Canada Continues to Displace Its First Nations. This Road is the Latest Example.
![[Screenshot/Global News]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f21dbb91adde3260d4ba1ef/1603473920696-RDELFRLHVRN0CYO8TH15/seth-cardinal-dodinghorse)
By cutting his hair during a ceremony to open a highway, seth cardinal dodginghorse created a viral moment of protest that highlighted both Canada’s displacement of its First Nations — and a colonial law that discriminates against Indigenous women.
“I’m going to speak and you’re going to listen,” dodginghorse (who declines to capitalize his “colonial” name) told attendees at a ceremony celebrating the construction of a new highway across a First Nations reserve. His family, he said, had been forced out of their home to make way for the construction. He cut off his braids to “leave a piece of me on this road.”
Cutting one’s hair is an act of mourning in several Indigenous cultures.
The ring road in Calgary was built across the Tsuut’ina Nation as part of an agreement between the government and First Nation leaders to build a major commercial project in the area and create thousands of jobs. Construction began years ago and parts have now opened for traffic.
But seth says his family — who has lived on the land for generations — was cut out of the tribal council’s decision to build it because they aren’t officially recognized as tribe members thanks to the Indian Act of 1876, itself a holdover from colonial law.
Until recently under the act, women were not able to transfer their tribal status if they married outside their nation.
Yes, men still could.
Because his grandmother married outside of her nation, her status — and that of her descendants — was stripped away, simply because she was a woman, says seth. When she divorced, she, and she only, was allowed to reclaim it.
As a result, seth, 26, and his mother were sidelined in the decision-making process by the tribal council. “I'm not a Tsuut'ina Nation member, even though I grew up here and you know, it's my culture,” says seth. “They wouldn’t even recognize us as people to talk with.”
The Indian Act remains controversial for many reasons. It was designed to define the status of “Indian” people in Canada, but is widely regarded as a colonial attempt to assimilate and effectively dissipate Indigenous culture. The act replaced traditional forms of governance with elected “band” councils like the one seth says sidelined his family, but even these have limited authority and answer to the federal government.
“They aren’t traditional,” says seth. “It’s people within the nation, people within power, chief and council, upholding colonial standards and these colonial beliefs that 150 years ago, even less, that wasn’t in our community. And that’s something that people that are colonized start to enforce.”
The act also lets the federal government, not Indigenous people, determine what constitutes Indigenous land and who can obtain legal Indigenous status. Federal officials have the power to void “band” council election results.
Parts of the act pertaining to women were amended in 2019 — after UN condemnation for being discriminatory. But that was too late for seth’s family. They were forced to leave their home in 2014, cut off from Tsuut’ina services and support and effectively rendered homeless.
“My grandma as an elder was incredibly disrespected, because she wasn’t respected at all ... and a lot of it has to do with because she’s a woman,” says seth. “It’s very misogynistic.”
“It’s important for me to acknowledge that it’s my grandmother’s land and my grandmother’s territory,” says seth. “You can't build prosperity and you can't build relationships when you erase the women who came from this land.”
Produced by Kareem Yasin and Hangda Zhang
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