Our City: Harry Daniels
Harry Daniels in Mistress Madeleine (1986)
Image Source: National Film Board
Harry Daniels, born in Regina Beach in 1940, is perhaps best known for his work to successfully ensure that Métis people would be constitutionally recognized as Aboriginal people in 1982, but his work did not begin or end with that accomplishment. Daniels’ activism, advocacy and organizing was a lifelong pursuit.
Daniels helped found the Saskatchewan Métis Society and the Native Council of Canada, as well as helping to organize the Métis Association of the Northwest Territories. Saskatchewan Premier Ross Thatcher is said to have described Daniels as “too militant” to be Thatcher’s preferred president of the Metis Society, but over the course of his life Daniels held various positions in many Indigenous organizations, including the Canadian Aboriginal Justice Council, the Métis and non-status Indian Crime and Justice Commission, the Métis and Non-Status Indian Constitutional Review Commission, the Congress of Aboriginal People and the Métis Nation of Alberta. Daniels was also an actor, an author, and a Michif speaker who loved to jig.
The diversity of Daniel’s early activism and advocacy is well documented in Regina news publications from the late 60s and 70s. He was a passionate defender of student and labour activism, and critical of the government and inequality in the justice system.
In his early work for the Saskatchewan Métis Society, Daniels worked to hold the government and RCMP to account for failing to assist in the search for experienced trappers who had been missing in the northern winter for two months in 1968-69. In 1976, Daniels was part of an advisory body that called for an inquiry into the disproportionate number of deaths of Indigenous people in the Prince Albert Penitentiary.
Daniels is said to have greeted Fred Hampton when he visited the University of Regina in 1969. In March of the same year, Daniels went on the record to defend students who had been arrested for protesting racism at Sir George Williams University in Montreal:
“If you think for one moment people went in for a lark... I don’t. If you think these people should be incarcerated for what they believe in, then you should be incarcerated along with them.”
A Sir George Williams student being arrested by Montreal police in 1969
Image Source: Concordia University Records Management and Archives
Harry Daniels
Image source: Provided to APTN by Harry’s son Gabriel Daniels
Also in ‘69, Daniels penned an article for Prairie Fire regarding the poor treatment of Métis staff at the Battleford Provincial Park. Daniels writes, “This is just another situation where the government is trying to again exploit Native people. It seems that in this society, if you’re white, you’re right; if you’re red, you’re dead.”
In 1970, Daniels spoke to the Leader Post about one of his books. He lamented the lack of documented history of the Métis, joking, "Right out of the trees we walked, the whole bunch of us. Actually, we don't really live, we just appear now and then.”
He consistently framed the Indigenous movement within the context of white supremacy, capitalism and imperialism and argued that this structure had “exploited the native population and was now trying to impose cultural and physical genocide on these people.” Just before he was elected president of the Native Council of Canada in 1976, Daniels explicitly named the present and historical violence perpetrated upon Indigenous people by Canada, stating:
Harry Daniels
Image Source: https://www.eaglefeathernews.com/news/index.php?detail=2047
“The violence I want to talk to the federal government about is poor housing, lack of education... and almost the death of a whole race of people.”
Daniels would often draw parallels between the experiences of Indigenous people in Canada with other nations' plights around the world. He was deeply inspired by social movements of the 60’s and 70’s, and linked Indigenous protests to the struggles faced by people in Vietnam and Bolivia, as well as the American civil rights movement. When a racist prison manual was discovered circulating in prisons in Canada’s northern territories, he commented that the manual was an example of racism existing “outside of South Africa and Rhodesia”.
“‘Harry the Hat’ was a larger than life personality known for his sartorial elegance, his quick wit, his storytelling and “joie de vivre.” (Barkwell, L., 2012)
Daniels emphasized the importance of Indigenous self-determination on many occasions, responding to government uncertainties over who should qualify for land claims with the assertion that “the people in the communities would decide who should share in land claims” and that while the government could be mistaken or deceived, "we know who is an Indian and who is not.” In a 1975 article titled “Indians ‘should get guns’”, the Leader Post reported that “Mr. Daniels told more than 100 University of Guelph students that if the white man continues to deny native Canadian Indians land and control over their own lives, then Indians will have to ‘go out and take it with a gun.’”
