The sad plight of the Canadian Indian

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Statistics don't lie.

The death rate among Canada's Indian population is three times the national average for Indian people under the age of 35.

Statistics Canada reports, however, that during an eight-year period from 1978to 1986, the annual death rate among Indians in Canada fell from 11.8 deaths per 1,000 people in 1978 to nine deaths per 1,000 in 1986.

But as the report indicates, that's still 1.5 times higher than the average Canadian.

Likewise for the mortality rate of Indian children. In 1960, there were 79 deaths of Indian children in a population of 1,000. By 1986,, that had dropped to 17.2 deaths.

However, that figure is still twice as high as the national average.

The report also found that suicides among Indian people is twice the national average.

Indians are also less likely to die of cancer and more likely to die of respiratory conditions.

It's interesting that there is a detailed study available which reports only on the mortality rate of aboriginal people in Canada. Without it, perhaps Canadian society would never really comprehend the true magnitude of the sad plight of the Canadian Indian in the year 1990.

If there was ever a truer barometer of that unfortunate reality, this is it.

If anything, these statistics should shock the senses out of people about the inequities that distinguish the life of an Indian in this country and the average Canadian.

But what has been done about it in the last twenty years?

While the advance of medicine and science has helped to bring down the mortality rate of the indigenous population, Indian people are faced with the prospect of dying before the age of 35 faster than any other Canadian group of people.

The StatsCan report brings to light a very pressing problem--the standard of health care in Indian communities.

On a more frequent basis, Indians will seek treatment for such problems as respiratory conditions, ear/nose/throat diseases, skin problems, diseases of the digestive system and injuries. Diabetes is still the most frequently reported conditions on reserves.

Tuberculosis, virtually non-existent in the non-Native populations, remain far higher in the Indian community.

While Canadians are inundated with images of starving children in Africa and Biafra by the mass media, there exists a holocaust in their own backyards that has continued for almost 100 years.

Perhaps, in the year 1990, it's also time for Canadians to feel the outrage and compassion they feel for the starving children of the world and reach out to help the Indian community.

They are not foreigners from a strange land. They are the first people of this country before they welcomed with open arms the French and the English who carved out what is known as Canada today.

How Canada treats its indigenous people has become an international issue.

In 1990, let's make it a personal issue. Because it is time for Canadians to find some solutions to help their own indigenous people.

In last week's study, Indian death rates are reported to be on par with the national average at only one point: at the time of birth.

Statistics don't lie.