Land Claims of the Metis, Green Lake, Saskatchewan 1909-1930
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THE NATIONAL POLICY, THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND ORIGINAL SETTLERS : LAND CLAIMS OF THE METIS, GREEN LAKE, SASKATCHEWAN 1909-1930 A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Native Studies University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By John P. Thornton Spring 1997 0 Copyright John P . Thornton, 1997. All rights reserved . In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment 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 use of material in this thesis in whole or part shall be addressed to : Head of the Department of Native Studies University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5E6 i ABSTRACT This thesis questions the adequacy of the Department of the Interior's response to the land claims of Metis settlers in Green Lake, Saskatchewan . Metis people originally settled in Green Lake because of the pattern of development of the fur trade . Green Lake was a major nexus on the fur trade transportation system, which encouraged Metis settlement and community development . After Confederation, when the national policy generated regional differentiation through uneven development, Green Lake remained under fur-trade domination . National policy expansion reached Green Lake with surveys in 1909 and 1911, replacing fur-trade property relations with the Dominion Lands Act. The surveys revealed Green Lake as a fur trade settlement with property claims consistent with the fur trade economy. Prior treatment of such claims under national policy regulations promised recognition of Metis claims based on prior settlement. Economic recession and World War I led to the abatement of national policy expansion. As a result, the department postponed action on the Metis claims until renewed interest in national policy settlement . Legislation passed in 1919 provided new direction to departmental consideration of the Green Lake claims. The only remnant of recognition of fur trade settlement was reference to 1908 legislation requiring occupancy at the time of treaty . The department subsequently disposed of Metis claims by offering most claimants only a right to purchase claimed land . Departmental response to Metis claims at Green Lake was inadequate on several grounds. It failed to consider adequately property relations extant from the fur trade economy. It acted without due consideration for established precedents associated with the national policy. It acted ultra vires to carry out and justify a restrictive and mean spirited response to Metis claims. The retroactive nature of 1908 legislation unfairly penalized claimants in the Treaty Six area. The department's limitation of the eligibility of claimants by constrictive criteria was compounded by its failure to examine seriously the evidence of Metis settlement that would have met such criteria . At the time of the 1930 transfer of land administration to the prairie provinces, the land claims of the Metis settlers of Green Lake remained unsatisfied . 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. F. Laurie Barron, for his patience, advice, editorial work and his encouragement . I want to thank my committee members: Dr. David E. Smith, for sharing his knowledge of Canadian government and his always insightful conversation ; Dr. James B . Waldram, for his insistence that theory, advocacy and research can share the same platform ; Dr. Frank Tough, for his critical comments, his stimulating discussion of economic history, and the financial support he has arranged as Head of the Department of Native Studies through provision of sessional lecturer positions. I also thank my external examiner, Dr . David Miller, for his attention to my work and his willingness to participate in the oral defence of this thesis. I have been fortunate to receive and wish to acknowledge financial support from the University of Saskatchewan in the form of a College of Arts and Sciences Honours Scholarship and a College of Graduate Studies and Research Master's Thesis Scholarship. My respectful appreciation goes to Dr . Howard Adams for his dedicated instruction in Metis history during my undergraduate studies . As well, I would feel remiss if I did not acknowledge Professor Ken Hatt's original work on the Green Lake land claims for the Native Council of Canada : his blazes helped me find my way through the forest of files . I also greatly appreciated the forbearance of the staff of the Saskatchewan Archives Board as they suffered my sometimes manic requests for evermore files and photocopying : thank you to D'Arcy Hande, Maureen Fox and especially Nadine Small for her interest . As well, I was fortunate to be able to share my troubles and my ideas with my contemporary in the graduate program, Rudolfo Pino-Robles. There can also be no doubt about all the teaching done by the questions of my many students over the past few years, especially those from the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program in Prince Albert. Thank you all. Finally I am grateful to Murdine McCreath, whose support and encouragement helped me complete this project, and her friend, now also my friend, Kathy Hodgson-Smith . ui TABLE OF CONTENTS PERMISSION TO USE ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF FIGURES vu INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF METIS SETTLEMENT AT GREEN LAKE, 1670-1870 The lay of the land 4 'First contact' : Pedlar/HBC competition moves inland 8 Holding the fort: NWC/HBC competition in Green Lake 12 Green Lake and the BBC monopoly 16 CHAPTER TWO THE NATIONAL POLICY AND GREEN LAKE 28 Uneven development: the east-west articulation 29 Uneven development: the north-south articulation 36 Uneven development and the Metis Resistance 38 CHAPTER THREE THE NATIONAL POLICY TURNS NORTH 46 Factors leading to the surveys 47 Baseline surveys, 1909-10 51 The surveys of 1911-12 55 CHAPTER FOUR METIS SETTLEMENT AT GREEN LAKE, 1911-12 67 CHAPTER FIVE THE DECADE OF DELAY, 1912-1922 90 The lack of response : 1912-1919 93 Defining the options: the Miles survey claimants, 1920-1922 102 CHAPTER SIX DISPOSITION OF METIS LAND CLAIMS: 1923-1930 114 Preparing for the disposition 114 The disposition of the claims 118 CONCLUSIONS 135 iv BIBLIOGRAPHY 142 APPENDIX A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, 1912 149 The Laliberte family 149 The Morin family 152 The Aubichon family 154 The Sinclair family 157 The De(s)rocher family 158 Annie and Napoleon Girard 158 The Kennedy family 159 The Merasti and Lafleur families 159 Non-Aboriginal residents 159 v LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 : Birth and settlement data 68 Table 4.2 : Occupational data 71 Table 4.3: Work-force data 73 Table 4.4 : Agricultural/animal husbandry data 74 Table 4.5: Fixed capital assets 76 Table 4.6: Number and ages of children 78 Table 6.1 : Summary of dispositions of Metis claims 119 Table A. 1 : Tentative family groupings, 1912 150 vi LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1 .1 : The northwestern boundary of Rupert's Land Fig. 1 .2: The ChurchilllSaskatchewan/Athabasca Divides 7 Fig. 3 .1 : Portion of the map of the Crean Expedition, 1908 52 Fig. 3 .2: Powell Survey preliminary map, 1911 57 Fig. 5 .1 : Plan of Green Lake Settlement, 1915 96 Fig. 6.1 : Annotated plan of Green Lake Settlement, 1923 116 vii INTRODUCTION In the negotiations leading up to the Manitoba Act of 1870, Prime Minister John A . Macdonald chided the Metis for wanting benefits "fitting for civilised men" while also claiming "the privileges granted to Indians ."' One Red River delegate to the negotiations, Father N.J. Ritchot, replied that "because these settlers wish to be treated like other subjects of Her Majesty," it did not follow that "those among them who have a right as descendants of Indians should be obliged to lose those rights ."' Ritchot's resistance eventually resulted in the set-aside of 1 .4 million acres of land for the children of the Metis and the subsequent identification of scrip payments as satisfaction of Metis Aboriginal title . Consequently, most contemporary discussion of Metis land claims revolves around the issue of Aboriginal title and the efficacy of the scrip process in relieving the Crown of the burden of Metis Aboriginal title to land . While not denying the importance of Aboriginal title to Metis land claims, this thesis is not concerned with land claims arising out of Aboriginal title . Rather, it studies Metis claims to land based on settlement, that most important element of what John A . Macdonald would have held to be the qualities of "civilised men ." Macdonald had, after all, conceded Canadian recognition of claims to land by the original settlers just before chiding the Metis for claiming further land rights based on Aboriginal title . Administration of land became the responsibility of the Department of the Interior, which operated within the context of the larger set of policies gathered under the rubric of the national policy.