The Ogoki River Guides

Edward J. Hedican

Description

The Ogoki River Guides describes the prolonged struggle that members of a small native community in northern Ontario have undertaken in their attempt to establish a viable local economy. The leaders of Collins, the community in which the events of the book take place, have made a concerted effort to ensure that the community takes charge of its own affairs and in doing so have generated some important lessons for governmental policy in northern areas. The study makes evident the fact that certain changes in current government practices are needed, especially in areas of local inputs into policy and control issues, if community–based groups like Ogoki River Guides are to flourish and if real local initiatives in economic development has a chance to become a widespread pattern in northern areas. The suggestions, then, is that studies such as the present one which focus on the economic development projects of the native community are necessary in order to help orient government policy and planning.

The author uses as exchange theory approach to study the conditions favouring emergent community leadership and to analyse the ways in which political activity in small communities is apt to change under particular conditions and stresses. Yet he also demonstrates some of the inadequacies of exchange theory itself, especially in terms of its difficulty in accounting for variations in historical and cultural change.

The Ogoki River Guides should be of interest not only to those in the academic community, but also to those concerned with native affairs at the community level or in higher administrative capacities of planning, policy, and development.

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 30 octobre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781554587001
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Ogoki River Guides
Emergent Leadership Among the Northern Ojibwa

