Joseph Irvine Keeper

Background

Joseph Keeper was the son of Joseph Benjamin Keeper and Christina McLeod. His father was a noted long-distance runner who participated in the 1912 Olympic Summer Games in the 5,000 m and 10,000 m events and finished fourth in the latter. Keeper attended a residential school in Portage la Prairie, followed by Portage Collegiate Institute, from which he graduated in 1946.

Keeper joined the Royal Canadian Artillery. He served in Korea for 14 months after the armistice had been signed, until 1957 (see also Korean War). Keeper then worked in northern Canada as a surveyor for Canadian Nickel, a subsidiary of Inco.

Keeper married Phyllis Beardy on 1 September 1959. She later became an Anglican priest. They had four children, one of whom is actor, director, politician and social activist Tina Keeper. Keeper’s wife predeceased him on 22 May 2014.

Advocacy

As a young man in the late 1950s, Joseph Keeper believed that change was coming for his people. As a result, he started employment as a community development worker in Indigenous communities. Keeper was a major contributor to community development, self-government and the improvement of economic conditions for his people through his own work and federal government grants.

National Indian Council

In 1961, Joseph Keeper was a founder of the National Indian Council (NIC), a national lobby group to promote “unity among all Indian people.” Internal problems led to the breakup of the NIC in 1968. It was replaced by the National Indian Brotherhood (NIB), for Status and Treaty First Nations peoples, and the Native Council of Canada, for Non-Status and Métis groups. In 1982, the NIB became the Assembly of First Nations, which continues to represent the interests of First Nations in Canada.

Manitoba Métis Federation

In 1967, Joseph Keeper was one of the founders of the of Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF). The creation of the MMF was an element in the wider revival of Indigenous activism during the 1960s and 1970s as First Nations and Métis communities attempted to recover their lands, rights and cultures. Among the initial goals of the organization were the acquisition of land promised under the Manitoba Act of 1870, the encouragement of Métis culture and identity and the betterment of the socio-economic situation of the Métis.

Northern Flood Agreement

As a result of his expertise in grant processing, Joseph Keeper was involved in the negotiations leading to the signing of the Northern Flood Agreement (NFA) in 1977 after three years of negotiations. In the 1960s, Manitoba Hydro and the Province of Manitoba realized that hydroelectric power had to be increased. To generate this additional power, Manitoba Hydro initiated massive hydrological projects, known as the Lake Winnipeg Regulation and Churchill River Diversion projects.

The projects diverted water from the Churchill River into the Nelson River watershed and regulated water flowing out of Lake Winnipeg into the Nelson River. As a result, some 5,000 hectares, comprising about 20 per cent of the lands of five Cree First Nations in northern Manitoba, were flooded. This affected about 8,000 First Nations members from Cross Lake (now Pimicikamak Cree Nation), Nelson House (now Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation), Norway House Cree Nation (Keeper’s birthplace), Split Lake (now Tataskweyak Cree Nation) and York Landing (now York Factory First Nation).

In addition, the project also changed the water levels of several lakes, rivers and streams within the First Nations and on their traditional territories, as well as causing additional environmental destruction. These changes impacted their ability to hunt, fish and travel on the land. The changes had a significant negative impact on the traditional way of life of the First Nations people living there.

The five First Nations formed a committee (known as the Northern Flood Committee) to address these issues and negotiate with the provincial government and Manitoba Hydro. Keeper was one of the First Nations representatives on the Northern Flood Committee, which helped to secure the NFA in 1977. The NFA addressed a number of areas, such as environmental impacts, traditional ways of life, land entitlement, community infrastructure, and planning and employment development.

Specifically, the NFA provided for an exchange of four acres of land for each acre flooded, an expansion and protection of wildlife harvesting rights, $5 million to be paid over five years to support economic development projects on the First Nations and promises of employment opportunities.

Because the construction project and negotiations with the First Nations involved occurred concurrently, some important topics were overlooked and some promises in the NFA were not fulfilled. After nearly two decades, four of the five First Nations from the Northern Flood Committee (all except Pimicikamak Cree Nation) individually signed implementation agreements to address unfulfilled promises and any shortcomings in the original NFA.

Honours and Awards

• Member, Order of Canada (1992)
• Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee Medal (2002)
• Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012)