Indigenous Activism
In 1975, Off the Wall, the publication of the Saskatchewan Penitentiary, conducted a demographic analysis of inmates based on racial origin. It revealed that 40% of Saskatchewan's total prison population (184 inmates) were Indigenous (including Metis, status and non-status), as opposed to only 9% of Saskatchewan's population. The phenomenon of overincarceration is attributable to the colonial paradigms entrenched within the justice system and policing, alongside the systematic removal of Indigenous children from their families, communities and culture through residential schools, forced adoption, and foster care. In fact, just two-years later, the Metis and Non-Status Indian Crime and Justice Commission disseminated their research findings, indicating that among 316 Indigenous inmates spanning 24 penitentiaries, 78% had experienced residency in either a residential school or a foster home.
The penal press emerged as a conduit for Indigenous inmates to pen their own experiences through articles, drawings, poetry, and by detailing their participation in the grassroots Indigenous prisoner rights movement.
The Native Brotherhood Movement
Indigenous activism within correctional facilities was first recorded with the inception of the Native Brotherhood movement in 1959. This movement saw Indigenous inmates gather together, and support one another through educational classes, language study, guest speakers, and the organization of events such as ceremonies and pow-wows. Just as Native Brotherhoods spread across Canada’s prisons and penitentiaries through word of mouth and inmate transfers, so too did information and knowledge through articles written by members in the penal press. The Native Brotherhood's origins can be traced to the Manitoba Penitentiary in 1959, which spread to the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in 1964, Matsqui in British Columbia in 1969, and subsequently arriving in Ontario in 1970, the Maritimes joined the movement at Dorchester Penitentiary in 1975. The inaugural Native Sisterhood was established at the Prison for Women in Kingston in 1971.
As the movement grew, these organizations created Indigenous-centric support networks for alcohol and drug addiction, brought in Elders, and successfully protested and advocated for the right to freedom of religion, notably securing the right to freedom of religion, enabling the practice of rituals, and permitting the possession of sacred items within prisons by the 1980s.
While current academic discourse posits that the first inmate-run Indigenous organization began in 1964, at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in St. Albert, Saskatchewan, Mountain Echoes, the publication of the Manitoba Penitentiary in Stony Mountain, Manitoba provides evidence otherwise, which positions the inaugural Native Brotherhood beginning on 1 September 1959. The first extant appearance of the Native Brotherhood at the Manitoba Penitentiary appears in January 1960, four months after the founding of the group. This article, written by member Jim Elk, emphasizes that the group had formed an “All Indian school class with some twenty-two students” and that “in the course of this class it has been the practice to employ our native tongues quite often as a medium of explanation.” This article also includes a synopsis of the most recent meeting, which occurred 5 January 1960, as a debate on whether reservations should be abolished.
On 4 December 1960, the Native Brotherhood held its first anniversary dinner, introducing it as “the Native Brotherhood, a group formed by the Indians and Metis serving time here.” Of the events of the day, which included guest visitors, prayers in “Saulteau, Cree and English,” the article states, “John Severight told the meeting that he had buried his tomahawk and his aim was to help supply the leadership his people lack. He added that it was his intention to win the country back from the white man.”
In May 1961, Mountain Echoes debuted a new column, the “Mocasin Telegraph,” written by members of the Native Brotherhood group. This first column provides an overview of the group, including that “the Native Brotherhood Organization was formed by a minority Indian and Metis group and was initiated on July 25, 1959 … We have the honor of being the first and so far the only such Indian and Metis group behind the walls of any Canadian Jail or Penitentiary.” The meetings themselves allow members “to participate in Public Speaking, Panel discussions and Debates. Human Relations, Study of Alcohol Education, Academic and vocational studies … our ultimate aim is to develop a greater understanding between ourselves and society.”
These organizations underwent substantial growth, becoming more activist in nature. This evolution is discernible in a 1980 article in The Stony Mountain Flyer, the publication of the Manitoba Penitentiary, where the Native Brotherhood movement originated. This article provides insight into the inception of Native Clan, which originated after the Native Brotherhood requested an Indigenous half-way house. This organization operated at Headingley Correctional Institute, Manitoba, and Rockwood Federal Institute by 1972, and aimed at facilitating "greater involvement of the Native residents in existing institutional programs and the development of others specifically meeting the needs of the Native residents." Native Clan offered services such as Indigenous halfway houses, community workers, parole supervision, arrangement of family visits and correspondence, and served as a liaison between inmates and their communities.
