SEPTEMBER 8, 1921

MÉTIS ACADEMIC/ACTIVIST HOWARD ADAMS BORN

Adams, born in St. Louis, Saskatchewan (SK), joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1940 after graduating from high school. In Vancouver from 1944-55, he earned a bachelor’s degree at the Univ. of British Columbia and added a teaching diploma from the Univ. of Toronto (1957). In 1966, while at the Univ. of California Berkeley (UCalB), for a PhD in history of education, he heard Malcolm X speak and came to see the Métis as an internally colonized group. In 1969, Adams became head of the Métis Society of SK. Controversial, he reinvigorated Métis nationalism. After teaching at the Univ. of SK, Adams taught Native American Studies at UCalB (1975-87), and then at Univ. of SK. His books include: The Education of Canadians 1800–1867: The Roots of Separatism (1968); Prison of Grass: Canada from the Native Point of View (1975), and Tortured People: The Politics of Colonization (1995). In 1999, he received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award. Adams died in Vancouver on his 80^th birthday.

Source: “Adams, Howard (1921-2001),” The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan.  Retrieved 7/7/2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20170630190750/http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/adams_howard_1921-2001.html
Photo: Padraic Ryan, 11/11/2007.  Aboriginal War Veterans Monument, Ottawa, Canada.  Permissive Use.