Frank Calder, Nisga’a, 1915-2006
He was the first First Nations member of a Canadian legislature
(1949) and second Aboriginal legislator after Louis Riel. He served
as a British Columbia MLA for 26 years. In 1972 he became the
first Aboriginal Canadian Cabinet minister but was dismissed amid
controversy in 1973. He was president of the North American Indian
Brotherhood in 1944, organizer for the Native Brotherhood of BC,
and a founder of the Nisga'a Tribal Council, now the Nisga'a Nation
(president, 1955-74). His name is widely known through the Calder
Case, a landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision which dealt with
Nisga'a land claims. He was invested as an Officer of the Order
of Canada in 1988. A longer biography appears in Native Leaders
of Canada.
