The growing awareness of Indigenous Canada in the early 1960s led to the formation of the Indian-Eskimo Association of Canada, a citizens organization with some Indigenous members but a non-Indigenous majority. It worked to raise the public consciousness of the Indigenous Peoples. At the end of September 1967, Calgary hosted the IEA’s national meeting at the Palliser Hotel with over 125 participants arriving from all across the country. Martin O’Connell, a senior accountant who had just turned 50, made an outstanding presidential speech, summarizing the views of the IEA which sought to accelerate Indian integration and work to end Indian poverty and alienation. In short, the IEA emphasized economic and social solutions.
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