Rupturing the Myth of the Peaceful Western Canadian Frontier: a Socio-Historical Study of Colonization, Violence, and the North West Mounted Police, 1873-1905
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Rupturing the Myth of the Peaceful Western Canadian Frontier: A Socio-Historical Study of Colonization, Violence, and the North West Mounted Police, 1873-1905 by Fadi Saleem Ennab A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Sociology University of Manitoba Winnipeg Copyright © 2010 by Fadi Saleem Ennab TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................... 8 Mythologizing the Frontier .......................................................................................... 8 Comparative and Critical Studies on Western Canada .......................................... 15 Studies of Colonial Policing and Violence in Other British Colonies .................... 22 Summary of Literature ............................................................................................... 32 Research Questions ..................................................................................................... 33 CHAPTER THREE: THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS ......................................... 35 CHAPTER FOUR: ON VIOLENCE ................................................................................ 49 CHAPTER FIVE: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................. 62 Description of Sample ................................................................................................. 62 Sampling Method and Analysis ................................................................................. 63 Limitation of data ....................................................................................................... 66 CHAPTER SIX: VIOLENCE AROUND WESTERN CANADA ................................... 68 CHAPTER SEVEN: VIOLENCE BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF THE NWMP ............ 75 CHAPTER EIGHT: VIOLENCE DURING THE ERA OF THE NWMP ....................... 87 Violence in Western Canada 1873-1885 ................................................................... 88 Violence in Western Canada 1886-1905 ................................................................. 133 CHAPTER NINE: SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION ................................................... 161 Theoretical Analysis .................................................................................................. 172 Implications of the Study.......................................................................................... 187 The Archive – A Site of Knowledge and Production ............................................. 192 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 200 References ....................................................................................................................... 207 i ABSTRACT Recently there has been more critical attention given to the violent role of the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) in the unfolding of settlement and colonial laws in western Canada. However, few have offered a comprehensive analysis of the violent encounters that are recorded (and missing) in the archival records and correspondence of the NWMP, and other secondary sources. Similarly, few researchers have utilized the ‘past’ experiences of Aboriginal peoples to try and understand the ongoing chasm today between non-indigenous settlers and Aboriginal peoples of Canada. In making the “marginal central” (Fitzpatrick 1989), and simultaneously challenging the dominant colonial narrative, I offer a socio-historical analysis of western Canada during the NWMP era (1873-1905), to show how it was (and still is), like other colonial frontiers, a violent space and time. I explore this argument by situating the violent encounters between the NWMP, white settlers, and Aboriginal peoples within the colonial relations that were structured to maintain the marginalization and dispossession of Aboriginal peoples. Failing to recognize and resist this part of western Canadian history, and the underlying logic behind it, is denial and limits the rationality and potential of non-indigenous Canadian populations to work for, and even conceive of, achieving an authentic reconciliation with Aboriginal peoples. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS From the very early thoughts to the materialization of this project, I am especially grateful to Dr. Russell Smandych, Department of Sociology, who sparked my interest and repeatedly refined its growth and presentation. Russell offered a wealth of information and feedback, and patiently edited and revised many drafts of this paper. My thanks go to Dr. Andrew Woolford, Department of Sociology, for his theoretical insights and engaging comments. Also to, Dr. Jean Friesen, Department of History, for her support and encouragement, and for providing valuable advice, sources and comments. I am very appreciative for the potential opened by this thesis, which each and every one of you has nourished. I should also thank the Faculty of Arts at the University of Manitoba for offering me the J. G. Fletcher Award; without it, I would not been able to conduct my archival research in Ottawa. On that note, I would also like to thank the staff of the Library and Archives of Ottawa who provided me with all the assistance needed and ensured I had most my files retrieved on time. Finally, I would like to thank my mother, father, and sister for giving more meaning for my journey. iii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Nations are imagined communities (Anderson 1996). Scholars critical of colonialism and its effects on indigenous populations have argued that this imagination is forked, as it is never free of its colonial roots (Bhabha 1984: 126). This imagination often mixed with myths and misrepresented ‘facts,’ serves the ideologies of those who have power and who would want that power to seem to be inherently and legitimately theirs (Hildebrandt 2008: 110). One of the most treasured parts of the Canadian imagination revolves around the myth of a peaceful frontier settled by honourable officials of the North West Mounted Police (NWMP), who provided an efficient platform for political governance and economic development (Walden: 1982). Canada stands out from among other colonies in the way it has placed its police force at the heart of its national symbols (Katerberg 2003: 546). As Longstreth argues (1960: 179), “Very rarely, in this ever- changing world, has so small a body of men attained a world-wide fame in so short a while, as the young Force did, and kept it, and even added to it.” Unlike other countries that put the history of their police force on the shelf, Canadians openly boast about it across oceans, as evident in the ample sentimental ornaments of NWMP caricatures and flowery media coverage throughout the Canadian history. The myth around the NWMP is “so influential that even one hundred years later their history is still written from a single perspective – one that only presents the viewpoint of the colonizer” (Hildebrandt 2008: 35). However, this research is not interested in the imagination per se of the NWMP or to replicate what others have said; rather, it is interested, from a critical socio-historical perspective, in what has been excluded from or misrepresented in the imagining of the Canadian community. 1 Canadian legal-historical research has focused traditionally on topics that can be clearly understood with regard both to subject matter and to a clear research outline (Knafla 1995: 11). Canadian legal-historians therefore have not researched the subject of “violence” as a topic of investigation to any extent. Studies that have touched on the topic have mostly been restricted to writing about violence as it has been defined by criminal law and as it has been prosecuted in the courts. Even those who have studied violence tend to see it as aberrant and not part of western Canadian colonial relations. The question that must be asked is what was the nature of violence on the western Canadian frontier? By answering this question one is able to answer whether or not western Canada really was an exception or part of the rule to the pattern of frontier settlement and violence that existed locally and in other colonial settings, like Australia, New Zealand, and the United States? The purpose of my study will be to investigate this and other related questions about violence and the role of the NWMP on the western Canadian frontier from a theoretically informed sociological perspective. The frontier is commonly seen as a historical stage of development that progresses from an undeveloped to a developed civilized stage (Knafla 1995: 11). Based on this interpretation, the further development of the frontier entailed a retreat of the colonized (Aboriginal peoples). Moreover, due to this perceived stage of development the frontier is symbolically seen as a meeting or clashing place of peoples in which cultural and geographic borders were not clearly defined (Adelman and Aron 1999: 815). This particular conception of the frontier makes it difficult for researchers to look at violence as part of the colonial relations