No More Hunter Gathering

At the time of the invasion of the Europeans, the land, rivers and seas of Canada were able to support about 200,000 first nations people hunting and fishing. Since that time, the population has grown 550% to 1.1 million. First Nations people harbour the romantic notion that if the Canadian federal government would just get off their backs, they could support themselves with hunting and fishing in the traditional way. Even if Canada shut down all commercial fishing, banned all white people from hunting or fishing and told the native peoples they could hunt and fish as much as they pleased, the land and seas could still only support a population of 200,000. Actually, the number it could support is even less than that because at the time of the arrival of the Europeans the first nations people were not surviving solely from hunting and fishing. They got most of their calories from agriculture. There is no possible way hunting and fishing could support today’s first nations population. White people are responsible for many first nations ills, but this is not one of them.

~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)