Liberalism, Surveillance, and Resistance Indigenous Communities in Western Canada, 1877–1927 by Keith D. Smith © 2009 Keith D. Smith Published by AU Press, Athabasca University 1200, 10011 – 109 Street Edmonton, AB T5J 3S8 Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Smith, Keith D. (Keith Douglas), 1953- Liberalism, surveillances and resistance : Indigenous communities in Western Canada, 1877-1927 / Keith D. Smith. (The West unbound : social and cultural studies series, 1915-8181) Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued also in electronic format (978-1-897425-40-4). ISBN 978-1-897425-39-8 1. Liberalism–Alberta–History. 2. Liberalism–British Columbia–History. 3. Indians of North America–Alberta–History. 4. Indians of North America–British Columbia–History. 5. Marginality, Social–Alberta–History. 6. Marginality, Social– British Columbia–History. 7. Northwest Territories–History– 1870-1905. 8. Alberta–History–1905-1945. 9. British Columbia– History–1871-. I. Title. II. Series: West unbound, social and cultural studies E78.C2S622 2009 971.1004’97 C2009-901394-0 This book is part of The West Unbound: Social and Cultural Studies series ISSN 1915-8181 (print) ISSN 1915-819X (electronic) Cover and book design by Alex Chan Maps by Dwight Allott Map, p. x, adapted from The True Spirit and Original Intent of Treaty 7 by Treaty 7 Elders and Tribal Council with Walter Hildebrandt, Dorothy First Rider, and Sarah Carter, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1996. Printed and bound in Canada by Marquis Book Printing This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons License, see www.creativecommons.org. The text may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that credit is given to the original author. Please contact AU Press, Athabasca University at [email protected] for permission beyond the usage outlined in the Creative Commons license. To Leanne and Clayton Contents Acknowledgements iv CHAPTER ONE The Liberal Surveillance Complex 1 Imperialism and Colonial Expansion in Western Canada 7 Liberalism 11 Liberalism and Surveillance 16 Knowing Indians 18 The Homogenizing Impact of “National” History 21 The Agency/Coercion Binary 22 Investigating Colonialism as Cultural Formation and Concrete Experience 23 CHAPTER TWO The Transformation of Indigenous Territory 29 The Peoples of Treaty 7 31 The Peoples of the Kamloops and Okanagan Regions 36 European Disruptions 42 Reserves as Reformatory Spaces 48 CHAPTER THREE Churches, Police Forces, and the Department of Indian Affairs 51 Missionary Surveillance and the Surveillance of Missionaries 52 Police Surveillance 56 The Pass System 60 Restriction of Movement in British Columbia 73 Mounted Police and the DIA 77 The Visual Impact of the Mounted Police 81 Relations Between the NWMP and the BCPP 82 Force Strength and External Assistance 83 Police Forces and Indigenous Employees 84 Surveillance of Police 89 CHAPTER FOUR Disciplinary Surveillance and the Department of Indian Affairs 93 The Department of Indian Affairs’ Hierarchy 96 The Permit System 99 DIA Employees and the Expense of Surveillance 103 Surveillance by and of Indian Agents 104 DIA Surveillance, Indigenous Employment, and Cooperation 123 VI CHAPTER FIVE The British Columbia Interior and the Treaty 7 Region to 1877 131 Indian Policy in Canada and the United States 132 Indigenous Lands and Settler Interests 133 Application of Scientific Geography in Western Canada 134 British Columbia Before 1877 138 Indigenous Resistance to 1877 in the British Columbia Interior 143 Establishment of the Joint Reserve Commission 144 The Treaty 7 Region Before 1877 145 Comparing Treaty 7 and the British Columbia Interior Before 1877 147 British Columbia in 1877 149 The Treaty 7 Region in 1877 152 Land Retained in the Text of Treaty 7 156 CHAPTER SIX The British Columbia Interior, 1877 to 1927 161 Churches and Indigenous Lands in British Columbia 167 Indigenous Resistance in British Columbia Before World War I 170 Long Lake Surrender 173 The McKenna-McBride Commission 179 Indigenous Resistance and the Issue of Consent in British Columbia 188 The Special Joint Committee of 1927 192 CHAPTER SEVEN The Treaty 7 Region After 1877 197 Nakoda 198 Tsuu T’ina 200 Kainai 203 Piikani 210 Siksika 213 Reserve Reductions and the Nature of Consent 219 CHAPTER EIGHT Exclusionary Liberalism in World War I and Beyond 223 Conclusion 231 Notes 237 Bibliography 290 Index 316 VII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Having the opportunity to create a book is indeed a privilege and I feel truly honoured to have been able to make this journey. Along the way from this work’s inception as my doctoral dissertation through to this publication, I have made many friends and accrued many debts. I apologize in advance to those whose contribution I have neglected to recognize specifically or adequately below, but I am fully aware that this book could never have become a reality without the assistance and