Northern Alternatives

Abstract

... Ever since the new thrust towards northern development began in 1954 with the creation of the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources, a ding-dong battle has been fought in Canada over the "right" way to develop the North. For a long time, it seemed, development was just a matter of mines and roads, of building schools and educating the native peoples. But over the past few years the process of northern development has become highly politicized. The North has become the ground upon which a number of national conflicts are being fought out: conservationists against developers, modernists against traditionalists, humanists against technocrats, evolutionaries against revolutionaries. … The bright promise and the messy reality are paraded side by side for all to see. From an objective standpoint, there seems to be some great split here in Canadians' view of the North. What is wrong in the North? Why do great dreams and ideals keep crashing to the ground? Why are attempts to "help the native peoples" continually being frustrated? The following two recent Canadian publications help to answer these questions …. Both books clearly indicate the alternatives open for the future development of the North. A History of the Original Peoples of Northern Canada is written from the inside. It documents the integrity of the traditional way of life in the North without romanticizing it and shows how cooperation among people in the North, and between northerners and southerners, occurred in the past. It also tells of the terrible impact of the contact between cultures. It is wise and gentle in tone and has an air of patient explanation about it. The Genocide Machine in Canada is a muckraking account of northern development that accuses the Canadian government of plotting genocide in northern Canada - by which seems to be meant the destruction of the way of life of the indigenous peoples. It is a devastating attack upon existing assumptions about the North and the values of the decision makers, and is angry and ideological in tone. The Crowe book arose out of the Man in North project of the Arctic Institute of North America. That of Davis and Zannis criticizes the Institute, while acknowledging extensive use of its excellent library. … Basically, the two books present two contrasting views. Crowe's book is informed; that of Davis and Zannis is opinions. Coming from such different directions, both books reach essentially the same conclusions - that the North and its peoples will have to be approached in a different way in the future, and that northern development is basically a problem of southern attitudes. … These two writers have hit upon a fundamental truth about the North that explains a lot of what is going wrong in the region. The North has been treated as a colonial area where there is "control by one power over a dependent area or people." In such a situation, dependency is created by the colonists, who are the givers of all goods, the source of all benefits. And this encourages manipulation by the colonized, who soon learn how to put the squeeze on their colonial masters. The result is that everyone has to take sides. … One thing is certain. The future of the North cannot be merely a continuation of the past. Somewhere there has to be a qualitative change in the Canadian approach to the North. And that means that people have to change their minds about the causes of the problems of the North. There are not going to be any easy solutions to the problems of northern development, because development is a process, not a product. And a process implies continuous change, adaptation, movement. … The books clearly present the choice ahead in the Canadian North - between confrontation and co-operation.