This Sunday is a special day for the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, and for Indigenous people across Canada.
June is National Indigenous History month and Sunday is National Indigenous Peoples Day.
It celebrates First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples in Canada.
Chief R. Don Maracle of the Bay of Quinte Mohawks tells Quinte News his people have contributed significantly to Canada in terms of land, resources and military support
The chief also points to the high steel workers and work on hospitals and highways.
“In the first World War many people volunteered in numbers unprecedented to our population, and that was recognized by the Canada Senate review of the native participation in the war effort. Harvey J. McFarland, when building the highways, 401 and 49, most of his people on the crews were from our reserve.”
Chief Maracle noted aboriginal women had the vote in native government long before Canadian women got the right to vote in a federal election.
” Before Europeans came to America, in Indigenous Societies women had a political voice and role in deciding who the chiefs were in the clan systems of government. Women were never regarded as property of the men.”
Women in Canada received the federal vote in 1918.
