Within the federal Department of Indian Affairs during the 1960s there
emerged a half-dozen policy initiatives that came to have important but
quite unintended effects upon Indian political organization in British
Columbia. The various policy initiatives were conceived, planned, and
implemented separately within DIA, and there was little co-ordination
among them. Each was rooted in the longstanding small "L" liberal
ideological view that individual Indians desired to be and should be
assimilated as equals into the larger Canadian society. This view
ignored the attachment of Indians to their ancestral communities and
tribal groups.

One of the initiatives, which has been discussed in the previous
chapter, involved taking some steps towards settling the British Colum-
bia land question. It was the only one which had its origin in explicit
demands of Indians. The other five initiatives were applied to Indians
across Canada. Four of these were quite specific; they concerned educa-
tion, local community development, Indian advisory bodies, and con-
sulting Indians about amendments to the Indian Act. The final
initiative, conceived as the culmination of the others, was the great
federal attempt of 1969 to produce a final Indian policy. ¹

After the Second World War the department allowed Indian parents
on reserves to send their children to public schools if they wished to,
and a small number did. There was also an increasing number of
Indian parents living off reserves who wanted their children to have a
regular education. The widowed Ethel Wilson of the Cape Mudge Kwa-
giulth community was one example; she was living in Comox and her
children attended public school. As a result, by the early 1960s there was
a small number of Indian high school graduates, including Ethel's son
Bill.

By this time the curricula, teaching methods, and general atmosphere

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