Ron Irwin Quotes
It's time to bring dignity, honor, self-reliance, and self-government to people that have been held, not necessarily in bondage, but certainly as supplicants under an Indian Act that is archaic.
Ron Irwin, Canadian Minister of Indian Affairs, statement announcing the gradual dismantling of his department
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
He was referring to the fact that he had blocked the Meech Lake Accord preventing the Canadian Constitution being amended to recognize French-Speaking Quebec as a separate nation within Canada, but ignoring the Indians.
Even into the 21st century, the problem was not solved and Muslims from Pakistan continue their futile but tragic terrorist tactics to try and acquire more territory from India." 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
Justifying selling part of the reservation as a waste dump to the distress of neighbors:
In 1937 the U. S. Treasury Department commissioned a pair of large murals to decorate the lobby or the Ariel Rios Federal Building in Washington DC. On the mural was depicted a U. S. Mail Service from Alaska to Puerto Rico. It showed four Puerto Rican women reading a letter in the Inuit dialect presumably delivered from Alaska. The authorities loved the mural until they discovered the translation of the Inuit letter. This was a direct reference to the Puerto Rican Nationalist Independence Movement. That year 18 Puerto Rican Nationalists were killed and over 100 wounded when police fired into a crowd of demonstrators on March 21. Kent, a famous artist, planted a newspaper story with the translation and soon media all over the company were drawing attention to the Puerto Rican movement, just as Kent had intended.
There were a few members of Congress who were distressed at the deception that was very often used in negotiations with Indians. They never were a sufficient majority to pass serious, meaningful legislation.
This was passed in 1787 before the Constitution had become operative, but was then ratified by Congress in 1789. It was one of the first acts of our new nation, and one of the most frequently violated throughout our history.
The Chairman and the tribe had invited the Federal Government to use part of their reservation as a toxic waste dump for nuclear materials, deciding that the economic benefit was worth the risk. The governor of Utah and many other whites objected, not wanting nuclear waste stored or traveling through Utah.
French Canadian separatists had begun a movement for an independent Quebec. The area that was to be an independent nation, however, included the land of several Indian tribes including the Cree. They insisted on the same right of self-determination within Quebec as the French Canadians claimed within Canada. Their opposition among others led to the failure of the Meech Lake Accord.
McKinley was then Secretary of War and Taft was Chairman of the Commission on the Philippines.
