One Dead Indian
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Published by: McClelland & Stewart
Release Date: April 15, 2003
Pages: 304
ISBN13: 978-0771030475
Overview
On September 4, 1995, several Stoney Point Natives entered Ipperwash Provincial Park, near Sarnia, Ontario, and began a peaceful protest aimed at reclaiming a traditional burial ground. Within seventy-two hours, one of those protestors, Anthony (Dudley) George, was dead, shot by an OPP officer.
In One Dead Indian, after covering the tragedy from the beginning, journalist Peter Edwards examines the circumstances surrounding George’s death and asks a number of tough questions, including: How much pressure did the Ontario government put on the OPP to get tough? The book was credited for reviving a push for a public inquiry. It also includes a final chapter on that public inquiry.
Praise
“One Dead Indian is a very important book. If you care about democracy, and the separation of government and police, this is a must read… Edwards (is) a journalist’s journalist.”
—Laura Robinson, The Globe and Mail
“(One Dead Indian) could become the catalyst needed to force the Harris government to call a judicial inquiry into the intolerable silence and obfuscation surrounding Ipperwash.”
—The Globe and Mail editorial
“… scathing indictment of police brutality and political deception over the killing of unarmed Dudley George… One Dead Indian is a very impressive feat of investigative journalism.”
—James Cullingham, The Toronto Star
“I’ve just finished reading Star reporter Peter Edwards’ gripping book on the case – One Dead Indian: The Premier, the Police, and the Ipperwash Crisis. Hours after I finished underlining, while the pages sprouted a bristling border of yellow sticky notes, my heart is still pumping with sorrowing outrage.”
—Michele Landsberg, The Toronto Star
“… excellent book… This is a compelling, well-researched and important book which I would highly urge you to read.”
—Evan Solomon, CBC television’s Hot Type
“Edwards’ book is clearly written and well-researched. He has reconstructed with care a complex problem. For those concerned with social justice, this book is sometimes difficult to digest.”
—Daniel McIntosh, The National Post
“We’re impressed by the quality and depth of Edwards’ research. It is a thorough and important book.”
—Windspeaker, Canada’s National Aboriginal News
Excerpt
911 Operator: “I think you need to speak to a police officer.”
Aboriginal woman: “I can’t. They’re the ones doing the shooting.”
The day before the riot squad marched on Ipperwash Provincial Park on the eastern shore of Lake Huron in southwestern Ontario, Cecil Bernard “Slippery” George had a feeling that something was going horribly wrong. On that day, Tuesday, September 5, 1995, the Kettle and Stony Point band councilor had been pulled over while driving on Highway 21 southeast of Sarnia. The Ontario Provincial Police officer had asked him all sorts of questions about the park and the occupiers. He’d replied that he knew almost all of them and he considered them good, peaceful people. As he spoke, he felt his words weren’t making much of a difference. They weren’t what the officer was hoping to hear.
Slippery’s uneasy feeling only got worse as more police in squad cars kept appearing at Ipperwash thoughout Tuesday and Wednesday, swelling their ranks with dozens of out-of-town officers around the military base and adjoining provincial park at Ipperwash. Just after suppertime on Wednesday, Slippery went to the park to warn the Natives – especially his sister and eight-year-old nephew. He feared things might soon get violent.