Contesting the Colonial Order on the Canadian Prairies: Government Policy, Indigenous Resistance and the Administration of Treaty 6, 1870-1890 by Melanie Niemi-Bohun A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Department of History and Classics University of Alberta © Melanie Niemi-Bohun, 2016 Abstract This dissertation highlights the responses of Indigenous leaders and communities to the emergence of the colonial order on the Canadian prairies between 1870 and 1890. The complexities of their actions reveal significant points of weakness in the colonial order. Colonial governance strategies for the administration of Indigenous populations in western Canada intersected with Indigenous tactics in the face of the overwhelming economic transitions and other pressures of settler colonialism, and this resulted in unexpected outcomes. Paylist data, contextualized by other historical sources, reveal the various ways in which Indigenous peoples used both mobility and manipulation of status categories as forms of tactical resistance to the implementation of government administrative strategies. Indigenous contestation of the colonial order was intertwined with elements of adaptation to new economic, political and social realities of the mid to late nineteenth century. The construction of ‘Indian’ and ‘Metis’ status categories were negotiated by both Indigenous peoples and colonial administrators in various ways, which resulted in unintended/unforeseen consequences for Indigenous familial and community identities. Indigenous peoples, both First Nations and Metis, were forced to choose between these racialized categories during and after Treaty negotiations, and it is evident that the historically contingent creation of the Metis status category challenged a particular bureaucratic understanding of Indigenous identities. Indeed, treaty commissioners barely muddled their way through instances of Metis communities agreeing to self-identify as ‘Indian’ in the early Numbered Treaties. The result was an ad-hoc colonial administration that failed to reflect the very circumstances of the peoples those policies were meant to ‘assist.’ Between 1876 and 1884, the Canadian government was fearful of losing control of the various Indigenous groups that made up Treaty 6. Consequently, people in this territory had some power to influence the ii administration of policy. Indigenous communities employed tactics of mobility and the negotiation of identities to expose the porous realities of Canadian policy and to subvert, at least for a time, the actions and intentions of Indian agents and their superiors. As the colonial order gained strength following the military victory of 1885, government officials could more effectively constrain the tactics of individuals and communities. Yet even then Indigenous tactics often resulted in outcomes unanticipated by both colonial administrators and Indigenous peoples. Given the contemporary efforts of Indigenous communities and settler-allies to de- colonize Canadian policy, this study serves to underscore the historical points of Indigenous resistance tactics in response to ill-conceived state strategies. It is my hope that the exposure of colonialism’s malleable moments, the instances of weakness, will encourage scholars to continue the search for ways in which Indigenous communities actively contested powerful structural and repressive forces. iii Acknowledgements This dissertation was a decade-long journey and could not have been completed without the incredible support of mentors, funders, friends, and family. My supervisor, Gerhard Ens, provided wonderful guidance and meaningful encouragement. Always generous with your time and advice, I cannot thank you enough. Thank you also to members of my supervisory and examining committees - Sarah Carter, David Mills, Jane Samson, Sarah Krotz, and George Colpitts - for seeing me through this long process. This research would not have been possible without the generous financial support provided by the University of Alberta, the Luxton Foundation, the Alberta Lands and Settlement Infrastructure Project, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). So many friends and colleagues have inspired me, and kept me grounded. Thank you to Bob Cole, Chris Hackett, Robin Adkins, Katherine Zwicker, Sharon Romeo, and the entire Clio’s Hags slo-pitch team for your support, friendship and many coffee dates and/or beers over the years. Laura Adkins-Hackett: thank you for not only your friendship, but also your help with all that crazy data entry. Shannon Stunden Bower and Sean Gouglas, James Muir and Karine de Champlain, Karen and Mark Edwards, Sarah and Archie Maclean, Maggie and John Harris, Jessica McMinn and Ben Wheeler, Tolly Bradford