I read, with great interest and some dismay the article “Native Miners” by Erik Watt (NMM, Feb/90), which dealt with the involvement of native persons in northern mine operations. I feel their natural talents are misplaced in such work.
I have had a long (since 1947), pleasant and productive association with the Inuit of the Eastern sub-Arctic and the Indian and Metis in many parts of Canada, as well as the “aboriginal” people of a score of overseas countries.
I find that, too often, we assess a native person’s ability/industriousness only by our synthetic wage-slave perspective. By that standard, they suffer unjustly.
The native person’s natural and often most effective role in the mining industry is almost entirely as a free-wheeling prospector, alone or with a kindred companion or two. The native person, Inuit, Indian, Metis or aboriginal of any country is, in his own environment, a natural prospector. When provided with some simple, rudimentary training and treated as peers, he prospects effectively.
If the history of Canadian mineral discoveries could be completely recorded, it is certain many original discoveries would be credited to some native man or woman who “was there first” in recognizing a pellet of gold in a stream or a “burnt” outcrop area (a gossan).
I feel it is shameful that such latent talent remains unrecognized in Canada. With very limited training and some grubstake support, natives could better serve our mining industry.
Franc R. Joubin,
Toronto, Ont.
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