Elijah Harper

March 3, 1949

Elijah Harper Aboriginal leader Elijah Harper, a former Manitoba MLA and MP, played a key role in defeating the Meech Lake accord. Here, Harper holds an eagle feather for spiritual strength as he refused to support the accord in Winnipeg in 1990. (Wayne Glowacki/Winnipeg Free Press/Canadian Press)
Elijah Harper, Oji-Cree politician, consultant, policy analyst and residential school survivor was born on this day in 1949 at Red Sucker Lake, MB. Elijah Harper is best known for the role he played in scuttling the Meech Lake Accord, for which he was named the Canadian Press newsmaker of the year in 1990. He also served as chief of the Red Sucker Lake Indian Band for four years in 1978. When the Meech Lake Accord was presented, Elijah Harper, the legislature's only Indigenous member, raised an eagle feather to mark his opposition to the Accord, preventing the legislature from debating it. Eight separate times Harper refused to give his consent, on the grounds that First Nations had not been consulted or recognized in the constitutional discussions around the Meech Lake Accord. He received death threats for his stand and went into hiding for a time.