The Eighties in America - Salem Press (2009)

among the First Nations representatives themselves
on a broad spectrum of issues, ranging from claims
to land and natural resources to quality of education
to questions of self-determination. The conference
did, however, result in amendment section 35(3) to
the Constitution Act, which provided that First Na-
tions’ rights in land-claim agreements were to be
given the same constitutional protections as were
treaty rights. It was also agreed to hold three more
meetings to discuss further constitutional questions
affecting the native peoples. At these next three con-
ferences, the major issue addressed was the question
of the rights of the First Nations to self-government,
with delegates pressing for constitutional recogni-
tion of an inherent aboriginal right to autonomy
that would be guaranteed at both the federal and the
provincial levels. This demand was ultimately re-
jected by the final conference in 1987.

Impact In the 1980’s, the legal relationship between
the aboriginal peoples of Canada and the Canadian
government was reconceived. The First Nations were
transformed from client cultures whose relationships
with the central government were limited and de-
fined by treaties into more overtly political entities
possessing sovereign rights and with a constitutional
right to be consulted on the issues directly affecting
them. The adoption of the term “First Nations” was it-
self an acknowledgment of this change, denoting the
extent to which aboriginal peoples were understood
to constitute their own nations within the nation of
Canada. The new status of First Nations peoples had
many significant consequences, affecting such issues
as hunting and fishing rights, forest and environmen-
tal management, aboriginal language rights, the legal
status of aboriginal artifacts recovered at archaeo-
logical excavations, and public education. Indeed,
although the question of control of curriculum con-
tent and the values promoted through Indian educa-
tion in Canada was not new, it became a key sphere of
activism and change during and after the 1980’s. Ac-
tivists focused on the need to use education as a
means of First Nations cultural renewal, rather than a
tool for assimilating aboriginal peoples to an alien so-
ciety with alien mores.

Further Reading
Brant Castellano, Marlene, Lynne Davis, and Louise
Lahache, eds.Aboriginal Education: Fulfilling the
Promise.Vancouver: University of British Colum-
bia Press, 2000.

Cook, Curtis, and Juan D. Lindau, eds.Aboriginal

Rights and Self-Government: The Canadian and Mexi-

can Experience in North American Perspective.Mon-

treal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2000.

Flanagan, Tom.First Nations? Second Thoughts. Mon-

treal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2000.

Sanders, Douglas. “The Rights of the Aboriginal Peo-

ples of Canada.”Canadian Bar Review61 (1983):

314-338.

Robert B. Ridinger

See also Canada Act of 1982; Native Americans.

Abortion

Definition Intentional termination of a pregnancy

In the wake of a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision estab-

lishing a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy, abor-

tion became an increasingly polarizing issue for Americans

in the 1980’s. Meanwhile, abortion remained unlawful in

Canada during most of the decade, becoming legal only in

1989.

Most U.S. laws outlawing abortion were declared un-

constitutional as a result of the Supreme Court’s de-

cision inRoe v. Wade(1973). Thus, the 1980’s began

with women of all fifty states possessing the right to

terminate a pregnancy. The controversy over the Su-

preme Court’s decision never dissipated, however.

Polls in the 1980’s found that about 40 percent of

Americans believed that abortion should be legal

and unregulated under all circumstances. Others

supported the right, but only under more limited

circumstances, such as for pregnancies resulting

from rape or incest. Still others thought that abor-

tion should never be legal.

Protests began to mount when “pro-life” groups

staged rallies opposing abortion in Washington,

D.C., each January 22, the anniversary of theRoe v.

Wadedecision. Counterdemonstrations by feminists

and other “pro-choice” groups followed. Pro-life

groups engaged in a variety of strategies to overturn

Roe v. Wade, including making and distributing a film

calledThe Silent Scream(1985). This film was coun-

tered byAbortion: For Survival(1989), made by the

Fund for the Feminist Majority.

Africa and the United States

tion to abortion came primarily from conservative

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Abortion The Eighties in America