Natives stand up to be counted

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More Canadians than ever claim to be Native, a report by Statistics Canada showed.

Figures released late last month for the 1991 Census and Aboriginal Peoples Survey show the number of people across Canada who reported Aboriginal origins soared 41 per cent since the 1986 survey.

Some 1,002,675 people reported having Aboriginal origins in 1991, up from 711,720 five years earlier.

Demographic factors, such as fertility and mortality, cannot, however, explain the increase in only five years, the department reported.

Instead, Statistics Canada concluded that "significant numbers of people who had not previously reported an Aboriginal origin did so in 1991, most likely due to heightened awareness of Aboriginal issues."

The census did not include all Natives in Canada. There were 78 reserves and settlements across the country where census enumeration was either not permitted, interrupted, delayed or considered inadequate.

Native population distributions across the country were also not uniform. Sixty-two per cent of inhabitants in the Northwest Territories reported having Aboriginal origins, while 23 per cent of inhabitants in the Yukon said they have Indigenous origins. Saskatchewan with 10 per cent, Alberta with six and British Columbia with five.

Each of the provinces east of Manitoba reported Native populations less than three per cent of each provinces' total population.

The 1991 Aboriginal Peoples Survey found 626,000 Canadians claimed to be identified with an Aboriginal group and/or were registered as Indians under the Indian Act. Ninety-nine per cent of them identified themselves as either North American Indian, Metis or Inuit.

The survey differed from the census in that it examined language and traditions, disability, health, lifestyle and social issues such as addictions, schooling, work, housing, income and spending.

Like the census, the survey also did not provide a complete picture of all Natives in Canada. Some 152 reserves and settlement were incompletely enumerated, with 138 of them in British Columbia.

Statistics Canada released the figures March 31.