DOCSLIB.ORG

White Settler Reserve New Iceland and the Colonization of the Canadian West

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
White Settler Reserve New Iceland and the Colonization of the Canadian West White Settler Reserve New Iceland and the Colonization of the Canadian West RYAN EYFORD Sample Material © UBC Press 2016 © UBC Press 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written permission of the publisher. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Eyford, Ryan, author White settler reserve : New Iceland and the colonization of the Canadian West / Ryan Eyford. Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued in print and electronic formats. ISBN 978-0-7748-3158-1 (hardback). – ISBN 978-0-7748-3160-4 (pdf). – ISBN 978-0-7748-3161-1 (epub). – ISBN 978-0-7748-3162-8 (mobi) 1. Land settlement – Canada, Western – History – 19th century. 2. Land tenure – Canada, Western – History – 19th century. 3. Icelanders – Canada, Western – History – 19th century. 4. Colonists – Canada, Western – History – 19th century. 5. Immigrants – Canada, Western – History – 19th century. 6. Indians of North America – Land tenure – Canada, Western – History – 19th century. 7. Liberalism – Canada, Western – History – 19th century. 8. Canada, Western – Colonization – History – 19th century. 9. Canada, Western – Emigration and immigration – History – 19th century. I. Title. FC3217.4.E93 2016 971.2’02 C2016-902764-3 C2016-902765-1 UBC Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support for our publishing program of the Government of Canada (through the Canada Book Fund), the Canada Council for the Arts, and the British Columbia Arts Council. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens Set in Garamond by Artegraphica Design Co. Ltd. Copy editor: Deborah Kerr Cartographer: Eric Leinberger Indexer: Lillian Ashworth UBC Press The University of British Columbia 2029 West Mall Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2 Sample Material © UBC Press 2016 Contents List of Illustrations / viii Acknowledgments / ix Introduction / 3 1 Northern Dreamlands: Canadian Expansionism and Icelandic Migration / 22 2 Broken Townships: Colonization Reserves and the Dominion Lands System / 45 3 The First New Icelanders: Family Migration and the Formation of a Reserve Community / 73 4 Quarantined within a New Order: Smallpox and the Spatial Practices of Colonization / 96 5 “Principal Projector of the Colony”: The Turbulent Career of John Taylor, Icelandic Agent / 120 6 Becoming British Subjects: Municipal Government and Citizenship / 142 7 “Freemen Serving No Overlord”: Debt, Self-Reliance, and Liberty / 163 Conclusion / 186 Notes / 193 Bibliography / 231 Index / 248 Sample Material © UBC Press 2016 Illustrations Secretary John Lowe, Department of Agriculture, December 1889 / 4 Map of reserved land in Manitoba, 1870-86 / 6 Dr. James Spencer Lynch, c. 1870 / 39 Map of reserves and surveyed land in Manitoba, 1875 / 46 Dominion Lands Survey township grid / 53 John Taylor’s “Plan Proposed for Icelandic Village,” October 1875 / 66 Benedikt Arason’s map of Víðirnesbyggð, January 1879 / 70 Map of the sýsla (district) divisions in Iceland during the emigration period / 78 Símon Símonarson, Valdís Guðmundsdóttir, and their daughter, Jóhanna Guðrún, c. 1890 / 93 Reverend James Settee, Church of England missionary, n.d. / 97 Quarantine map of Manitoba and Keewatin, 1877 / 112 Joseph Monkman, n.d. / 118 John Taylor, Icelandic agent, n.d. / 121 Map of New Iceland showing the four byggðir (settlements), 1877 / 152 David Mills, minister of the interior, 1876-78 / 157 Jón Bjarnason, Sigtryggur Jónasson, Halldór Briem, and Páll Thorlaksson in Minneapolis, 1878 / 177 Icelandic Colony government loan acknowledgment / 180 Sample Material © UBC Press 2016 viii Introduction n 18 September 1877, the Canadian ministers of agriculture and Othe interior and their top deputies visited New Iceland, a reserve for Icelandic immigrants on the southwest shore of Lake Winnipeg. Two weeks later, the Toronto Globe published an account of this “ministerial inspec- tion” that also included an overview of the troubled history of this “special experiment of immigrant colonization.” Since the arrival of the first group of colonists in the fall of 1875, the Icelanders had endured hunger, crop failures, and disease, including an outbreak of smallpox that had put the colony under rigid quarantine for almost eight months. The anonymous Globe correspondent noted that though the Department of Agriculture’s Immigration Branch had “spent and loaned ... large sums of public money ... to establish this settlement,” its future was still in doubt. The article explained that the ministers had visited New Iceland to assess the situation for themselves