Negative attitudes about Indians revealed by poll

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Comments from callers to a Regina radio station seemed to represent the more negative racial attitudes of Saskatchewan residents when slurs against Indians were aired during a live call-in show.

The show was broadcast Wednesday, Feb. 25, one day after the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations released the findings of a recent poll which revealed that an "overwhelming" number of Saskatchewan respondents held "negative opinions" about Indians.

"To all the people who aren't part of the white race, especially (expletive) Indians - bite me," one caller said, when Wolf 104.9 FM invited listeners to air their concerns during a segment called Bite Me Wednesday.

Later that morning during a segment where listeners were asked to identify a sound, one caller remarked it was the sound of "an Indian falling down the stairs drunk."

According to the FSIN-commissioned poll, negative attitudes about Indians are a problem in the province. When respondents were asked their "top-of-mind" response to the word Indian, about 40 per cent of the responses were negative, reported the FSIN; these included describing Indian people as free loaders, cry babies, greedy, lazy, or bums.

The poll did, however, provide the insight that the respondents did have some understanding of the situation of Aboriginal people in the province. Respondents used words such as oppressed, misunderstood, unfair treatment, deprived, and struggle in describing Saskatchewan Indians. Some respondents held out hope that the future would be better for Indian people.

If the FSIN's interpretation of the poll results is correct and the province is rife with negative feelings toward Indian people, then Aboriginal people are responding with complaints to the province's Human Rights Commission.

Genevieve Leslie, the communications co-ordinator with the commission, reports that of the 190 complaints the commission handled in the last fiscal year ending March 31, 1997, 16 of them involved Aboriginal ancestry. That's 8.4 per cent. Of those 16 complaints, six dealt with employment issues, eight with public services, and two with housing. This year complaints are up to 16.8 per cent. That is 31 complaints, with 11 in area of public services, 12 in employment, four in housing, one complaint involved education, one involved publications, and two involved occupations.

The poll indicated that the most pressing problems faced by Native people were unemployment and a lack of education.

The majority of respondents agreed that Indian children should be provided with improved educational and training opportunities; that Indian people increase their economic independence; that the federal government should stop trying to control every aspect of Indian people's lives; that Indian governments are the most capable of helping Indian people solve their economic problems; and that the province should abandon its current approach to Indian self government.

At the FSIN winter assembly held in Prince Albert at the end of February, delegates and chiefs were told the poll indicates that solving Aboriginal issues should be one of the top priorities for the provincial and federal governments. Despite the postive spin the FSIN put on the results of the poll, numbers show that Aboriginal issues are, if fact, not at the top of Saskatchewan residents' list of priorities.

The most important issues facing Saskatchewan today were identified as healthcare, jobs or unemployment, and taxes. Secondary issues included the economy, highways and roads, and the debt or deficit. Aboriginal issues were identified by only two per cent of the respondents as being important.

Yet Lloyd Martell, executive director of FSIN's Office of Treaty Governance Processes, took solace in the fact that Aboriginal issues took a front seat to the national unity issue.

"The survey indicates that Saskatchewan people find Aboriginal issues about six times more important than national unity as an issue for today and considerabl more important than many other issues, even provincial economic development, for the future," Martell said in a prepared statement.

One of the big items on the agenda at the FSIN winter legislative assembly was a discussion on the $350 healing fund Ottawa announced for victims of residential school abuse. The residential school experience left the Indian population in Saskatchewan deeply affected, but according to the poll, the province's residents were more likely to disagree than to agree that Indian people continue to expose the abuse suffered in residential schools.

The survey was conducted by Canwest Opinion Research between Nov. 26, 1997 and Dec. 4, 1997. and is accurate to within plus or minus 3.2 per cent, 19 times out of 20. A total of 1,013 interviews were begun with only 1,004 completed.

Martell said though the sampling of Saskatchewan households was small, the findings of the poll were still significant. The actual poll was not released to the media, only the FSIN's survey overview, the organization's own interpretation of the findings.