Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development
DIAND - An Abomination We Don't Need
by Gilbert Oskaboose

Talked to a couple of native old-timers on the powwow trail the other day. One of them went all the way to the top in provincial native politics - stayed there for many years - and the other was a two term chief for one of the largest reserves in Ontario.

Neither one of them felt very good about their time in public office. Both said it was pretty well a waste of time and energy because they were forced to work "within an established and intransigent system they were locked into." What do you think of that? What a goddamn waste of two good men!

Any young would-be chief or councilor should bear that in mind. If youre labouring under any delusions of changing the world overnight and making things better for your people it's time for a reality check. You wont change the system; it will change you. Count on it.

The Department of Indian Affairs in Ottawa - with all of it's multiple regional, provincial and territorial offices - does not work for the collective good of native people in Canada. It operates by and for itself. It is a bloated, self-serving, money wasting abomination put in place centuries ago to back up the infamous Indian Act - an unsavory piece of white legislation designed to "protect" native people from their own stupidity and keep them in a perpetual state of squalor.

I've been there - seen that. Worked for five years in the Department as an information officer on their in-house rag - The Indian News. Seen the secretaries with their desks full of pocket books and demented old time bureaucrats with seven or eight watches on their arms. Saw the Indian activists bought off with a cushy job and a corner office, sharpening pencils and cranking out important memos about Crees with one leg shorter than the other because they habitually traversed mountainous terrain. I saw the Ministers, senior bureaucrats and high-paid consultants come and go, only stopping long enough to grab huge salaries and juicy honorariums as they climbed the bureaucratic ladder to better things.

Got myself fired when I tried to run a center spread in The Indian News, comparing the wealth, splendor and opulence of all the stolen art on the 17th floor of Terrace de la Chaudiere and the squalor of tar paper shacks infesting my beloved Indian Country. My white boss said "Make up your mind, Gib, either youre a journalist or youre a bureaucrat, cant have it both ways." I said " Adios, asshole, Im outta here! Id rather die a poor journalist than a fat bureaucrat!"

Yeah, I saw Indian Affairs personnel straggling in at ten, leaving for lunch at eleven thirty, drifting back at one thirty and then leaving for home at four. I never knew what the hell they were getting a full days pay for. It sure as hell was not for a full days work! Generations of white people have done that, grown fat and retired, sent their kids off to fancy colleges and Indian Country remains behind the eight ball - with little or nothing to show for the billions wasted on "overhead," administration and cushy white salaries.

Served a term on Council on my own home reserve as well. Ran into the brick wall of Indian Affairs and the backward stupidity of native old-timers on council strictly for the $300 per month and whatever honorariums they could skim off throughout the year. Didn't give a damn about what their people wanted or needed, just in it for the bucks.

Chief and Council may be elected by their own family or religious cliques but they get their pay checks and their marching orders from Ottawa. If Ottawa doesn't approve then youre shit out of luck. Thats the way the system operates.

Like it, lump it or start thinking of getting rid of it permanently.