Edward J. Hedican
Emergent Leadership Among the Northern Ojibwa
Edward ]. Hedican
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Hedican, Edward J. The Ogoki River Guides
Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 0-88920-199-4
1. Ogoki River Guides Ltd. 2. Indians of North America - Ontario - Collins (Post office) - Business enterprises. 3. M tis - Ontario - Collins (Post office) - Business enterprises.* 4. Ojibwa Indians - Government relations.* 5. M tis - Ontario - Collins (Post office) - Government relations.* 6. Indians of North America - Canada - Government relations. 7. Collins (Ont. : Post office) - Commerce. I. Title.
E99.C6H431986 971.3 12 C86-094970-2
Copyright 1986
WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY PRESS Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5
Cover design by Polygon Design Limited
Printed in Canada
No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system, translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
For Mary-Ann, Shaun, Tarn, and my parents
Contents
List of Maps and Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Preface
1. Introduction
The Research Problem
Ethnography and Theory
Conditions of Field Work
Informants
Local Records
Observation and Participation
The Exchange Approach
Recent Developments
Scope of the Study
2. Collins: A Non-Reserve Indian Community
Historical Background
The Village Today
The Village Population
Household Membership
Households in the Bush
Band Membership
Marriage
Power and Authority
3. Economic Incorporation and Exchange
Ceremonial Exchange
Commodity Exchange
Non-Reciprocal Exchange
Concepts of Labour Mobilization
The Collins Labour Force
Geographical Mobility
Income Distribution
Consumption and Expenditure
Household Budgets
Subsistence Resources
Conclusion
4. Emergent Leadership and Economic Opportunity
The Emergence of Community Leadership
The Formation of Ogoki River Guides Ltd
Collins Leaders
Characteristics of Leadership Elite
ORG and the CNR
Business Opportunity and Political Strategy
Maintaining Group Boundaries
ORG Development Strategy
Conclusion
5. ORG and the Whitewater Project
Leadership and the Supervision of Work
The Ambivalence of Leadership
Restructuring Lines of Authority
Consolidating the Work Force
Work Force Turnover
Discussion
Conclusion
6. Conclusion
Emergent Leadership and Exchange
Leadership and Community Development
Development by Government Financing
Collins as a Competent Community
ORG: A Model for Native Community Development?
Postscript: Collins Ten Years After
References
Index
List of Maps and Figures
Maps
1. Northern Ontario Settlements and River Systems
2. Plan of the Village of Collins
3. Plan of the Whitewater Lake Summer Work Camps
Figures
1. Population Change for the Fort Hope Band, 1909-49
2. Collins Ojibwa Population Pyramid, 1974
3. Composition of Residential Units and Genealogical Relationships in Whitewater Lake Summer Camps
4. Changing Involvement of Ojibwa Work Force in Various Categories of Employment
5. Lorenz Curve Showing Distribution of Wage Income among Collins Workers, 1974
6. Workers Employed Per Month, 1974
7. Kinship Ties among Collins Leaders
List of Tables
1. Locations of Fort Hope Families Receiving Treaty Payments, 1941-45
2. Trapline Areas for Three Ojibwa Bands, 1954-55
3. Composition of Collins Households, 1974-75
4. Treaty Status and Band Membership, Collins 1974-75
5. The Collins Marriage Pattern
6. Wage Earner s Age, Sex, and Income, Collins 1974
7. Sources of Cash Income, Collins 1974
8. Distribution of Cash Income per Household, Collins 1974
9. Average Monthly Sales by Collins Store, 1974
10. Household Food Consumption per Month, Collins 1974-75
11. Estimated Household Budget, Nipigon House Family of Seven Persons, 1974
12. Estimated Household Budget, Fort Hope Family of Eight Persons, 1974
13. Estimated Country Food Production, Collins 1974-75
14. Income and Fresh Meat Consumption
15. Recruitment Criteria, ORG and CNR Groups
16. Projects of Ogoki River Guides Ltd., 1971-75
17. Work Force Attrition Rate, Whitewater Lake, 1975
18. Collins s New Buildings: Capital Funds
Acknowledgments
In the process of researching and writing this book, I have come to owe a great deal to many people. Here I would like to express my grateful acknowledgment for the assistance which I have received in carrying out this task. Almost everyone in the Collins community has helped me out at one time or another with food, travel, friendship, and information, among other things. It is not possible to mention them all individually, but to each I remain grateful for their time, assistance, and unselfish co-operation. Those who contributed the most to my well-being in the field and the data necessary for the successful completion of this project were Annie Basketwang, Samson Basketwang, Steve Goodwin, Josie Kwandibens, Peter Kwandibens, Canon John Long, Vaino (Montreal) Paavola, Donald Patience, Dorothy Patience, Elizabeth Patience, Hamish Patience, Peter Patience, Steve Quisses, Sogo Sabosons, Linda Staats, Tom Wastaken, and Sinclair Wynn.
In academic circles there are many people who have been particularly helpful in providing support and encouragement during the course of the research, or in providing comments on various drafts of the manuscript, in particular, Don Attwood, Ken Dawson, Ken Duncan, Carmen Lambert, Ken Menzies, Ed Rogers, Richard Salisbury, Philip Salzman, Frans Schryer, Peter Sindell, and Steve Strong. In addition, I am indebted to my brother Wil Hedican, a former school teacher at Collins, Weagamow (Round) Lake, Fort Hope, Fort Severn, and elsewhere, for providing numerous insights into northern village life over the years. I also owe an immeasurable debt to Mary-Ann Cheesequay, a childhood resident of Collins, for her continuing encouragement.
The field work on which this book is based was supported by a grant from the Centre for Northern Studies and Research, McGill University, Montreal. Further financial assistance was provided by the McGill Programme in the Anthropology of Development and the Canada Council, in the form of a Doctoral Fellowship. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Social Science Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. However none of these individuals or agencies should be held responsible for any deficiencies or opinions expressed in this study, which remain my responsibility alone. This work is dedicated to the memories of Raymond Wabasons, Harry Achnepeneeskum, and Elijah Yellowhead.
Preface
Collins is an Indian and Metis community of one hundred and fifty people situated in the spruce/pine forest belt of northern Ontario. It is not a town in the usual sense of the word. There is a large clearing between the store and the railway tracks where people occasionally congregate, but their houses are widely scattered in the surrounding bush. To visit someone you have to travel down sandy paths through stands of tall jack pine. Walking down these paths gives a sense of distance between people, as if this was not really a community at all, but a group of people accidently living in the same location. I have since come to regard such impressions with scepticism. There is a sense of community in Collins; it is just that Collins people do not like to live crammed together, or to adopt all the ways of the outside world. Most of all, it is not another so-called dying Indian community.
Since the early 1970s Collins people have tried to take charge of their own affairs. Led by three Metis, sons of the village s former fur trader, the people have founded a locally operated tourist operation called Ogoki River Guides Ltd. The struggles of people in this organization to create a viable local economy has an important lesson for governmental policy in northern areas-people do not want their affairs controlled from the outside. They want to participate directly in the important decisions affecting their lives, and not as passive target populations. Changes in current government practices are needed, especially in areas of local inputs into policy and control issues, if community-based groups like the Ogoki River Guides are to flourish and if real local initiative in economic development has a chance of becoming a widespread pattern.
It is therefore suggested that studies such as the present one which focus on the economic development projects of the native community are necessary in order to help orient government policy and planning. The problem is that the literature in the area of native development programs is particularly sparce, thus hindering efforts aimed at making accurate comparisons and reaching informed conclusions. Jorgen- xv sen (1971), for example, studied how Shoshone and Ute Indians adapt to the stresses produced when they are denied access to crucial political, social, and economic resources, and reveals how American Indians in rural areas are pressed into states of underdevelopment by the multiple influences of metropolitan polit