and to determine whether government support for Icelandic immigration and colonization should continue.1 This was a matter of pol- itics as well as policy; opponents of Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie’s Liberal government had cited New Iceland as an example of a failed col- onization policy. Critics accused government officials of making a grave error in the choice of colony site and characterized the Icelanders as an “effete and unprogressive race ... not equal to the struggle of life on this continent ... [They] must inevitabl[y] succumb to the fate of the ‘least fit.’”2 The Globe article defended the government against the accusations of incompetence and portrayed the settlers in a favourable light. It described them as worthy colonists – an orderly, literate, and hardworking people Sample Material © UBC Press 2016 3 4 Introduction John Lowe (1824–1913), secretary of the Department of Agriculture, a key figure in the establishment of New Iceland. Library and Archives Canada, William Topley Collection, 1936–270. intent on achieving social and material progress despite the difficulties they had faced. Casting aside all evidence to the contrary, it boldly declared that “the experiment of this colony may be pronounced a success.”3 This was hardly the assessment of a disinterested observer; in fact, the author of the article was none other than John Lowe, secretary of the Depart ment of Agriculture, one of the officials whoere w principally responsible for organizing the colonization scheme.4 However, Lowe’s article was more than an attempt to whitewash the failures of this par- ticular colony. It was also a defence of a whole mode of colonization in which the state took an active role in encouraging group immigration and settlement on reserved tracts of land. “Aided colonization in communities,” Sample Material © UBC Press 2016 Introduction 5 Lowe asserted, “is nothing new on this continent. It has succeeded where it has been properly looked after.”5 This book examines the role of land reserves for European immigrants in the colonization of the Canadian Northwest during the late nineteenth century. The practice of reserving land for European ethno-religious groups was an important part of Canada’s immigration and land settlement poli- cies in this period. Colonization reserves were part of a patchwork of re- served spaces in Manitoba and the North-West Territories. They were created simultaneously, and they shared borders with reserves for Indians, Metis people, and private corporations, such as the Hudson’s Bay Com- pany and the Canadian Pacific Railway.6 Even areas that were open for homesteading by individuals were in effect reserved, in that they were designated for the exclusive use of incoming non-Aboriginal settlers. The 1876 Indian Act stipulated that “no Indian or non-treaty Indian ... shall be held capable of having acquired or acquiring a homestead ... right to ... any surveyed or unsurveyed lands.”7 The reserve system developed out of a process of negotiation and con- testation as Indigenous peoples pushed for the recognition of their claims to their traditional territories, and as European migrants, who could choose to relocate to any one of several settlement frontiers, negotiated the conditions under which they would settle in Canadian territory. The “Half-breed” reserves were created as a result of the 1870 Manitoba Act after the Red River Métis mounted an armed resistance to Canadian rule. Indian reserves were established as part of the southern numbered treaties between 1871 and 1877. From the Canadian state’s perspective, the Manitoba Act and the treaties granted limited recognition to Indigenous property rights and minimized the threat of further armed conflict in the region, while at the same time legitimizing the appropriation and redis- tribution of territory for agricultural and commercial development.8 The legal and administrative vehicle for that redistribution was the 1872 Dominion Lands Act, which established rules for homestead lands and, after 1874, coloniz ation reserves. Administratively, the practice of reser- vation was carried out through the Department of the Interior. Whereas the department’s Dominion Lands Branch created colonization reserves in concert with the Department of Agriculture’s Immigration Branch, its Indian Affairs Branch negotiated treaties and allocated Indian reserves. After 1892, responsibility for immigration also came under the Department of the Interior’s expansive mandate. Sample Material © UBC Press 2016 6 Introduction Reserved land in Manitoba, 1870–86 Sample Material © UBC Press 2016 Introduction 7 The southwest shore of Lake Winnipeg, in the Interlake
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Saskatchewan Bound: Migration to a New Canadian Frontier
