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
Bibliography: p. 137-142. 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 thos...
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| Format: | Master Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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University of Calgary
1975
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1880/13079 https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/10779 |
| Summary: | Bibliography: p. 137-142. 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 ... |
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