Harold Cardinal (January 27, 1945 – June 3, 2005) was a Cree writer, political leader, teacher, negotiator, and lawyer.
He attended high school in Edmonton, and studied sociology at St. Patrick's College in Ottawa, now a part of Carleton University.
[2] Cardinal's activism began early in life; he was elected president of the Canadian Indian Youth Council in 1966.
Cardinal served as the Vice Chief of the Assembly of First Nations during the period of the patriation of the Canadian Constitution in the early 1980s.
Cardinal also participated in Canadian federal politics, in 2000 running unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Liberal Party in the riding of Athabasca.
He ran against David Chatters, who had been accused of being anti-Native, in explicit opposition to the apparent revival of popular and political support for policies of Aboriginal assimilation.
Cardinal's lifelong demand for radical changes in policy on aboriginal rights, education, social programs and economic development was a beacon of hope for Canada's First Nations people.
In 1969, along with Indigenous communities, Elders, and other leaders, Cardinal radically questioned the hegemony of the nation state through his efforts to stop The White Paper, which culminated in his book The Unjust Society.
The book was instrumental in bringing Indigenous people's voices and issues to a centre stage in Canadian life; it also critically engaged the theoretical foundation and practice of Canadian liberalism as found in then Prime Minister Trudeau's conceptualizations of a "just society" where all citizens would be considered "equal" in the context of the current nation state.
Cardinal was not only an architect of change on the political level, he was also instrumental in engaging and redefining the manner in which Indigenous and non-Indigenous people related to one another.
One of the foundations of his life work was the insistence of the need for mutual recognition, understanding, and respect between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
The failure of the negotiations after a promising beginning caused Cardinal to undertake a lengthy period of personal reflection, including much study with elders.
His lifelong position has been that the spirit and intent of the treaties must be the principal instrument governing relations between First Nations and the Crown.
Natives & Settlers: Now & Then: Historical Issues and Current Perspectives on Treaties and Land Claims in Canada Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2007.