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 1992 Saskatchewan Bound: Migration to a New Canadian Frontier Randy William Widds University of Regina Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Widds, Randy William, "Saskatchewan Bound: Migration to a New Canadian Frontier" (1992). Great Plains Quarterly. 649. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/649 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. SASKATCHEWAN BOUND MIGRATION TO A NEW CANADIAN FRONTIER RANDY WILLIAM WIDDIS Almost forty years ago, Roland Berthoff used Europeans resident in the United States. Yet the published census to construct a map of En­ despite these numbers, there has been little de­ glish Canadian settlement in the United States tailed examination of this and other intracon­ for the year 1900 (Map 1).1 Migration among tinental movements, as scholars have been this group was generally short distance in na­ frustrated by their inability to operate beyond ture, yet a closer examination of Berthoff's map the narrowly defined geographical and temporal reveals that considerable numbers of migrants boundaries determined by sources
    [Show full text]
  • Vestur – Íslendingar: the Icelanders of Manitoba
    THE THIRTEENTH HERMANN PÁLSSON LECTURE (2017) Vestur – Íslendingar: the Icelanders of Manitoba Margaret A. Mackay IT IS A great honour to have been invited by the Scottish Society for Northern Studies to deliver this year’s Hermann Pálsson Memorial Lecture. Hermann was a very good friend and colleague throughout my years at the University of Edinburgh and I rank Stella, his wife, Steinvör, his daughter, and Helena, his grand-daughter, among my close friends now. Let me rehearse a few details about Hermann’s life for those here who did not have the privilege of knowing him in person as well as those of us who did. He was born in 1921 at a farm in the north of Iceland, Sauthanes á Ásum, near Blönduós and the Húnafjörður. He was the sixth in a family of twelve children and lost his father at a young age. The family was not rich in material ways but valued education highly. Hermann gained a degree in Icelandic Studies at the University of Reykjavik in 1947 and went on from there to study for another degree, in Irish Studies, at the National University of Ireland, in University College Dublin. He soon learned Welsh as well, some of it by total immersion in a Welsh-speaking community in Gwynedd. Angus McIntosh (1914-2005) had been appointed to the new Forbes Chair of English Language and General Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh in 1948 and he appointed Hermann to a Lectureship in 1950. The School of Scottish Studies, in whose creation McIntosh was centrally involved, was coming into being at just that time and Hermann took a keen interest in it, retaining a strong affection for the School and its activities and a love of the Gaelic language and Celtic tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • Weird Visitations
    Weird Visitations Gudrun Björk Gudsteinsdottir Dept. of English, University of Iceland Weird Visitations: Attendant Spirits & Ghosts • Adaptation theory: Stories survive by appropriation and adaptation. • Background: Einar Ólafur Sveinsson, The Folk-Stories of Iceland (1940); revised by Einar G. Pétursson, translated by Benedikt Benedikz (2003). • Sveinsson argues that folkstory motifs migrate more easily than the stories and that the stories are invariably adapted to their new environment; stories based on the same motif will be quite different stories. • Confirmed by my study of the legacy of Icelandic folkstories in Icelandic Canadian literature. The Gift of Second Sight: Ófreski - Skyggni • Sveinsson notes that ideas about second sight were largely unchanged from ancient times: – the tone is partly, of course, set by the spirit of the age. But all the basic elements of belief in dreams appear to be constant, and stories about dreams, based on true experiences, run completely parallel in ancient and more recent times. Thus there appear in them people with symbolic names, people who utter verses, prophecies, second sight and so on…. People with prophetic powers get their knowledge from … a presentiment, sometimes from dreams, sometimes from some kind of vision… understanding the language of birds. (188-89) Attendant Spirit: Fylgja • Guardian spirits go back to ancient times: “did no harm, unless their ‘owner’ was an evil person or in an evil mood, and then only to other people” (Sveinsson 188). Variants on the ancient fylgja in all Nordic countries: body in trance but “external soul” travels (Sveinsson 190). • Evil attendant spirits did not appear widely until late 17th or even the 18th century, and never as attached to families until late 18th century.
