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Canada’s policy towards her Indians was laid down 68 years ago. It was a simple policy: shove them off on reservations as wards of the government. As dutiful a guardian as its neighbor to the south, the government fed & clothed its wards and looked after their health. But the red men remained a race apart, with the rights of second-class citizens.

Last week a parliamentary committee proposed a new deal for Canada’s 126,000 Indians. The gist of it: make the Indian a Canadian. Specifically, the committee proposed to give the Indian the ballot, let him buy liquor off the reservations, send his children to the white man’s schools. Indian bands would be encouraged to handle their own affairs, levy their own taxes, handle their own money. The more advanced bands would be urged to incorporate as municipalities.

The committee’s recommendations, certain to be made law at Parliament’s next session, had a practical side. Supporting the Indians is a heavy burden. From $5 million in 1936, the cost has risen to $22 million this year. Since the Indian population is increasing at a rate of about 1,500 a year, the oldtime policy may soon cost more than the country can afford.

One-third of Canada’s Indians, the bush tribes in the north, are nomadic and primitive, their children (10,000 of them) unschooled. The remaining two-thirds live on reservations, are divided roughly into the poor and backward in the northern half of the provinces and the progressive bands who live farther south. Changing the way of life of the Indians on the 2,250 reservations scattered across Canada will be at best a slow job. Even the rich Indian likes the security of the reservation, often returns to it in old age, wants to be buried in its cemetery. Said a 72-year-old Piegan Indian in Alberta last week: “We’re not bothering anyone. So leave us alone.”

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