A War of Wor(L)Ds: Aboriginal Writing in Canada
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A WAR OF WOR(L)DS: ABORIGINAL WRITING IN CANADA DURING THE ‘DARK DAYS’ OF THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Department of History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By Brendan Frederick R. Edwards Keywords: Aboriginal people, Canada, literacy, print culture Copyright Brendan Frederick R. Edwards, June, 2008. All rights reserved. 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 of the Department of History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 i TABLE OF CONTENTS page ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... vii INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER ONE Discovery, print, and European memory ...........................................................................19 CHAPTER TWO History and memory through writing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries...............39 CHAPTER THREE Literary conception becomes political reality: the bureaucratic and political environment of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries......................................73 CHAPTER FOUR Charles A. Cooke (Thawennensere): Mohawk scholar, civil servant, amateur anthropologist, performer, and writer ................................................................................92 CHAPTER FIVE Edward Ahenakew: aspiring Plains Cree novelist and writer, respected clergyman, and amateur anthropologist..............................................................................................132 CHAPTER SIX Andrew Paull: Squamish political leader, respected sportsman, newspaper columnist, and editor/publisher .........................................................................................................162 CHAPTER SEVEN “Not the Only Pebble on the Beach”: Bernice Winslow Loft (Dawendine) vs. Ethel Brant Monture ........................................................................................................194 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................222 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................241 ii ABSTRACT From the late fifteenth century onward the new world has been described, imagined, and created via the written word and the printing press. Europeans and Euro-North Americans laid claim to the new world through print culture, both politically (through written treaties and legislation) and culturally (through popular fiction and non-fiction), creating and defining popular and widespread notions of land ownership and cultural otherness. This thesis examines, from an historical-cultural point-of-view, the efforts of five early twentieth century Aboriginal writers in Canada, Charles A. Cooke, Edward Ahenakew, Bernice Loft Winslow, Andrew Paull, and Ethel Brant Monture. These individuals were writing in the period after 1915 (the death of E. Pauline Johnson) and before 1960 (roughly when the modern cultural renaissance of Aboriginal peoples in Canada began), and each used print and literary endeavour as a means of writing-back to the widespread stereotypes about Aboriginal peoples and land ownership which permeated non-Aboriginal writing about Indians in this era. The period between 1915 and 1960 has been described by previous scholars as having been void of Aboriginal literary production, but this thesis shows that some Aboriginal peoples used print and publishing, for perhaps the first time, to communicate with other Aboriginal peoples provincially, nationally, and in some cases, internationally. Writing and print were used as a kind of “call-to-arms” in the early twentieth century by the Aboriginal writers discussed in this work, and their efforts demonstrate that there has been a continuum of Aboriginal writing in Canada from the early nineteenth century through to contemporary times. Through the adoption and careful articulation of western print culture, Aboriginal peoples have made efforts at laying claim and asserting control over the cultural and political literary (mis)representations of Indians in Canada. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study would never have been completed without the assistance and support of the following people and organisations: Professor Donald B. Smith at the University of Calgary for his encouragement and generosity in sharing ideas and materials relating to Charles A. Cooke and Bernice Loft Winslow, and for his insightful comments and suggestions as the external reviewer of this dissertation; Professor David R. Miller at First Nations University in Regina for his encouragement and generosity in sharing his ideas and materials relating to Edward Ahenakew; my doctoral supervisor, Professor J.R. Miller at the University of Saskatchewan, for his enduring encouragement and faith in my abilities; Graham and Joann Cooke and family in Edmonton, Alberta, and Doug and Nona Argue in Nepean, Ontario for opening their doors to me and sharing their memories of their grandfather, Charles A. Cooke; and Heather Hodgson at First Nations University for sharing her memories and materials in relation to her great-uncle, Edward Ahenakew. Thank you also to members of my advisory committee, which included Professors Keith Carlson, Ken Coates, Kristina Fagan, Jim Handy, and Dale Miquelon. A number of archivists and librarians were of great assistance, and thanks is due to them as well: Patricia Forget, Archivist at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec for her friendly assistance; Valerie Lutz and Roy Goodman, librarians at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for their friendly assistance and hospitality; Jennifer Bunting, Archivist at the Lennox and Addington County Museum and Archives, Napanee, Ontario; Virve Wiland, librarian at the Woodland Cultural Centre Library in Brantford, Ontario; Megan Kerrigan, Assistant Archivist at the Queen’s University Archives in Kingston, Ontario; the staff and archivists at the Regina Branch of the Saskatchewan Archives Board; staff at the InfoAction Information and Research Centre at the Vancouver Public Library for their iv timely assistance; staff at the Rare Books and Special Collections division of the University of British Columbia Library for their assistance with The Thunderbird; Lindsay Moir, Senior Librarian at the Glenbow Museum Library; Sally Harrower, Curator of Manuscripts at the National Library of Scotland; librarians and staff at the Vancouver Sun and Province Infoline Service; staff and archivists at the British Columbia Provincial Archives, particularly Judy Root; librarians, archivists, and staff at Library and Archives Canada; Evan Morton, Curator at the Tweed and Area Heritage Centre, Tweed, Ontario; staff at the University of Saskatchewan Library, especially the Special Collections Department, for their friendly assistance and support, the staff of the Inter-Library Loans department, and Angie Gerrard and her staff at Off-Campus Library Services; and Lorne Hollett at Them Days Archives in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. Additional encouragement and assistance, in varying forms, was offered by colleagues and professors at several institutions. I would like to particularly acknowledge the following: Thomas H.B. Symons, Founding President and Vanier Professor Emeritus at Trent University for his friendship, support, and ceaseless encouragement and faith in my abilities; Professor Peter McNally at McGill University for first planting the seeds of this line of study in my head; Dr. Sandra Campbell at Carleton University for sharing her work in relation to Lorne Pierce; members and executive members of the Canadian Association for the Study of Book Culture (CASBC), and the Bibliographical Society of Canada (BSC), for their encouragement and support; members of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP); faculty, staff, and students of the Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, especially fellow students, Byron Plant and Merle Massie who offered advice and insight; fellow