Dutch Love Child, Son of Native Canadian Vet, Granted Citizenship

Will van Ee from Holland had searched for his father for many years. Mr. Van Ee, the illegitimate son of an aboriginal Canadian soldier and a Dutch girl who met during the Second World war never knew his father or his father's name. His mother was Hendrike Herber and after Will's birth she married Albert Van Ee whose surname Will used.

Then one day a cousin gave van Ee an old photograph. Hendrike is shown alongside a beaming Canadian soldier named Walter Majeki. Van Ee’s aunt told her nephew that Walter was his biological father.

Van Ee then enlisted the help of Olga Rains, a Dutch war bride in Peterborough, Ontario dedicated to reuniting other WW2 children with their Canadian families. In 1984 Walter's brother was found. Sadly Walter had died several years before, but Will flew to Toronto to meet his new-found family.

After meeting his uncle and cousin, Van Ee became a full-status member of the Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation in Northern Ontario, and later was granted Canadian citizenship.

Read the rest of this poignant story at Dutch love-child fathered by First Nations’ Canadian veteran finds lost identity, gets citizenship

Image credit: Screenshot from http://www.nationalpost.com

A Documentary: The Indian Act & The Pass System

In 1885 a pass system was begun by the Department of Indian Affairs in Canada. No outsider could enter a reserve and no native could leave the reserve without a pass from the Indian Agent in charge.

"No rebel Indians should be allowed off the Reserves without a pass signed by an I.D. official.The dangers of complications with white men will thus be lessened & by preserving a knowledge of individual movements any inclination to petty depredations may be checked by the facility of apprehending those who commit such offences.” (Source: Public Archives of Canada, RG 10, Vol. 37 10, file 19,550-3. Hayter Reed to Edgar Dewdney, 20 July 1885. In Indian Act and the Pass System)

The Pass System meant that parents could not visit their children in off-reservation schools. Sometimes individuals needing a pass would hike miles to the nearest Indian Agent only to find no one home.  The pass system was created in 1885, enforced into the 1940s, and repealed in 1951. (Source: Indian Act and the Pass System)

Continue reading about the Dark history of Canada's First Nations pass system uncovered in documentary

Image Credit: Pat Grasshopper's pass to leave the reserve 1892. Glenbow Museum

New Court Ruling for Metis in Canada Shows Importance of Genealogy

A landmark victory for non-reserve aboriginals in Canada has just taken place.

The Federal Court has ruled Métis and non-status Indians are indeed “Indians”  ^FN under a section of the Constitution Act, and fall under federal jurisdiction.

This is important because in Canada status Indians receive many benefits including free health care (dental and medical), education benefits, no tax on purchased goods and no income tax. Metis and non-status Indians do not receive these benefits.

Metis and non-status Indians have been fighting the government for years for access to the same health, education and other benefits Ottawa gives status Indians. This means they could also hunt, trap, fish and gather on public land.

So why does this make Genealogy important? I'm a Metis. I applied for and received my Metis status card many years ago. Without genealogy I would never have known I had native heritage. My native ancestor was a Mohawk woman named Ots-Toch who married a Dutchman named Cornelis Van Slyke.  I would never have discovered this without pursuing my family tree. It was not common knowledge in our family.

This new ruling could have a huge positive financial impact for me, my children and grandchildren. And we have genealogy to thank for me applying for and being granted my Metis status.

You can read more about this decision here. 

^FN Please note that I am using the word "Indian" here as that is the term with legal meaning in the Indian Act of Canada