The Canadian Urban Indian in Southwestern Ontario

Abstract

There has been a recent surge of enthusiasm for and interest in the Canadian Indian in the last five years. Dr. Charles M. Johnston, Professor History at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, accounts this to the "obsession" with 1967, Canada's Centennial year and to the emphasis on ethnic development since World War II. Miss Kahn-Tineta Horn, Caughnawaga, who speaks across Canada on the Canadian Indian, takes credit in stimulating the interest. The writer wonders if Canadians have stopped patting their own backs for not having racial discrimination as the United States does and finally looked in their own back yard at the plight of their Indians. Whatever the reasons, the interest is there and it is hoped that this paper will answer some questions about the Canadian Indian, raise more, and perhaps even stimulate some action.