    [Show full text]
  • Fishing As Meaning: Identity Formation and the “New Icelander” In
    FISHING AS MEANING: IDENTITY FORMATION AND THE “NEW ICELANDER” IN MANITOBA By Jeff R. Wood Integrated Studies Final Project Essay (MAIS 700) submitted to Dr. Mike Gismondi in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts – Integrated Studies Athabasca, Alberta December, 2012 i ABSTRACT Fishing as Meaning: Identity Formation and the New Icelander in Manitoba A proper understanding of the multicultural nature of the Canadian identity can best be accomplished by studies of the various cultures which constitute it. While identity formation is a discursive process, subjective, and entirely experiential, exploration of the local is never the less fundamental for understanding the whole. This paper examines the “local” Icelandic community along the west shore of Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba. It analyzes how the community draws meaning from the practice of fishing, and looks at its significance in identity formation. The approach taken explicitly separates the act of fishing, from the meanings that are extracted from the act, connecting fishers and non-fishers in a common bond of community. I demonstrate the symbolic and ritualistic meanings connected to fishing by the Icelandic community, as well as how a sense of self, of place, of bond, and of ownership and agency is extracted and applied to identity. Questions of cultural sustainability and fishing heritage will also be addressed. The topic is approached from an interdisciplinary perspective. I blend insights and methodologies from history, human and physical geography, sociology, and anthropology, with an attempt at an over-arching integration. ii Table of Contents Title Page i Abstract ii Table of Contents iii Introduction 1 Background 4 History 4 Geography of the Lake and the Fishery 7 Fishing as Meaning 9 Symbolism 9 Ritualism 11 Sense of Self 11 Sense of Place 12 Bond 13 Ownership and Agency 14 Cultural Sustainability 15 Conclusions 16 References 17 iii Fishing as Meaning: Identity Formation and the New Icelander in Manitoba By Jeff Wood Final Project Essay (MAIS 700) Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • The Landscape of Ukrainian Settlement in the Canadian West
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for Spring 1982 The Landscape Of Ukrainian Settlement In The Canadian West John C. Lehr University of Winnipeg Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Lehr, John C., "The Landscape Of Ukrainian Settlement In The Canadian West" (1982). Great Plains Quarterly. 1655. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1655 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. THE LANDSCAPE OF UKRAINIAN SETTLEMENT IN THE CANADIAN WEST JOHN C. LEHR To journey through parts of the western in­ belt where wood, water, and meadowland were terior of Canada at the turn of the century was available in abundance. Their uniformity in to experience the cultural landscapes of the appraising the resources of the land and their peasant heartland of Europe. Nowhere was this strong desire to settle close to compatriots, more true than on the northerly fringes of the friends, and kinfolk led to the formation of a parkland belt and across the. southern reaches series of large ethnically homogenous block of the boreal forest pioneered by Ukrainian settlements that eventually spanned the West immigrants from the Austrian provinces of from southeastern Manitoba to central Alberta Galicia and Bukovyna. (Fig. 1).2 Between 1892, when the fIrst small group of seven Ukrainian families settled in Alberta, THE ESTABLISHED FRAMEWORK and 1914, when the outbreak of war in Europe FOR SETTLEMENT terminated immigration from Austria-Hungary, more than 120,000 Ukrainians settled in Since the great majority of Ukrainian immi­ Canada.
    [Show full text]
  • Escape from the Great Plains the Icelanders in North Dakota and Alberta
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for Fall 1983 Escape From The Great Plains The Icelanders In North Dakota And Alberta Howard Palmer University of Calgary Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Palmer, Howard, "Escape From The Great Plains The Icelanders In North Dakota And Alberta" (1983). Great Plains Quarterly. 1695. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1695 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. ESCAPE FROM THE GREAT PLAINS THE ICELANDERS IN NORTH DAKOTA AND ALBERTA HOWARD PALMER Immigration historians in Canada and the United One important feature of this movement that States are becoming aware of the need to look they do not highlight is the extent to which at immigration history within the larger context it included European immigrants and their of North American history. Canadian immi­ children who had settled earlier in the United gration patterns have been affected, indirectly, States but decided to move on as new oppor­ almost as much by American immigration pol­ tunities opened up in Canada. The Hrst sizable icy as by Canadian policy. Within many ethnic settlements of Hungarians, Slovaks, Lithuan­ groups in North America, there has been a ians, Czechs, Danes, Finns, Norwegians, Swedes, significant exchange of people and cultural Icelanders, Dutch, Welsh, and Hutterites on patterns between Canada and the United the Canadian prairies did not come directly States.
