David Parent

Governing Metis Indigeneity: The Settler-Colonial Dispossession and Regulation of the Metis in Mid-Twentieth Century Manitoba by David Parent A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Indigenous Studies Faculty of Native Studies and Department of Sociology University of Alberta © David Parent, 2021 Abstract Bringing together the fields of Critical Indigenous Studies, settler-colonial studies, and governmentality studies, this dissertation seeks to methodologically trace the dispossession of Metis from lands in Manitoba throughout the mid-twentieth century by placing these dispossessions into the multijurisdictional and socio-historical context. In the first half I engage dominant Canadian historiography in order to trace out a broader governing apparatus that possessed technologies of education, employment, immigration, and health aided in normalizing the dispossession of predominantly racialized populations by settler-colonial populations and their municipal apparatuses. The second half of the dissertation focusses on original archival research. I engage nineteenth century Metis historians to genealogize the formation of Manitoba’s provincial apparatus which formed the basis for the establishment and proliferation of municipal apparatuses in Manitoba throughout the former half of the twentieth century. I trace the maneuvering between federal, provincial, and municipal apparatuses in governing Metis in Manitoba through various agricultural programs meant to increase the overall health and security of the settler-colonial population, as well as through social welfare reports that sought to identify and recommend how to ‘improve’ Manitoba Metis. In the final chapter, using my own historic Metis community of Minnewaken as a case study I demonstrate how the Rural Municipality of Coldwell dispossessed Metis residents who went from owning 4000 acres of land in 1915, to 10 acres of land in 1970. I trace this land dispossession through an engagement with local histories and municipal tax-rolls, by-laws, and council minutes. Taxes and by-laws, I argue, were key technologies of municipal apparatuses that rationalized and realized the dispossession of Metis from Minnewaken. A key emphasis of this dissertation focusses on illustrating the ways in which ii municipal governments, in particular, came to represent significant vectors of Metis land dispossession during this era. iii Preface This thesis is an original work by David Parent. No part of this thesis has been previously published. iv Dedication To Lucy Chartrand and Great-Granny Catherine Monkman, look what kind of research your friendship spurred… v Acknowledgements Chris Andersen has been an unwavering and careful supervisor and mentor throughout all of my graduate training. One day I hope to pay it forward. Amy Kaler, Sara Dorow, and Adam Gaudry provided incredible and generous support throughout the project. I’d especially like to acknowledge the monthly grad forums that Amy and Sara hosted that modeled for me how to be a good peer, colleague and how to engage generously. I’d like to thank my internal-external George Pavlich and my external examiner Daniel Voth for their engagement with this project. To my closest academic sibling Jessica Kolopenuk, our friendship and co-thinking means the world to me: this might be my ontology. To my family for always putting up with your annoying relative and his persistent questions. Thanks especially to my grandmother Rose Schrul (nee Monkman), Uncle Robert Monkman, cousin Lillian Pascoe, and Uncle Lloyd Torgerson whose own stories have been so formative to my research. Visiting with you has been and continues to be something that I cherish and I could never have done this research without you. My grandmother also deserves special credit for coming to the archive with me and helping me fill out call-slips to expedite my digitizing of tax rolls. To Diane Malcolm, I’m so grateful that you reached out to me back in the early days of 2019. To Pat and Bob Roberts, thanks for the visits, ham and scalloped potatoes, and continued interest in helping me further research local history. To my dad Dave Sr., thank you for always encouraging me to carry on, partner. To my sister Rosie and cousin Natasha, your lifelong criticisms truly shaped me to withstand an academic environment— I now go by Doctor, but only to you two. To Aunty Wendy, that’s Dr. Boo, to you. And to Uncle Drew, that’s Dr. brother. To all my family in Transcona, Karen, Kevin, Miranda, Matthew, Nevaeh, and Nathalie, our family dinners have meant everything to me to encourage me out of my hole while I was chipping away at this project. To my family members who passed before I finished, Mom and Uncle Dave, and Aunty May, thanks for instilling in me the