Uncensored Indigenous Voices
Indigenous groups encountered censorship challenges within prison publications. Accordingly, the earliest articles focusing on the Native Brotherhood organizations were more descriptive of events and organization rather than exhibiting an activist nature. Nevertheless, numerous Indigenous inmates found avenues for expression in external publications, most notably Transition (published in Saskatoon) and Bulldozer (published in Toronto), where inmates were able to be published without censorship, provided they could letters out of the prison.
In August 1973, the Native Brotherhood of the Saskatchewan Penitentiary issued a statement in Transition titled "Parole and the Natives," addressing the inadequacies of parole services for Indigenous individuals, asserting, "The failure rate should speak for itself in articulating the seriousness of this problem … It is obvious that the system of parole isn’t geared towards the native; yet we are up to 50% of the inmate population." The Native Brotherhood specifically addressed the issue that Indigenous individuals often encounter impediments to returning to their communities due to insufficient parole services. The statement recommended Indigenous parole officers and advocated for the appointment of Indigenous individuals to the parole board.
Bulldozer had a dedicated focus on the activist cause of Indigenous inmates in both the United States and Canada, and privileged the publication of Indigenous voices. This inclination is evident in the statement of Gary Butler from Millhaven, who asserted, "I am a member of the AIM extremists, the Protector of Grandmother Earth, and the people. I am a resistance seeker, a freedom fighter, and an activist." Butler directly acknowledges Bulldozer's role in raising awareness of the struggles of the Indigenous activist movement among the incarcerated.
According to Bulldozer, Butler was involuntarily transferred from Kent Penitentiary, where he, along with two others, engaged in a thirty-four-day hunger strike to demand the inclusion of sacred pipes in their cells, to Millhaven. The Kent Brotherhood club, extensively featured in Bulldozer, asserted, "We are the subject of discrimination within Correctional Service of Canada penitentiary institutions. Our religious rights are strangled and smothered, in the same way as our rights and our culture have been suppressed and dislocated for centuries by the genocidal policies of governments within the North American continent."
Freedom of Religion in the Canadian Correctional Services
In 1981, Tocsin, the publication of the John Howard Chapter of Collins Bay Penitentiary, one of the more activist penal press titles in the 1980s, alongside Odyssey of Millhaven, endeavoured to mobilize the brotherhood and sisterhood organizations. A comparison between Tocsin and Bulldozer accentuates the pronounced distinctions between internal and external publications, with Tocsin using milder and more descriptive terminology. Gary Ossibence, the chairman of the Tribalways Brotherhood at Collins Bay, wrote in Tocsin, "We, the Native inmates, would like to practice our Freedom of Religion in our traditional ways here within the C.S.C," urging each organization to correspondingly advocate for a policy amendment permitting the establishment of sweat lodges. The proposed policy change also sought to enable Indigenous inmates to possess sacred ceremonial items in their cells, including sweet grass, eagle feathers, and medicine pouches.
The Sisterhood
Tightwire, the publication of the Prison for Women in Kingston, Ontario, serves as a chronicle of the experiences of Indigenous incarcerated women. The sole federal prison for women until 1995, it housed women with sentences exceeding two years, often resulting in their relocation thousands of kilometers away from their families, children, and communities. With the Indigenous population at the Prison for Women amounting to, at times, 50% of the total inmate count, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women from across Canada were displaced from their cultures, customs and languages.
In March 1980, Tightwire inaugurated a "Native News" section, intending to "fairly represent oppressed Natives caught within our political system." In the subsequent issue, they appointed an Indigenous editor to facilitate the "Native News." Functioning as the singular federal Native Sisterhood, Tightwire specifically addresses issues relevant to Indigenous incarcerated women. The January/February 1982 issue, summarized a recent conference hosted by the Native Sisterhood at the Prison for Women in September 1981, addressing the rights of Indigenous Women. This event marked a historical milestone as the first national conference held inside a federal prison. The conference facilitated collaboration among government representatives, community organizations, and the Sisterhood, resulting in enhanced resources and programs. The Sisterhood's affiliation with the Ontario Native Women’s Association, Kingston Chapter, and the establishment of their drug and alcohol program were all reported as outcomes of this event.
Of particular concern to Indigenous women, as highlighted in Tightwire, was the loss of status incurred by women marrying non-status or non-Indigenous men. Lise Pelletier expressed the injustice of treating women as "a piece of furniture," advocating for equal status privileges for women, “we should be given the same privilege as the men to hold our status.” The Sisterhood acknowledged and celebrated the passing of Bill C-31, which restored status to Indigenous women who had "lost status through marriage or the marriage of their parents."
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