A Case history and analysis of Stoney Indian-government interaction with regard to the Big Horn Dam: the effects of citizen participation - a lesson in government perfidy and Indian frustration
Creators: name: Getty, Wayne Edwin Allen
Publisher: name: University of Calgary
Year: 1975
Subjects: subject: Assiniboin Indians
subject: Indians of North America - Alberta
subject: Indians of North America - Canada - Government relations
subject: Big Horn Dam (Alta.)

description: Bibliography: p. 137-142.
description: A basic tenet of responsible government is citizen participation. However, participation only has significance when people feel that it will give them some control over the forces that affect their lives. In Canada, the significant disparity in wealth and power between those who "have" and those who "have not" has resulted in a situation of alienation and powerlessness for many Canadians. Community organization is directed towards redressing this wrong by enabling groups to regain some measure of power over their lives. This case history relates how a group of Indians organized to assert their right s as a minority group in a democratic system. They tried to achieve a just solution to their problem, but instead, they encountered an insensitive government whose actions served only to increase the Indians' frustrations. Two events of the case history are analyzed , using the framework of the social action model of Community organization to help understand the role of the organizer, the processes of forming strategy, and the use of tactics in achieving established goals. The Government of Alberta and the Calgary Power Company started work on the Big Horn Dam project in the Fall of 1968. The Big Horn Indians (a branch of the Stoney Tribe living on the Kootenay Plains 100 miles west of Rocky Mountain House in Central Alberta) were the only people living in the immediate area to be affected by the dam. They opposed this construction and, subsequently, they organized to stop the project. After meeting with the Provincial Government, and having their requests totally rejected, the Big Horn inhabitants decided to end their opposition to the construction of the dam and, instead, to negotiate for land as compensation for losses suffered as a result of the construction. Again their requests were rejected by the province. The Stoneys then embarked upon a research project to prove a treaty entitlement to land in the district to be flooded. Upon completion of the research in April 1972, the Stoneys met with the Provincial Government in an effort to obtain compensation and assistance to help the Big Horn residents adjust to the new environment being created by the project. They were rebuffed with a promise that the government would deal with the problems sometime in the future. New actions and legislation by the Provincial Government continued to erode the Big Horn people's economic base until, finally, they were no longer able to earn a living from the land and became dependent upon welfare payments. A further effect was the gradual breakdown of social and cultural patterns within the reserve. The Federal Government recognized the Big Horn inhabitants' claim for land under treaty rights and asked the province to supply the needed land under the provisions of the 1930 Natural Resources Act. The Government of Alberta refused to comply and is presently referring the case to the court for settlement. As a result of the Provincial Government's inaction and insensitivity towards the problems, the Big Horn people have experienced a continuing build-up of frustration over their inability to make the government concerned enough to act constructively. Unless governments are prepared to act justly towards native citizens' claims and aspirations, native people will be forced to use power tactics in an effort to make the governments respond in a more realistic and meaningful way to their problems.