and Lesley Harrington: thank you for all the Friday night pizzas, the wine, the stimulating conversations, the babysitting swaps, and more playdates over the years than I can count. To all of you, thank you for keeping me sane! I cannot imagine getting through this PhD without every single one of you. A lot of life happens in ten years. I found my life partner and best friend, Jim Bohun, and now have two lovely, fun, energetic boys, Sam and Adam. While at times family-life felt as though it was slowing the dissertation process down, it also made it far more meaningful. Thank iv you, Jim, for your unwavering support and always being by my side. I am also thankful for his wonderful parents Ed and Deanna Bohun. Ed passed away just before my defence – I know how proud he was that I saw it through. To my amazing sister, Jessica Hein, her husband Dan Hein, and my loving parents, Tony and Florance Niemi: you have supported me through every moment. You all mean absolutely everything to me. Thank you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: 1 Chapter 1: “The Lure of Inevitability”: Re-framing Pre-Confederation Canadian Indian Policy, 1815-1870 27 1.1 Introduction 27 1.2 Treaty-Making and Policy Formation from 1815-1840 32 1.2.a Royal Proclamation and Treaty Precedents 32 1.2.b Darling Commission 40 1.2.c Macaulay’s Report 44 1.3 Defining Indians, Protecting Land: the 1840s, 1850s and 1860s 52 1.3.a The Bagot Commission 53 1.3.b Municpal Taxation 59 1.4 The Robinson Treaties 69 1.5 Conclusion 82 Chapter 2: Confederation, Dominion Expansion, and the Colonial Construction of a Metis Status Category 85 2.1 Introduction 85 2.2 Imperial Withdrawal: Continuity, with a Dash of Change 87 2.3 Confederation and the Acquisition of the Northwest: Indian Policy and the Indian Act 1869 90 2.4 The Manitoba Act, 1870 and the Colonial Construction of a Metis Status 93 2.4.a “Half-breed” Category Precedent in the United States 96 2.5 Indian Policy, 1870-1876 100 2.6 Conclusion 107 Chapter 3: Setting Precedents: Negotiating Metis Inclusion in the Early Numbered Treaties, 1870-1873 109 3.1 Introduction 109 3.2 Setting a Precedent at the Stone Fort: Indigenous Prescience in Treaty Negotiations 114 3.3 The Case of Yellow Quill: Band Representation, Membership and Metis Status in Treaty 1 126 3.4 The Fort Frances “Half-Breed Reserve” in Treaty 3 139 3.5 Conclusion 146 Chapter 4: The Making of Treaty 6 and the Problem of Indian Affairs Administration on the Prairies, 1876-1880 148 4.1 Introduction 148 4.2 Dispersal, Disease, and Devastation on the Plains Pre-Treaty 6 150 4.3 Treaty 6 Negotiations 158 4.4 Coming into Treaty 164 4.5 Conclusion 171 vi Chapter 5: ‘Where shall the line be drawn…?’: Government Categorical Strategies and Metis Familial Tactics in Treaty 6, 1876-1884 174 5.1 Introduction 174 5.2 Creating New Colonial Categories 175 5.3 Negotiating Metis in Treaty 6 178 5.4 Government Administrative Responses 185 5.5 The ‘Straggler’ Colonial Category 191 5.6 The ‘Orphan’ Colonial Category 194 5.7 Conclusion 197 Chapter 6: Indigenous Resistance and Mobility in Treaty 6, 1876-1884 199 6.1 Introduction 199 6.2 Interpreting Paylist Data: Continuity and Change in Band Membership 200 6.2.a Treaty 6 Paylist Anomalies by Region 206 6.2.b Edmonton District Paylist Anomalies 208 6.2.c Saddle Lake/Victoria District Paylist Anomalies 212 6.2.d Prince Albert/Carlton Paylist Anomalies 216 6.2.e Battleford District Paylist Anomalies 220 6.3 Coming into Treaty, Going out to Hunt: Starvation in Treaty 6, 1879-1880 226 6.3.a Edmonton/Saddle Lake Districts: Percentage Difference and Movement Out of Attackakoop Band in 1880 228 6.3.b Battleford District Percentage Difference 231 6.3.c Mobility and Administration in Treaty 6 234 6.4 Coming in from the Plains, 1881-1883 239 6.5 Conclusion 262 Chapter 7: 1885 and After: Government Repression and Indigenous Resistance, 1885-1890 264 7.1 Introduction 264 7.2 Arrival of the 1885 North-West Scrip Commission 266 7.3 Familial Tactics of the Peeaysis Band: Band Formation to Band Dissolution 275 7.4 The Dissolution of the Papaschase Band 282 7.5 The Making of the Enoch Band 287 7.6 Denied for Disloyalty: The Punishment of ‘Rebel’ Bands 296 7.7 Band Transfers in the Post-1885 Period 302 7.7.a Edmonton/Peace Hills District Band Transfers 304 7.7.b Band Separations: Alexis and Ironhead 304 7.7.c Saddle Lake/Victoria District Band Transfers: A Case of Band Amalgamations 306 7.8 Southward Movement Noted on Paylists 312 7.9 Conclusion 314 Conclusion 316 Bibliography 323 vii Appendix 1.0: Paylist Database Description and Method 347 1.1 Sample Paylist 355 Appendix 2.0: Treaty 6 Band Transfer Charts, 1885-1890 356 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Map of Manitoba in 1876 111 Figure