value of visiting; to having a disregard for bedtime when there was time to spend together and dice to roll. Finally to my cats Mafii and Skoden, your emotional labour has carried me through the last 3 years and I’m really excited for the day when you finish your own discourse analyses of Road Allowance Kitten, perhaps your favourite aunty, Shaina Humble, will support you as much as she has me. I also want to thank my life-long friends, Kelsey and Gord Brown-Osmond, who made t-shirts that professed that I was better than them at scrabble in order to be included in this acknowledgement—a deal is a deal. And to Paul Nash who needed to do sod all, m8. You all continue to keep me humble and to remember the importance of humour. To all the professors in the Faculty of Native Studies, your support and training have been top- notch and I couldn’t imagine having done my graduate training elsewhere. From Kim TallBear’s theory and methodology courses, to Shalene Jobin’s research practicum course during my MA, or the opportunity to work on the MOOC with Paul Gareau, I experienced a supportive and intellectually stimulating learning environment that I hope I can help contribute to some day in my own teaching. To FNS’s resident great-white elder Frank Tough, thank you especially for the talks on fish, Manitoba history, and mapping. I aspire to fit as many data rich slides into my own presentations as you. vi To my cohort, Dennis, Merissa, Jeanine, and Denise, it feels like just yesterday that we started the journey together. Thanks for the wild ride! To Wyatt Schiefelbien and Rob Hancock I cherish our ability to deeply disagree. To Molly Swain, thanks for inspiring my turn towards considering a Metis liberalism. To Chelsea Vowel I love our ability to make those who think we should agree uncomfortable with our disagreements: you’re wrong (about what, I’ve yet to decide). To Angie Tucker, our research together has only begun, thanks for saving me in California! To the Faculty of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato, thank you for hosting me in Summer 2019. Thanks to Brendan Hokowhitu, your encouragement to think of municipalities as capillaries really helped me in thinking through the reproduction of governmental apparatuses. Thanks to Aroha Harris for taking the time to show me around Auckland and the time to chat about postwar histories of New Zealand. To Hineiti Greensill, visiting Whaingaroa and learning about the place that shaped you and your family was an incredible experience that made me further appreciate the endurance of Indigeneity. To Roger Maaka, I am so thankful for the day that we spent together. In sharing your own comparative experiences of Indigeneity and colonialism in New Zealand and Canada, you helped me in sharpening my own analyses that certainly benefited my thinking and writing. To all of the fellow graduate students and professors who have indulged me at conferences over the years, your patience is most appreciated. I’m sorry to the ones I’ve scared (Kristen), though I stand behind my assertion that no one should wear a “keepin’ it Riel” shirt, EVER. I’ve missed these relationships over the last year and cannot wait until our in-person discussions can resume. Our voice memos and zooms have gotten me through this last year and they’ll have to do until the ‘after-times.’ Since moving to Winnipeg to begin my position as an assistant professor while finishing my dissertation, I have especially enjoyed afternoons spent at the Manitoba archives with Mary Jane McCallum and Erin Millions. I can’t wait until we can spend more afternoons pouring over documents and helping other Indigenous community members and students in navigating the archives. To Owen Toews whose work on urban histories continues to inspire my own. To my new colleagues David Churchill, Tina Chen, Mylene Gamache, and Sean Carleton, and my cousin-colleague Jeremy Patzer, thanks for the warm welcome and continued support through a difficult year and help with navigating a new institution. This research benefited from extensive and generous funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council both through my own Bombardier scholarship and through Chris Andersen’s Insight grant that truly sent me down the path of twentieth century Metis research. In addition, I’d like to thank the Karol J Krotki Population research scholarship granted by the Department of Sociology. Population research of the Metis in Manitoba during the twentieth century is a difficult feat; however, through this research, I believe, I’ve begun to scratch the surface of how we might reconstruct a twentieth century Manitoba Metis database that centres our relationships to land and each other. The funding

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