    [Show full text]
  • Book Review: Icelanders in North America: the First Settlers
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 2004 Book Review: Icelanders in North America: The First Settlers Gudren Björk Gudsteins University of Iceland Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Gudsteins, Gudren Björk, "Book Review: Icelanders in North America: The First Settlers" (2004). Great Plains Quarterly. 278. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/278 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. BOOK REVIEWS 51 Icelanders in North America: The First Settlers. By Jonas Thor. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2002. 306 pp. Photographs, maps, figures, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. C$19.95. Jonas Thor's study offers an excellent view into the background and development of Ice­ landic migration to the West, briefly outlin­ ing immigration to Utah in the 1850s and Brazil in the 1860-70s, but primarily focusing on mass migration from 1870 to 1914 to and within the North American prairies, and gravi­ tating to the west coast. Thor outlines the climatic, demographic, geological, social, and political factors that explain why a sizable portion of the Icelandic 52 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2004 population was eventually swept into the account, comes from regional and family his­ stream of mass migration to the West. But his tories, newspaper and periodical articles, dia­ central concern is to analyze and assess the ries and letters, some appearing in print for reasons for the success or failure of each settle­ the first time.
    [Show full text]
  • Métis Scrip in Alberta Rupertsland Centre for Métis Research in Collaboration with the Métis Nation of Alberta
    Métis Archival ∞oject MÉTIS SCRIP IN ALBERTA RUPERTSLAND CENTRE FOR MÉTIS RESEARCH IN COLLABORATION WITH THE MÉTIS NATION OF ALBERTA Half-breed Scrip Comm si The research for this booklet was carried out by the Rupertsland Centre for Métis Research (RCMR), housed within the Faculty of Native Studies, University of Alberta, under the supervision of Dr. Nathalie Kermoal, Associate Dean Academic, Director of RCMR and relies upon the previous research completed by Dr. Frank Tough and the Métis Archival Project (MAP) Laboratory. Tough advised, edited and assisted with the compilation of this booklet. The documents for this project have been provided through the MAP Laboratory, under the supervision of Tough, who digitized and catalogued many of the Métis scrip records housed at Library and Archives Canada. This booklet has been prepared for the Métis Nation of Alberta Annual General Assembly (August 10- 12, 2018) by Nathalie Kermoal, Frank Tough, Jenn Rossiter and Leah Hrycun, with an overview of the New Framework Agreement by Jason Madden and Zachary Davis. Thank you to Lorne Gladue, Frank Tough and Zachary Davis for their feedback on this document. The views and ideas expressed herein are solely those of the creators and do not necessarily represent the views of the Métis Nation of Alberta, RCMR, the Faculty of Native Studies, MAP Laboratory, the University of Alberta, or Pape Salter Teillet LLP. Interior of Scrip commission tent at Lesser Slave Lake, Alberta. 1899. Source: Glenbow Archives (NA-949-22). Front Cover: Metis meeting with Scrip Commission at Fort Dunvegan, Alberta. 1899. Source: Glenbow Archives (NA-949-28).
    [Show full text]
  • Comparative Studies of Icelandic People Living in Canada and Iceland
    201 COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF ICELANDIC PEOPLE LIVING IN CANADA AND ICELAND J6hann Axelsson, Jens 6.P. Palsson, Gudrun Petursd6ttir, Nikulas Sigfusson and Antony B. Way Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Institute of Anthropology, University of Iceland, The Heart Preventive Clinic, Reykjavik, Iceland, and Texas Tech University, Health Sciences Center, Texas, U.S.A. Icelandic populations provide unique opportu­ carried out. nities for epidemiological and anthropological The first phase of the study took place in research, because of their genetic homogeneity and Canada in 1975, 1977 and 1978, when Piilsson the availability of detailed geneological inform­ continued his demographic, genealogical and ation concerning them. anthropological research on Vestur-lslendingar. In This paper describes a comparative study of all, nearly 700 adults and 300 school children were Icelanders and people of Icelandic descent living in investigated (20, 21, 22). Canada, commonly called Vestur-lslendingar. It The second phase, a field study of Icelanders aims mainly at assessing the relative importance of inhabiting the Fljotsdalur District ( Fljotsdals­ genetic and environmental factors in chronic herad) in Eastern leeland (Fig. 1), wa conducted disease, emphasizing cardiovascular risk factors. in 1979and1980. Asimilarstudyofthe Icelandic In Canada we investigate descendatns of Ice­ population in Canada is planned in 1982-83. landers who emigrated in the late 19th century and the beginning of this century. Both mono- and BACKGROUND polyfactorial traits will be used to assess the gene­ Iceland is an island bordering on the arctic circle. tic relations of these people to those in Iceland. It has an area of 103.000 km2, and its population An interdisciplinary comparative study will be is close to 230.000, half of whom live in the 6tf' tef' Fig.
