are victims to criminals due to the poor security. We still have ways to go to apologize and fix what we have done to these innocent people.
From this essay, it is clear to see that Metis people have been treated poorly and continue to face challenges that could have been avoided if they were just treated as human beings over 200 years ago. Although much has *improved*, there are still many amends left to make and damage to fix. We may have come a step closer to reconciliation, but there is still a whole staircase to go.