Short Story Essay on Canadian Racial Diversity (Citing Akua Nuten, the Mystery of a White Man, and the Loons)

Often perceived as a group of tyrannical oppressors, the white people have firmly established their gruesome and discriminatory image through the bloody history of its dictatorship over racial minorities. Although it is true to some extent that White people were biased and unjust to other races, it is obvious that the intransigent mindset of the native Indian people have also contributed to the intense enmity between the two races. Harold Cardinal, once president of the Indian Association of Alberta, had inaccurately accused Caucasian Canadians in “The Mystery of the White Man”. He had described White men as a group of bigoted, corrupted rapists and portrayed the Indians as some guiltless victims of the depraved White society mistreated for living up to the standard of morality. Harold Cardinal had disguised his people under a mask of innocence and blamelessness while labeling Caucasian Canadians as the ultimate obstacle to peaceful diversity. Significant contradiction of the righteous behavior of an Indian described in “The Mystery of the White Man” was found in “Akua Nuten”. In the story, a plane carrying a Caucasian family of 4 people had crash landed in the forest. They were lost with no fuel or food supply and they asked Kukatso, a Montagnais Indian for help. Knowing the precise location of the emergency fuel caches and smoked moose stock, Kukatso chose not to help the White family which eventually led to their deaths. Differing from the nature loving, diversity appreciating Indians (Cardinal, 199) described in “The Mystery of the White Man”, Kukatso from “Akua Nuten” was a wicked murderer who attempted to exterminate the White race. He murdered two innocent men, one woman, and one twelve year old kid just because they were White. Clearly, it would be ridiculous to generalize all Indians as heartless killers because of Kukatso but it is just as stupid for Harold Cardinal to generalize all White people as one big unthinking, unfeeling, self-indulgent

Cited: Cardinal, Harold. “The Mystery of the White Man.” Who Speaks For Canada? Ed. Desmond Morton and Morton Weinfeld. Toronto: McCelland & Stewart Inc, 1998. 237-239. Laurence, Margaret. “The Loons.” Heartland. Ed. Katheryn Maclean Broughton. Scarborough: Nelson Canada, 1983. 10-24. Theriault, Yves. “Akua Nuten.” Heartland. Ed. Katheryn Maclean Broughton. Scarborough: Nelson Canada, 1983. 121-130