Elijah Harper

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Elijah Harper (born March 3, 1949) is an Aboriginal Cree Canadian politician and band chief.

Harper was born in Red Sucker Lake, a reserve in northern Manitoba, and served there as Band Chief from 1978 to 1981. In 1981, Harper became the first Treaty Indian to be elected as a provincial politician when he contested and won the sprawling northern Manitoba riding of Rupertsland for the New Democratic Party. On April 17, 1986, he was appointed to cabinet as a Minister without Portfolio, responsible for Native Affairs. On February 4, 1987, he was named Minister of Northern Affairs and Minister in charge of the Communities Economic Development Fund Act.

Harper's time in cabinet was controversial. He was relieved of his ministerial responsibilities on September 9, 1987, after having left the scene of an accident while driving. Harper had consumed red wine earlier in the evening, and may have been intoxicated when the accident occurred. No one was injured, however, and Harper acknowledged his mistake. He was reappointed as Minister of Northern Affairs and Minister responsible for Native Affairs, on November 23, 1987, and served until the defeat of Howard Pawley's government in 1988.

In 1990, Harper achieved national fame by holding an eagle feather as he took his stand in the Manitoba legislature and refused to accept the Meech Lake Accord proposed by the federal government. The accord did not guarantee rights to Canada's Aboriginal peoples. Harper's refusal meant that the Manitoba assembly could not achieve the unanimous consent it needed to approve the Accord before a previously set deadline. As a result, Newfoundland premier Clyde Wells cancelled a proposed vote on the Accord in the Newfoundland legislature; thus the Accord failed to pass in both Manitoba and Newfoundland, and it did not become law. Harper also opposed the Charlottetown Accord in 1992, despite the fact that Assembly of First Nations Chief Ovide Mercredi supported it.

Harper resigned from the Manitoba legislature on November 30, 1992. He initially wanted to run for the federal New Democratic Party in the 1993 federal election, in the northern riding of Churchill, but was rebuffed by the party leadership (the riding was already represented by NDP MP Rod Murphy, who did not want to resign). After considering offers from several parties, Harper agreed to join the Liberals in early 1993. He claimed that this change in party affiliation did not reflect a change in his principles: he intended to represent native interests in parliament, party lines notwithstanding. His presence in the Liberal Party was controversial, however; many former allies considered his decision misguided, and some Quebec Liberal MPs did not want to be associated with the man who brought down Meech Lake.

Harper defeated Murphy in the 1993 election, and served in the Canadian House of Commons in Ottawa, as a Liberal. He was as a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Aboriginal Affairs, but was otherwise not a prominent MP. He was defeated by New Democrat Bev Desjarlais in the 1997 election, and again in the 2000 election.

Elijah Harper is also known for bringing Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples together from across Canada to find a spiritual basis for healing and understanding. One such gathering, called the Sacred Assembly '95, took place in Hull, Quebec in December 1995. From this Sacred Assembly, people developed a Reconciliation Proclamation and a Statement of Principles and Priorities. These documents would guide people in the sharing at the Assembly. A second Sacred Assembly took place at the Sagkeeng First Nation in August 1997, just northeast of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

For his work for his people, Harper received the Stanley Knowles Humanitarian Award in 1991, and a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 1996. Elijah Harper was appointed Commissioner of the Indian Claims Commission on January 21, 1999, and remains in demand as a speaker.