These snippets offer only a glimpse of Harry Daniels’ long and interesting career. Many of the issues Daniels spoke about in the past are still relevant today, from Indigenous rights and the failures of the justice system to the rights of workers and student activists. Daniels was a “force majeure” and the impacts of his life’s work reverberate into the present day and beyond.
To learn more about Harry Daniels’ work impacting the constitution, see:
https://indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/article/metis-and-the-constitution/
$1000 for Sir George Williams students voted down on campus. March 19, 1969 (page 3 of 52). (1969/03/19/, 1969 Mar 19). The Leader Post (1930-) Retrieved from https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/march-19-1969-page-3-52/docview/2217774233/se-2
Barkwell, Lawrence. August 15, 2012. Harry Daniels. Louis Riel Institute. https://www.metismuseum.ca/media/db/11902
Bishop says warning directed towards him. April 29, 1969 (page 3 of 38). (1969/04/29/, 1969 Apr 29). The Leader Post (1930-) Retrieved from https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/april-29-1969-page-3-38/docview/2217874076/se-2
Canadian Geographic. Daniels’ work to protect Métis rights. Metis people and the constitution.
https://indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/article/metis-and-the-constitution/
Daniels, Harry. Metis fired in north. October 14-20, 1969 (page 5 of 8). Prairie Fire, vol 1., no 2. Regina, Saskatchewan.
Federal responsibility theme of Metis’ book. August 28, 1970 (page 15 of 40). (1970/08/28/, 1970 Aug 28). The Leader Post (1930-) Retrieved from https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/august-28-1970-page-15-40/docview/2217688312/se-2
Fitzpatrick, Brian. June 2, 2017. Metis activist Harry Daniels' legacy lives on, long after his death. Regina Leader Post. https://leaderpost.com/news/saskatchewan/metis-activist-harry-daniels-legacy-lives-on-long-after-his-death
HARRY DANIELS: THE MAN WHO PUT MÉTIS IN THE CONSTITUTION. September 23, 2016. Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/harry-daniels-the-man-who-put-metis-in-the-constitution
Indian, Metis views diverse. November 24, 1969 (page 3 of 42). (1969/11/24/, 1969 Nov 24). The Leader Post (1930-) Retrieved from https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/november-24-1969-page-3-42/docview/2217564584/se-2
Indians “should get guns”. March 22, 1975 (page 12 of 64). (1975/03/22/, 1975 Mar 22). The Leader Post (1930-) Retrieved from https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/march-22-1975-page-12-64/docview/2217563002/se-2
Metis group concerned. February 18, 1969 (page 23 of 30). (1969/02/18/, 1969 Feb 18). The Leader Post (1930-) Retrieved from https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/february-18-1969-page-23-30/docview/2217877570/se-2
Natives ask inquiry into P.A. pen deaths. September 10, 1976 (page 55 of 72). (1976/09/10/, 1976 Sep 10). The Leader Post (1930-) Retrieved from https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/september-10-1976-page-55-72/docview/2218009413/se-2
Native Council head sees different kind of violence. August 3, 1976 (page 56 of 56). (1976/08/03/, 1976 Aug 03). The Leader Post (1930-) Retrieved from https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/august-3-1976-page-56/docview/2218226028/se-2
PM promises to consider land claims. April 16, 1975 (page 1 of 64). (1975/04/16/, 1975 Apr 16). The Leader Post (1930-) Retrieved from https://login.libproxy.uregina.ca:8443/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/april-16-1975-page-1-64/docview/2218286747/se-2
Russel, Andrew. (April 4, 2016). Who is Harry Daniels? Man at centre of Supreme Court decision on Métis, non-status Indians. Global News. https://globalnews.ca/news/2639226/who-is-harry-daniels-man-at-centre-of-supreme-court-decision-on-metis-non-status-indians/
Troupe, Cheryl. (n.d.). Daniels, Harry W. (1940–2004). Indigenous Saskatchewan Encyclopedia. University of Saskatchewan. https://teaching.usask.ca/indigenoussk/import/daniels_harry_w_1940-2004.php#:~:text=From%201976%20to%201981%2C%20Daniels,into%20the%20Constitution%20Act%2C%201982.