Wilfrid Laurier University Scholars Commons @ Laurier Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) 2016 More than Stone and Iron: Indigenous History and Incarceration in Canada, 1834-1996 Seth Adema Wilfrid Laurier University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd Part of the Canadian History Commons, Criminology Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, and the Oral History Commons Recommended Citation Adema, Seth, "More than Stone and Iron: Indigenous History and Incarceration in Canada, 1834-1996" (2016). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive). 1826. https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/1826 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MORE THAN STONE AND IRON: INDIGENOUS HISTORY AND INCARCERATION IN CANADA 1834-1996 by Seth Adema Honours Bachelor of Arts (History) McMaster University, 2010 Master of Arts (History), McMaster University, 2011 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Doctor of Philosophy in History Wilfrid Laurier University Waterloo, Ontario, Canada © Seth Adema 2016 Abstract This dissertation examines Indigenous (First Nation, Métis, and Inuit) history as played out in Canadian prisons. It argues that in the prison, processes of colonialism, decolonization, and neocolonialism took place simultaneously. In the nineteenth century, the prison was built as part of a network of colonial institutions and polices. It was imagined, designed, and built by representatives of the Canadian state alongside other colonial institutions, drawing on similar intellectual traditions. It maintains the imprint of this colonial origin. Prisons also became arenas for Indigenous cultural exchange and cultural creation, which in most cases subverted the logic of the prison. This was part of a larger effort at decolonizing the prison. In the twentieth century, Indigenous prisoners actively challenged the colonial logic of the prison by affirming their Indigenous cultures and identities. As Indigenous inmates expressed their cultural identities in prisons, they created literary, material, and ceremonial cultural frameworks distinct to the prison yet reflective of the wider Canadian context. Still, colonial practices emerged in new ways, in a process described in this dissertation as neocolonialism. By drawing on oral and archival sources, this dissertation demonstrates the complexity behind these historical processes of colonization, decolonization, and neocolonialism in Canada, while shedding light on the nature of the prison system and Indigenous history. i Acknowledgements I have had an enjoyable go of it as a PhD candidate, which I attribute to the help and support I have received from several sources. My thanks go out to Susan Neylan, who has been a terrific supervisor. She was supportive as I developed my arguments, and she saw the value of my work even when I wondered about it. Thanks to my committee members, Susan Roy, Lianne Leddy, Kim Anderson, and my external examiner Keith Carlson, whose feedback made this a better dissertation. Several people have been generous with their time and wisdom as interview participants for this project. They are Ed Buller, Allen Benson, Kim Pate, the Honourable Warren Allmand, Christie Jefferson, Charlie, and Eva Solomon. To each of them, I owe a debt of gratitude. Many people on campus have contributed to my academic experience. Thanks to the WLU history department for giving me an academic home. Thanks to my friends at the Writing Centre for advice (and employment), especially Jordana, Boba, and James. Thanks to Melissa Ireland and Jean Becker for helping me learn how to write Indigenous history as a white guy. Thanks also to the institutions and staff who made this research possible at the Anglican Church archives, the Provincial Archives of Alberta, the Ontario Provincial Archives, Library and Archives Canada, and Trent University. I am also thankful for the SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship and Ontario Graduate Scholarship that supported this work. Several communities outside of academia have supported me over these years. Waterloo Christian Reformed Church has been wonderful for me and my family. I am also thankful for the work I have done with Mike Hogeterp at the Christian Reformed Centre for Public Dialogue, which reminded me the value of my work. And of course, thanks to my family. Mom and Dad, Justin and Candice, Chara, Rebecca and Liam, Ted, and Sara. You all know why. Last but not least: Emily, Morgan, Henry, and Goose. I love you. ii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................. i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................ ii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................................. iii Chapter 1: Introduction: Reading Prison History as Indigenous History ........................................................ 1 PART ONE: BUILDING A COLONIAL INSTITUTION .............................................................. 36 Chapter Two: “A Cloud Before Them Which Made Things Dark”: 19th Century Law and Indigenous History37 Chapter Three: The Prison as a School of Liberalism: Indigenous Peoples within the Penitentiary, 1834-1950 .. 76 PART TWO: CONFRONTING A COLONIAL INSTITUTION ................................................ 113 Chapter Four: “The First Real Indian Studies Program,” 1950-1970 ........................................................... 114 Chapter Five: “Our Objective is to Get our People out of Jail and Keep Them out of Jail”: 1970-1978 ........... 150 Chapter Six: Professionalization, Neocolonialism, and the Development of Indigenous Programming, 1978-1996 ...................................................................................................................................................................... 187 PART THREE: CULTURAL RESPONSES TO INCARCERATION ......................................... 220 Chapter Seven: Double, Triple, and Quadruple Standards: Native Women in Canadian Prisons .................... 221 Chapter Eight: Talking Leaves: The Indigenous Penal Press........................................................................... 262 Chapter Nine: Joyceville’s Totem Pole and Material Culture in Prisons ........................................................... 299 Conclusion: Colonialism, Decolonization, and Neocolonialism in Prisons......................................................... 330 Appendix 1: Interview Participant Biographies ............................................................................................... 340 Appendix 2: Corrections and Conditional Release Act Sections 80-84 ............................................................ 342 Appendix 3: Images from the Penal Press ....................................................................................................... 343 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................... 351 iii Chapter 1: Introduction: Reading Prison History as Indigenous History The history of Canadian prisons is Indigenous history. This may seem surprising because Indigenous peoples have never built prisons. One of the most vocal and persistent critiques of the prison system as articulated by Indigenous activists, Elders, and prisoners is that in pre-contact Indigenous history there were no prisons. Noted legal scholar Michael Jackson wrote, “Aboriginal societies did not build prisons, and to the extent that imprisonment continues to be deemed necessary for some native offenders, it is appropriate that we remain cynical...”1 Reading penal history as Indigenous history challenges existing historiographical trends in the study of Canadian prisons. It also offers new ways to envision the prison as more than a colonial imposition. Situating the prison within Indigenous history is only possible by looking at the prison through what historian Keith Carlson calls an “Indigenous historical consciousness.”2 By framing the history of the Canadian prison system within this consciousness, the nature of penal history changes fundamentally. It also forces historians to consider the ways that Indigenous prisoners have actively resisted and shaped the penal system in Canada. This does not mean that finding Native agency within the history of Canadian penal systems is a “colonialist alibi.”3 What it does mean is that we refocus the history of the Canadian penitentiary system in order to see how it fit within Indigenous histories. Doing this shows that the relationship between Indigenous peoples and prisons as more complex than one of straightforward colonial hegemony and decolonization. Instead, colonization, decolonization, and neocolonialism all coexisted in prisons as Indigenous 1 Michael Jackson, Locking Up Natives in Canada: A Report of the Canadian Bar Association Committee on Imprisonment and Release. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia, 1988), 89. 2 Keith Thor Carlson, The Power of Place,