How Racism is Native to Canada

European settlers began exploring Canada in the 1700s and 1800s, sponsored financially by companies such as the Hudson Bay Company. These companies were looking for new places to expand their economy, look for new goods to trade, and find more efficient trade routes to get to Asia and other places around the world. Native peoples were first deemed the name of "Indian" as Europeans had believed they'd landed in India. Soon after, early explorers corrected this, realizing they'd found a new and distant land. However, the name of "Indian" still sticks to aboriginals of Canada to this day. While the first meetings of native and European explorers were friendly, the friendship soon turned sour as Europeans attempted to instil a spirit of industry among the natives, something that was a new concept for the aboriginal peoples of Canada. Europeans came to claim the land of Canada and colonize it as an expansion of Europe, while natives used the land for resources when needed. This imperialism grew throughout Canada's history and soon reserves and residential schools were created to assimilate aboriginal into a new culture. The struggle between the natives and Europeans are a dark part of Canada's past, casting a shadow over the very foundations of this country. Yet, surprisingly, this violent history was created into toys for young children to play with and act out. Cowboys and Indians is a basic game and can be played with toys or by acting out the scenes. However, no matter how the game is played, the outcome is always the same, with the Indians tied up and the Europeans dominating these people with guns and horses.

Michael Yellow Bird describes these toys in his book, Cowboys and Indians, as "toys of genocide". He compares these toys to Jewish and Nazi toys, something that would create an outrage in modern society, yet the cowboy and indian toys slip unnoticed. After reading Michael Yellow Bird's article, the racism in these toys seemed so blatantly obvious. However, native peoples have been subtly discriminated against since the settlement of the Americas. Michael Yellow Bird points this out, as he uses the Washington Redskins, a sports team in the United States. The language use of "redskins" is a racial concept, used to demote the native peoples.

In this photo, an old looking native is displayed with feathers in his hair and running down the icon. Goldberg would classify this as demoting a certain ethnicity to look "primitive" in his three conceptual schemes. Early Canadian literature is not secret about their prejudices against the native peoples, calling them savage and uncivilized in their documents. Although Canadians would love to say that that is part of their history, discrimination against aboriginals still continues to this day. The fracking incident occurring in New Brunswick just over a month ago is a recent example of this. As aboriginals and other people of the community strongly protested against Irving fracking, the oil companies would not listen.

A video put together by native Canadian, Veronica Johnny, shows an inside look at the protests that are currently going on in New Brunswick over this issue: Song For Life. This video was very interesting, as it displays old aboriginal proverbs that promoted the preservation of the earth.

Prejudice and discrimination towards native peoples has and continues to occur in Canada. Although Canadians pride themselves on being multi-cultural, our foundations were built on a strong racism towards the aboriginals of this country. Hundreds of years of injustices towards these people have landed Canada where we are now. With apologies and failed promises, the Canadians have let down the true people of this land. Although things have improved, Canada as a country still has a long way to go, and a dark past to redeem, as the racism towards aboriginals still continue to this day.