Walter Dieter

Walter Perry Dieter (also Walter Deiter ) OC (born May 31, 1916 in the Peepeekisis Reservation , Saskatchewan , † September 17, 1988 in Regina , Saskatchewan) was an Indian tribal leader and politician in Canada . He was the founder of the National Indian Brotherhood (later renamed after the First Nations Assembly ).

Life and accomplishments

Dieter was born in 1916 as a member of the Cree in the Peepeekisis reservation 135 km southwest of Regina . After attending school, he joined the Canadian Army in World War II , but had to leave it for health reasons and spent four months in a tuberculosis sanatorium.

In the 1950s he participated in the Friendship Centers (' Friendship Centers '), which offered assistance to Indians who migrated from remote reservations to major Canadian cities. Together with his wife Inez, he was involved in founding the Friendship Center in Saskatoon in 1958 and became the first Indian chairman of the Friendship Center in Regina in 1963.

From 1966 to 1968 he was the chief tribal leader of the Indian peoples in Saskatchewan (Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations) . Under his leadership, the alliance successfully campaigned for the rights of the Indians, which had been guaranteed them in the Treaties ( Numbered Treaties ). His peers included John Tootoosis , Hilliard McNabb , Henry Langham, and Lawrence Thompson . To improve the living conditions of the Indians, he negotiated development programs with the government in Saskatchewan and a five percent employment quota at government agencies for Indians and Métis . In 1966, the Canadian government established the National Indian Advisory Board and named Dieter one of its members.

In 1968 he left the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations to take on the task of establishing a representation of the Indian peoples at the national level. The organization, first named Indian National Brotherhood , was renamed the First Nations Assembly in 1982 . Under his leadership from 1968 to 1970, the organization of the policy of forced integration of Indians into Canadian society (who opposed White Paper Policy of Jean Chrétien ).

He then returned to Saskatchewan and helped set up a Native Alcohol Council and rehabilitation centers in their own areas. He was also involved in the planning of further development programs and was a member of the tribal council of his people in the Peepeekisis reservation .

In 1979 he was one of five representatives of the Indians who went to London to inform the British Parliament of the rejection of the proposed Canada Act as long as it did not guarantee the rights of the Indians to which they were entitled under the previous treaties.

In 1980 Walter Dieter was inducted into the Order of Canada , Canada's highest honor for civilians.

literature

• Patricia Deiter: A Biography of Chief Walter P. Deiter. (PDF; 9.1 MB) Master's thesis, University of Regina, 1997.