support of a great many people. I hope some can recognize their influence here. Many others are likely not even aware of the impact they have had. Any errors or omissions in the work that follows are of course my own. I would first like to extend thanks to the members my Ph.D. examining committee Cora Voyageur, Alan Smart, Arthur Ray, and Doug Peers for their thorough engagement with my writing and for their perceptive and constructive suggestions. I am particularly grateful to my doctoral supervi- sor, Sarah Carter, who consistently offered extraordinary patience, insightful comments and suggestions, and crucial guidance and encouragement at all stages of my doctoral program. I would also like to acknowledge the generous support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Their doctoral fel- lowship made my initial research and writing, and graduate student life in general, a great deal less complicated. My teachers, colleagues, and friends at Vancouver Island University (for- merly Malaspina University-College), the University of Victoria, the Univer- sity of Calgary, and Camosun College, played important roles in many stages of this work, from supplying employment to providing necessary intellectual stimulation. Special thanks to Helen Brown who introduced me to the joys of doing history. Numerous librarians at each of these institutions helped in countless and varied ways as well, often well beyond their job descriptions, and seemed always to do so quickly, happily, and with an expertise that often startled me. Archivists at Libraries and Archives Canada, British Columbia Archives, Glenbow Museum, and Kamloops Museum and Archives patiently helped me gain access to and then navigate the collections under their jurisdiction. My students in History and First Nations Studies over the past few years may, at no fault of their own, have slowed down the pace at which this work progressed, but their interest, their encouragement and humour, and the unselfish way they shared their own experiences were instrumental in helping me shape and reshape much of what is presented here. VIII Shawn Cafferky, who is sadly no longer with us, and other friends, con- tributed to the completion of this work in many ways that included knowing when I should take a break and understanding when I could not. Thanks to all of you. I would further like to thank Walter Hildebrandt and everyone at AU Press for their generous support and guidance in turning my dissertation into this book. Scott Anderson and the anonymous reviewers provided useful com- ments and suggestions. I would be remiss indeed if I did not mention my parents Kathleen and Bernard Smith who put up with a precocious child and an argumentative teenager, but unfortunately did not survive to see the product of their for- bearance, good and bad, decades later. Finally, I offer my love and appreciation to Leanne Schultz, my partner in life, who put up with my long shifts at the archives, eclectic hours at my computer, and who did without several years of family vacations without resentment. She constantly provided sustenance for body and spirit without restraint. I extend loving gratitude too, to my son Clayton, who was born in the middle of this project and has now embarked on an academic adventure of his own. He continues to be the most effective teacher that has ever been part of my life. IX X XI CHAPTER ONE “a net-work of machinery” 1 The Liberal Surveillance Complex SAMUEL H. BLAKE , TORON T O LAWYER , CH AIRMAN OF th E ADVISORY Board on Indian Education for the Anglican Church, must have been suit- ably impressed by his reading of the Department of Indian Affairs’ (DIA) Annual Report for 1906.2 In February 1907, Blake wrote to Frank Oliver, Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, and declared that Oliver indeed must have “such a net-work of machinery” at his disposal to “be able to ascer- tain with accuracy and despatch what it would be impossible for the ordinary individual to discover.” Certainly the department displayed for public review a vast array of data, collected by its army of employees stationed throughout Canada, in its over 600-page report. The information presented in narrative and tabular format touched on every aspect of the administration of Indian Affairs and, it seemed, on all aspects of the lives of Indigenous people. There was more than awe though in Blake’s letter. He also offered a warning: “We cannot afford to run the risk of a rebellion or of great dissatisfaction with our dealing among our Indians. We must seek to draw them by persuasion and to educate them up to the privileges which are freely open to them.”3 These few comments seem innocuous enough, but they point to the heart of the complex and often cloaked nature of the relations between Indigenous 1 L I B ERALISM , SURVEILLAN C E , AND RESIS T AN C E people and the newcomers to their territories in western Canada at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.