According to a recently released Parks Canada internal report, the creation of Canada’s national parks system is considered culturally “harmful” and a “colonial injustice” to Indigenous people. The report, titled Evaluation of the Indigenous Guardians Initiative Internal Review, was dated 2024 and released without comment on June 22, as reported by Blacklock’s.
Historical Disruption of Indigenous Relationships
“For millennia Indigenous people have cultivated reciprocal relationships with land, water and ice guided by cultural practices, values and knowledge systems,” the report said. “Beginning in the 19th century the development of national parks and protected areas in Canada disrupted these relationships through exclusion and colonial injustices.”
“In establishing national parks, Indigenous people were forcibly removed from their homes, denied access to traditional territories and prohibited from hunting and harvesting on park lands,” the report added.
Banff National Park: Canada’s First Park
Canada’s first national park was Banff National Park, established in 1885. Originally named Rocky Mountains Park, it was created to protect its natural thermal springs. The name was changed to Banff following the passage of the National Parks Act in 1930. The park spans 6,641 square kilometres and is part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO World Heritage Site.
As Blacklock’s reports, the transition to a national park was not easy. “Stoney Nakoda were prevented from using the land as in past ways,” the report said. “These laws, practices and policies caused historic and ongoing harm for Indigenous communities. They eroded Indigenous systems.”
Parks Canada was established in 1911 as the Dominion Parks Branch, becoming the world’s first national park service.
Acknowledgment and Funding for Indigenous Programs
“Parks Canada now acknowledges this harmful historical legacy and its impact on Indigenous language, culture, laws and governance systems,” the report stated.
The report outlined $61.7 million over four years to “support the development of between 30 and 34 new or enhanced partner-led programs” emphasizing Indigenous themes in national parks. Examples included an undisclosed grant to the Tsuut’ina Nation to “conduct a ceremonial harvest of bison in Banff,” it said.
Ceremonial Bison Hunt in Banff
In 2024, the first ceremonial bison hunt in Banff was completed under an Indigenous-led pilot project called the Indigenous Advisory Circle. Parks Canada and the IAC said three animals were harvested during the free-range hunt. Officials from Blackfoot, Tsuut’ina, Stoney Nakoda and Métis communities in Alberta said the hunt was meaningful.
“Historically the Blackfoot have always hunted the mountains in Alberta, but our ability to continue hunt our ancestral lands has been limited due to modern day infringements,” Samuel Crowfoot, a councillor with Siksika Nation east of Calgary, said in a news release at the time.
Broader Federal Commemoration Review
A 2019 report titled Framework For History And Commemoration proposed that all federal observances address issues of “colonialism, patriarchy and racism” nationwide. “In Canadian history colonialism, patriarchy and racism are examples of ideologies and structures that have profound legacies,” the report said.
“Nothing can be immune from review,” the National Historic Sites and Monuments Board, a Parks Canada agency, wrote in its 2019 report Careful Review Of Existing Designations. “Every designation can be re-evaluated.”
