Frank Arthur Calder

Frank Arthur Calder, OC, OBC ( born August 3, 1915 in Wet Harbour, British Columbia; † 4 November 2006) was a member of the Canadian First Nation, the Nisga'a and fought for the rights of Indians. In addition, he was the first Status Indian who was admitted to the University of British Columbia. He was also the first to be admitted to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, was the first member of the Canadian Parliament and the first Minister of the Crown.

He was co-founder of the Nisga'a Tribal Council, the first Tribal Council in British Columbia. For 20 years he was its president. He was the first and only ever described by the four Nisga'a clans as " chief of chiefs ".

At the national level, he was known primarily through the process for land rights in the Supreme Court ( Calder vs. Attorney General of BC ) in Ottawa in 1973. Marking the first time the right to indigenous land rights in Canadian law was anchored.

After Calder received numerous honors and titles, among them inductee to Canada's First Nation 's Hall of Fame, President Emeritus, Nisga'a Tribal Council, Aboriginal Order of Canada, Officer, Order of Canada, Doctor of Divinity, Doctor of Laws, Licentiate in Theology and National Aboriginal Lifetime Achievement Award.

Curriculum vitae

Frank Calder was born in 1915 in wet Harbour. At seven, he was sent to Coqualeetza Residential School in Sardis, which was later conducted at this time of the Methodist Church of the United Church. He became the first Indian who was admitted to the Chilliwack High School, the first to receive a degree at the Anglican Theological College at the University of British Columbia, which later became Vancouver School of Theology ( 1946).

Three years later he was elected to the Legislative Assembly. He was a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, which later became the New Democratic Party was. Only once, in 1956, he lost an election.

In 1955 he founded the Nisga'a Tribal Council and remained until 1974 its president. In 1972 he was British Columbia's first indigenous cabinet minister Dave Barrett, but he lost this position as a Minister without Portfolio or of Indian Affairs as early as next year - possibly as pawns for the discredited government. In 1975, he joined the Social Credit Party and beat the candidate of the NDP. The legendary election of 1979, he lost by a single vote, with rumors circulating that he had not taken the time to choose in his own constituency in the Nisga'a.

Its proceedings before the supreme courts of the Province and the Court of Appeal, especially the front of the Supreme Court in Ottawa, brought him to fame on the Canadian borders after its action both by the Supreme Court of British Columbia and the Court of Appeal, the Court of Appeal, was dismissed.

This decision of 1973 was the basis for the Treaty of 2000, in which Canada agreed for the first time with an Indian tribe. In the wake of the so-called BC Treaty Process had to be set in motion, the prompting the province, a multi-stage negotiation process to start the rights of First Nations. This complicated process continues to this day. At the same time, the process has caused an international sensation and has a strong impact on legal disputes of a similar nature in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and in other countries.

1988 Calder became a member of the Order of Canada, but it was not until 2004 that he was taken also in the Order of British Columbia.

He died of cancer on November 4, 2006.