Lessons for Canada contained in Osage constitution

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Robert Allen Warrior, a member of the Eagle clan of the Osage tribe of Oklahoma, likes the bannock they serve up at the Six Nations' reserve.

But it was a different kind of nourishment the young writer and literary historian came to share at the University of Toronto in mid-January. At the invitation of the department of Aboriginal studies, he spoke about the importance of a constitution, the effects of bureaucracy on a culture, and the role of federal courts and judges in a democracy. Warrior also spoke about Native American writers, who, he says, have been producing written work for more than 200 years.

His talk was part of the university's Distinguished Lecture Series.

Warrior, a professor at the University of Oklahoma since 2000, said his goal is to make the story of the Osage Nation and its constitution relevant to other Aboriginal people all over the world.

"It's nice to come to Canada," the Native American writing teacher said on Jan. 13.

One of Warrior's lighter stories described his experience in a food line at a conference on the Six Nations' reserve.

"We're kind of waiting in line and people said, 'Oh, we're having bannock.' And I went 'Having bannock? Wow! Bannock!' I'd never had bannock before, and I'm really excited," said Warrior.

"I finally get inside and there's people taking this skillet bread and cutting it up. 'That's bannock? That's just skillet bread, what are you talking about?' It was still delicious."

Warrior's lecture topic was more serious. The Osages and their Democracy: A Century and More of Conflict is a political tale that hinges on two crucial dates in Osage history-1881, the year the tribe wrote its constitution, and 1997, the year their restored constitution was revoked.

The literary historian said the Osage constitution is important because it is a founding document of Osage written literature. It shows the power a document has to bind a people together in a common purpose.

"In the United States, we bring kids up reading the U.S. constitution, the Declaration of Independence. We teach them in English class."

The Osage leaders who wrote the 1881 constitution "knew the power of documents, of pieces of paper like this."

With their constitution in place, in 1882 the Osage held elections. Candidates used coloured strips of paper to identify themselves, so everyone could vote. Though many could not read, they were used to an oral tradition and could remember information. The people knew their constitution and were involved. This new constitutional democracy helped organize their social and civil life at a time when the Osage population had drastically declined and their traditional ceremonial structure was falling apart.

The 1882 Osage National Council was the Osage government until Jan. 1, 1900.

In 1900 the U.S. government replaced it with an Osage tribal government of its own creation. It allows only about one of every five tribal members to vote in tribal elections or hold office. Warrior said it is run more like a corporation than a democracy.

Under this system, each tribe member has a vote, but it is hereditary and can be divided into shares called "head rights." A member needs a head right to participate in the government. The average size of a share is now one-quarter, but some people have five shares and even as many as 100. Of the 17,000 direct descendants of the 1906 list of tribe members, only 3,000 are eligible to vote and hold office.

Warrior said the Osage felt devastated and betrayed in 1997, when the democracy the tribe had regained in 1994 was lost. The federal court judge who signed the order revoking the new Osage constitution was a Native American.

From 1994 to 1997, the Osage had had their own court and police force, and more than 20 new programs dealing with health and social problems.

Warrior asked himself, "Where does an Indigenous scholar and intellectual fit in this situation? How can my work be different?"

He said he tries to remain true to th best part of the vision that the signers of the 1881 constitution had shared. They were thinking far into the future, and this gives him a sense of hope for "the next time we are able to restore our democracy" and achieve identity, autonomy and self-determination.

In addition to journal articles, Warrior has published two books, Tribal Secrets, Recovering American Indian Intellectual Traditions (1994) and Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee (1996). He also co-wrote Like a Hurricane with Paul Chaat Smith, a member of the Comanche tribe of Oklahoma.

Warrior paid tribute to the oral tradition of storytelling, but he also has a "love and appreciation of the history of Native Americans writing non-fiction."

He takes criticism of the Indigenous intellectual to heart. "We as Indigenous intellectuals have to thoroughly ground ourselves within a sense of the local, of the specific, of the particular; of specific communities, whether those communities are tribal communities on reserves, enclaves someplace else, cities like this one."

Warrior added that "keeping in touch with the community" with his roots and his past, gives meaning to his work. Helping to send an Osage delegation to Washington in 1997 made him feel "like I was in 1850 or 1830 or 1875." He sees the same things happening in the world today as Aboriginal leaders faced then. Now, he said, it will take the power of the people to confront their own modern future.

"What we strive for as Indigenous intellectuals, is that sense that there is something that we do that winds up with somebody, someplace, who's living in real time, who's a real person living in real time, and without that, then I don't know what it is that I am doing as a scholar, what I am doing as a writer."

By telling the Osage story to others, Warrior hopes to find "ways that maybe you can help me make this relevant to how you are thinking about various issues in Indigenous studies."