    [Show full text]
  • Imperial Plots
    IMPERIAL PLOTS IMPERIAL PLOTS Women, Land, and the Spadework of British Colonialism on the Canadian Prairies SARAH CARTER UMP-IMPERIAL-LAYOUT-REVISEDJAN2018-v3.indd 3 2018-03-09 12:19 PM Imperial Plots: Women, Land, and the Spadework of British Colonialism on the Canadian Prairies © Sarah Carter 2016 Reprinted with corrections 2018 21 20 19 18 2 3 4 5 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database and retrieval system in Canada, without the prior written permission of the publisher, or, in the case of photocopying or any other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca, 1-800-893-5777. University of Manitoba Press Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Treaty 1 Territory uofmpress.ca Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada isbn 978-0-88755-818-4 (paper) isbn 978-0-88755-532-9 (pdf) isbn 978-0-88755-530-5 (epub) Cover design: Frank Reimer Interior design: Jess Koroscil Cover image: Sarah Minnie (Waddy) Gardner on her horse “Fly,” Mount Sentinel Ranch, Alberta, 1915. Museum of the Highwood, MH995.002.008. Printed in Canada This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publica- tions Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The University of Manitoba Press acknowledges the financial support for its publication program provided by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Department of Sport, Culture, and Heritage, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Manitoba Book Publishing Tax Credit.
    [Show full text]
  • Treaties, Land Disputes, Agreements and Rights
    TREATIES, LAND DISPUTES, AGREEMENTS AND RIGHTS PRE-TEACH/PRE-ACTIVITY Begin by explaining the Indigenous perspectives on owning land and how this concept was introduced with European contact. During early colonial times, Europeans acquired Indigenous lands through treaties, some of which are still disputed today. It is also important to note that many treaties are celebrated and that when concerns about treaties are raised it is often because the terms of treaties are not being honoured and respected. In more recent times, many Indigenous communities were displaced as the national and provincial park systems were established in the late 19th and early 20th century. The people from those communities were moved to less attractive, less useful lands, sometimes by force. Negotiations over Indigenous land rights continue, dealing with issues of unceded territory and grievances about past promises and treaties. If you have not already done so, invite a facilitator of the KAIROS Blanket Exercise to come to your school to provide an interactive educational experience. Today, treaties are at the heart of Canada’s political landscape. From the first contact between Indigenous Peoples and Europeans, formal and informal treaties have formed the basis for military and economic alliances. Treaty-making has evolved from early colonial times, when treaties were more about ensuring military support or continued trade, to later in Confederation times, when treaties centered on resources and land use. Today, much of Canada’s land is covered by different treaties, and the terms of these treaties remain a topic of debate. “In her paper on the meaning of the treaties, Delia Opekokew pointed out the need to consider more than the bare treaty text.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rights to the Land May Be Transferred"
    THE RIGHTS TO THE LAND MAY BE TRANSFERRED" Archival Records as Colonial Text—A Narrative of Metis Scrip Frank Tough & Erin McGregor Introduction: Problem, Place, and Period IN 1994, THE METIS of Northwest Saskatchewan launched a land claim against the governments of Canada and Saskatchewan.1 To satisfy this claim they must meet three basic challenges: first, the Metis must demonstrate their existence as an Aboriginal people;2 second, they must show their historic and contemporary land use and occupancy patterns in Northwest Saskatchewan, thereby establishing a 3 proprietary claim to Aboriginal title; and third, the Metis must prove that their Aboriginal title existed at the time of effective Canadian sovereignty. Similarly, any valid claims to Aboriginal rights must be based on the identification of specific activities that were practised at the time of Canadian control. Specifically, the Metis need to address the effect of the government's "Half-breed" scrip policies on their propriety interests in order to counter the government's legal claim that their Aboriginal title was clearly and plainly extinguished. Our study here contributes to this third challenge by first establishing a general model of the land scrip system, and then examining one individual scrip claimant's paper trail in order to illustrate the ways in which this system might have failed to meet the standards of existing conventions for conveying interests in property. As arcane as the history of Metis scrip is, an understanding of the details of colonial land systems that became a central foundation of the Canadian nation state is necessary to work out the sharing of space today between Indigenous peoples and the present-day descendents of settler society.4 Abundant historical records exist to demonstrate the distinctive qualities of the Metis society that emerged in what is now Northwest Saskatchewan, along with accounts of their use of lands and resources.
    [Show full text]