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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT at the DEPARTMENT of INDIAN AFFAIRS in the 1960S : MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT at the DEPARTMENT of INDIAN AFFAIRS in the 1960S : MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AT THE DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS IN THE 1960s : MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts in the Department of Sociology University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By Rob Cunningham Autumn 1997 © Copyright Robert Craig Cunningham, 1997 . All rights reserved. 1 PERMISSION TO USE In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection . I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done . It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis . Requests for permission to copy or to make other use of material in this thesis in whole or part should be addressed to : Head Department of Sociology University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 ii ABSTRACT This thesis tells the story of the Community Development Program (CDP) of the Department of Indian Affairs . The Program was initiated in Canada in the early 1960s during a time of international popularity for the community development approach, and a national sentiment that the federal government ought to do something to positively change the situation for Indian people in Canada . The Program is probably best remembered for the commotion that its young practitioners caused when they began to encourage community development on Canadian Indian Reserves . The question that guides the research asks whether or not the CDP was different from previous policies of the Department of Indian Affairs . The author asserts that the CDP was novel in its organization, the problem it sought to address, and the way in which it treated Indian people . Data were gathered through interviews with former employees of the Department of Indian Affairs and through archival research into the files of the Department and its former employees . The author uses the theoretical framework developed by Jurgen Habermas and adapted by John Forester to interpret both traditional Canadian policies directed towards Indian people and the Community Development Program . 111 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Several people helped me to complete this thesis, and for that I thank them . Vic Satzewich encouraged me to pursue graduate studies, helped me to formulate my research project; shared his experience with me, and generously hired me as a research assistant . Terry Wotherspoon kindly took over the responsibility of being my supervisor and patiently encouraged me to complete the required work . Harley Dickinson and Bernard Schissel both provided their time and expertise to discuss my research project and taught theory and methods classes that aided greatly in the conception of this thesis . In addition, many of the faculty of the Department of Sociology helped along the way . Monies were provided that enabled my research by the Messer Fund for Research in Canadian History, the University of Saskatchewan President's Fund, and the Phelps Scholarship from the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation . I also thank Lesley Hall for her support and encouragement, especially during the writing . iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PERMISSION TO USE i ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS IV LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION AND METHODS 1 1 .1 INTRODUCTION 1 1 .2 RESEARCH QUESTION / HYPOTHESIS 2 1 .3 METHODS 3 1.3.1 Data Collection 4 1.3.2 Validity and Limitations 4 1.4 INTRODUCTION TO THE THEORY 5 1 .5 CHAPTER ORGANIZATION 7 CHAPTER 2 - THE THEORY 8 2.1 CANADIAN STATE THEORIES AND THE IAB 8 2.1.1 Chicago School 8 2.1 .2 Internal Colonial Model 9 2.1.3 Political Economy 10 2.1 .3 .1 The State in a Political Economic Analysis 11 2.1 .3.2 Problems with the Political Economic Analysis 14 2.1 .3.3 Reconsiderations of the State 15 2 .2 HABERMAS IN GENERAL AND PLANNING IN PARTICULAR 16 2.2.1 Transition to Habermas 16 V 2.2.2 Key Habermasian Concepts and Their Derivatives 17 2.2.2.1 Reconstruction of Historical Materialism 18 2.2.2.2 Value and Goal Rationality 19 2.2.2.3 Lifeworld, System, and Colonization 20 2.2.2.4 Reproduction Processes 20 2.2.2.5 Communicative Infrastructure 22 2.2.2.6 Levels of Analysis 24 2.2.2.7 Background Consensus 25 2.3 ROAD MAP FOR ANALYSIS 26 CHAPTER 3 - LITERATURE REVIEW 28 3.1 INDIAN POLICY IN CANADA - PRE CONFEDERATION TO MODERNITY 28 3.1.1 Before Canada Was Canada 28 3.1.2 Protection, Civilization, and Assimilation 