Elijah: a modest self-taught hero

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As a national hero among Indians across Canada and widely recognized as the man who killed Meech Lake accord, Elijah Harper is aware of his role as a politician-come-celebrity.

Yet it isn't easy for him. "I still can't get used to it," The Manitoba Native MLA said during a recent interview while he was visiting southern Alberta.

However, leadership is not new to Elijah.

As a member of student council in high school, Elijah set the course for his future profession.

"I was involved in a lot of activities in school. It stared when I attended school in Gardin Hill and continued through junior high school and when I went to school in Winnipeg for my high school."

For Elijah, leadership was inspired by people like John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. At 41, Harper is old enough to remember the two great Americans who were assassinated for their beliefs.

"He was always involved in something," said Jerry Daniels, originally from Manitoba and now living on the Siksika Nation reserve. "He was a pretty good goalie for the school hockey team. I was a few grades behind him, but I remember him getting involved with the student organization. I should have known he would get in politics."

Another opportunity to hone his leadership skills came when he attended the University of Manitoba. Services for active students were non-existent when he enrolled.

He successfully fought for and established the Indian Metis Inuit Student Association with the like of Ovide Mercredi and Moses Okimow, both of whom went on to become leaders in their communities - and are personal friends currently working with the Assembly of National Chiefs.

At university Elijah learned about dealing with large institutions. The engineering students published a derogatory spoof in their newspaper depicting Indians as drunks on skid row.

With skillful use of public outrage, the Native students pressured the engineering students to publicly apologize for the stories in the newspaper.

They successfully lobbied for the establishment of a Native studies department, a Native student adviser, and a larger lounge where the growing number of Native students could congregate and socialize.

Elijah left university to work for the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood as community development worker under Chief Dave Courchene, then a prominent figure in national Indian politics.

Harper moved closer to home. He worked out of Thompson, Manitoba, where he initiated community development projects in northern Cree communities.

For this reason most media accounts of Elijah call him a Cree when in fact he comes from a community of mixed Cree and Ojibway with its own dialect.

This gave him firm grounding for his plans to enter politics.

After his stint with the Native organization, he joined northern affairs for a year. He left his job wit provincial government because he felt the newly elected conservative government would change provincial Native policy.

He returned to Red Sucker, ran in the election and served as chief from 1978 to January 1982. During that time he developed close ties with the New Democratic Party.

In the late 1970s Native people joined the NDP with the hope it would address Native issues.

Then, on Nov. 17,1981, Elijah became the first treaty Indian to win a seat in the provincial legislature. For three months he filled the dual roles of MLA and chief of Red Sucker.

"I was too active as chief during that time. I was getting oriented," Elijah recalls. "No one is there to teach you how to be an MLA. I had to learn for myself."

His provincial election success elated Native people in Manitoba, but the glow of victory was blemished the next day.

The morning after the election, which ironically ousted the conservative government Eljah could not work for, he found himself on the front page of the Winnipeg Free Press. It carried a story of an altercation between Elijah, his supporters, and the hotel staff, during a boisterous victory party.

It wasn't a goodtart. Elijah said the hotel staff was less than polite about an Indian winning a seat.

Disenchantment with the NDP set in among Native people after a couple of years in power because the government did not deal with Native issues as seriously as Natives had hoped for - and many left the party.

But Elijah persevered and it paid off. The following provincial election saw the NDP defeated and he was only one of 12 New Democrats to hang onto their seats.

Despite the party's unpopularity he stuck with it - never for a moment suspecting what the future had in store for him.

Harper, re-elected earlier his month, says the strength of Native peoples' traditions and culture can't be taken away, despite Ottawa's policies and programs aimed at integrating them.

"The federal government is not living up o its obligations in the constitution, with the treaties, with land claims," he said, pointing to Oka as an example. "I think Brian Mulroney is using divide and conquer tactics; he's trying to manipulate the situation to where he can take advantage of the discontent among the Mohawk people there."

"The federal government is trying to play both ends. They are trying to take credit for resolving the issue by buying land for the Mohawks and they are letting Quebec handle the security. But they are sending in the army to deal with the arms issue."