A new indigenous dating network aims to bring together status Indians throughout North America.
Created by David Baker of the Alderville First Nation in Ontario, the First Nations Dating Network is owned and operated by First Nations members and promotes marriage between status Indians so that they can pass on rights to housing, education, and health care to their children.
Canada’s Bill C31 denies status rights to some aboriginal children of mixed marriages. Though more than 675,000 status Indians are registered in Canada, Baker worries that assimilation is "inevitable" due to high mixed marriage rates in some bands.
Baker created the dating network as a meeting place for Native Americans, indigenous people from Mexico, and Canadian First Nations people. Members can post personal ads and chat online with other members. Text chat and message forums have been installed, and a fully functional voice chat is already in place. Baker hopes the site will be especially useful for indigenous people from smaller communities.
But Tracy Robinson, an indigenous studies professor from the First Nations University of Canada, says the website does not do enough to challenge the concept of Indian status. Under Canadian law, only the federal government decides who qualifies as a status Indian under the Indian Act. In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Robinson said the decision about who has status and who does not "should rest within the communities, the First Nations communities," and not with the federal government.
Baker says the laws may take a long time to change. In the meantime, the First Nations Dating Network is a collective effort to pass on status rights to future generations under the current legislation.
"Until the imposed laws change," said Baker," we are left with no other choice. We must marry other status Indians or face the prospect of a people whose rights have been legislated out of existence. We can do this and still continue the fight for the rest of the descendants whose rights have been denied."
Unlike other Native-owned dating services like Rezfox.com and the Big East Native Social Network, the First Nations Dating Network is exclusively for status Indians. Membership in the First Nations Dating Network, normally Cdn $11.99 per month, is free for the first 1,000 people to join.