30 3 .1 .2.1 Social Integration and Socialization 33 3.1.3 The Indian Act and The Indian Affairs Branch: Contradiction and Confusion 33 3.1.4 Determinants of State Policy 36 3.1.5 Summation of Part I 39 3.2 ABORIGINAL ISSUES AND THE CANADIAN SCENE : 1945-62 40 3.2.1 1945 - A New World Order and A Nation to Nation Relation 41 3.2.2 The Special Joint Committee of 1946 42 3.2.3 Aboriginal Resistance 44 3.2.4 Enfranchisement 44 3.2.5 The United Nations Takes up the Cause 45 3.2.6 Hawthorn and Lagasse Study the "Indian Problem 47 3.2.7 The State of the State At The Indian Affairs Branch 49 3.2.8 Summation of Part 2 51 CHAPTER 4 - THE STORY & THE ANALYSIS 56 4.1 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT MEETS THE INDIAN AFFAIRS BRANCH 57 4.1.1 Cabinet Approves the Submission 58 4.1 .2 The "Problem" as Defined by the Community Development Program 59 4.1 .3 Indian Advisory Committees 62 4.1.4 From free radicals to paid radicals 63 4.1 .5 Community Development in Action.. & CDO Inaction 67 4.1.6 Gerry Garnbill - A CDO in Action 69 4.1.7 The Demise of Community Development at the Indian Affairs Branch 73 Vi 4.2 THE REAL ANALYSIS - CDP: AN OLD DOG OR A NEW TRICK? 75 4.2.1 Content - Was the CDP Different? 76 4.2.1 .1 Defining the Issues 77 4.2.1.2 Producing Beliefs 80 4.2.2 Context - It's Not What You Do, It's How You Do It 82 4.2.2.1 Elements of Consent & Trust 83 4.2.3 Was the CDP different and did it change the IAB? 88 CHAPTER 5 - CONCLUSIONS 90 5.1 CONCLUSIONS TO MY STUDY 90 5.1.1 Did the CDP Change the Lives of Aboriginal Peoples? 94 5.2 DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE INVESTIGATION 95 5.3 INSIGHTS FOR POLICY-MAKING 96 REFERERENCES 100 Vll LIST OF TABLES Table 2 .1 Structural Components of Lifeworld and Associations 21 Table 2 .2 Processes of Background Consensus 25 Vili LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CDP Community Development Program IAB Indian Affairs Branch CDO Community Development Officer CD Community Development ICM Internal Colonial Model DIAND- Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development SJC - Special Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons RCAP - Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples IAC - Indian Advisory Committee 1 CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION AND METHODS 1.1 INTRODUCTION In 1964, the government of Lester Pearson approved a policy to establish the Community Development Program (CDP) through the federal Indian Affairs Branch (IAB) . The submission which sought Cabinet approval stated that the CD Program was "designed to employ, to the greatest extent possible, all the available human and material resources in Indian communities in each province" (Canada, 1964 : 1). This was to be done through "the participation by the Indians themselves in efforts to improve their level of living with as much reliance as possible on their own initiative ; and the provision of technical and other services in ways which encourage initiative and establish a basis for self-sufficiency" (Canada, 1964 : 3). One of the proposed effects "was to step up mobilization of Indian initiative and to further promote self sufficiency" with the end result of accelerating the "transfer to Indian communities of responsibility and authority for the management of their affairs, with concurrent limitations in government controls" (Canada, 1964 : i). In short, the CDP was to be a .. .conscious effort by government to guide the forces of change in the best interests of Indian communities and the country at large ... In undertaking this program, [the] Indian Affairs Branch will remain concerned not only with the economic and technical prerequisites and consequences of change but also with its social and cultural dimensions (Canada, 1964 : 4). According to a government official of the time, the CDP was sold to Cabinet as being "inversely proportional to welfare payments - if the community development component increases, welfare decreases" and in fact, "the government bought it" (Uppal, 1994 : 1) . Indeed the Cabinet submission stressed the fiscal benefits of the CDP, such as reducing welfare and health care expenditures, making other programs more efficient, and enabling the federal government to offload the costs associated with First Nations to the provinces (Canada, 1964 : i; 1-5). Although the CD Program was sold primarily on its economic merits, Walter Rudnicki, author of the CD Cabinet Submission has stated that the Indian Affairs Branch was "under 2 severe criticism because mentally they were just coming into the eighteenth century, and they were under constant criticism for .
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