“To be an Indian is to lack power – the power to act as the owner of one's land, the power to spend one's own money and, too often, the power to change your own condition. Jean Chrétien, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, “White Papers” of 1969 “I think it is not humane not to ask the indigenous peoples themselves what they want to do; I mean part of the problem for the last 150 to 200 years is that First Nations people don't control their own destiny. It is this overwhelming paternalism on the part of the federal government that tells First Nations people what to do. Hayden King, lecturer in political science, McMaster University. Source: CBC News: Sunday's debate with Jonathan Kay over national post-conservative ideologies is, at best, convoluted and divisive when First Nations people are involved. Since the introduction of the Indian Act of 1876, which resulted in the Canadian federal government's enactment of the first treaty to "protect, guide and secure the traditions of the Indians", the federal government has actively sought new opportunities to dissolve First Nations reserves or the identity of First Nations members. One-sided, cultivated beliefs of assimilation stem not only from paternalistic colonizers with dominant attitudes, but also from the belief that "Indians" were considered subhuman because of their affiliation with nature and their environment. . This conservative form of assimilation [now called integration] has been at the center of many of the divisions that First Nations people have faced since the introduction of this Indian Act. These discrepancies include the formation of the residential school system, loss of status in various forms [such as ...... middle of paper ...... (Queen's Printer catalog no. R32-2469). Ottawa, ON.NA (June 11, 2008). “We’re sorry,” Harper said. The Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/441556Six Nations Geo Systems (1999). National Aboriginal Records Database. Retrieved February 23, 2009 from http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/ic/cdc/aboriginaldocs/m-treaty.htm Tolvanen, A. (1992). The rise of indigenous self-determination and the crisis of the Canadian political regime. Culture, Volume XII (No. 1), 63-77. United Nations General Assembly. (2007). Declaration of indigenous peoples. (1st edition, sixty-first session). United Nations, United States of America. UN News Center (April 2008). UN experts welcome Canada's support for the declaration of the rights of indigenous peoples. Retrieved February 21, 2009 from http://www.un.org/ga/61/news/news.asp?NewsID=26376&Cr=indigenous&Cr1=rights