Harold Cardinal

Elected president of the Indian Association of Alberta at age 23 in 1968, Cardinal emerged as the most formidable Indigenous voice in the country. In 1969, he published The Unjust Society: The Tragedy of Canada's Indians, an electrifying rebuttal to the Trudeau government's White Paper proposal to abolish the Indian Act and eliminate treaty rights.

Cardinal spearheaded the 'Red Paper' (Citizens Plus), which forced Ottawa to withdraw the White Paper and reoriented federal policy toward recognizing Aboriginal and treaty rights. Later earning a doctorate in law from UBC, he served as a professor, negotiator, and Indigenous elder.