Chapter 15 It Is a Strict Law That Bids Us Dance PDF

CHAPTER 15 IT IS A STRICT LAW THAT BIDS...

CHAPTER 15 IT IS A STRICT LAW THAT BIDS US DANCE It is a strict law that bids us dance. It is a strict law that bids us distribute our property among our friends and neighbours. It is a good law. Let the white man observe his law, we shall observe ours. —An anonymous Kwakwaka’wakw chief addressing the anthropologist Franz Boas in British Columbia, 1896 A fter the North-West Rebellion, the federal government redoubled its efforts to assimilate Native people into the dominant white culture. Their plan had two components, both aimed at destroying the viability of Native societies. The first outlawed key cultural institutions, and the second sought to “re-educate” aboriginal children. The Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. policies implemented by politicians and Department of Indian Affairs bureaucrats at this time amounted to a plan for cultural genocide. They were put into effect in a particularly heavy-handed fashion in the West, where officials still regarded the Plains and coastal nations as potential threats to orderly settlement. Initially, most missionaries not only lobbied Parliament to pass the legislation needed to imple- ment the assimilation policies but also helped to administer and monitor the pro- grams. In the economic sphere, officials sought, with varying degrees of success, to undermine the communal orientation of Native economies. BANNING THE POTLATCH On the West Coast, the move to ban certain cultural practices began well before 1885. Missionaries were convinced that the potlatch seriously impeded their efforts 222 Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  It Is a Strict Law That Bids Us Dance 223 to convert the Native population, because one of the purposes of the cere- monies was to reinforce traditional beliefs and practices. According to a Methodist missionary from Nanaimo, “the Church and school cannot flourish where the ‘Potlatching’ holds sway.… Thus all the objects or advantages to be secured by good government are frustrated by this very demoralizing cus- tom.” Most Indian agents, who repre- sented the Department of Indian Affairs at the local level, agreed. To whip up support for their posi- tion, missionaries and Indian agents drew the attention of politicians and the public to those aspects of feasts that seemed the most contradictory to the customs and values of their own society. Totem poles at Kitwanga, Gitxsan territory, 1915. They stressed repeatedly that coastal nations “wasted” valuable time attending potlatches when they should have been employed elsewhere in more profitable pursuits. This, of course, was not a new charge. In the early nineteenth century, HBC traders often complained to London Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. that the Babine and Wet’suwet’en caught few furs in the winter because they spent most of their time “feasting and gambling.” Like the fur traders before them, the new critics could not understand why Native people amassed a prodigious quanti- ty of material goods only to “squander” it at feasts—“bankrupting” themselves in the process. The public destruction of wealth certainly was an aspect of the feasts that dis- turbed many outsiders whose European traditions placed a high value on the private accumulation of material goods. However, this usually took place during a so-called potlatch war. It is likely that such competitive ceremonies were uncommon before contact, given that the social order would have been more stable. The high degree of instability that characterized later societies was the result of massive depopulation caused by repeated epidemics; the movement of many Native people to trading-post sites, villages, and towns; increased per capita wealth; and the disruptive work of Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  224 An Illustrated History of Canada’s Native People missionaries and Indian agents. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, “competitive potlatching” was one of the ways coastal groups tried to establish a new social equilibrium. It became increasingly common among the Kwakwaka’wakw, who had suffered very heavy population losses but had prospered materially from their extensive participation in the evolving industrial economy, especially the commercial fishery. Feasting provided ambitious chiefs with an opportunity to extend their power and influence beyond traditional bounds. By engaging in “competitive potlatching,” however, coastal nations played into the hands of their critics. Indian agents, for instance, claimed that coastal Native people often had to turn to them for help after giving away all their possessions at the ceremonies. Even this dimension of potlatching probably was not as abhorrent to the mis- sionaries and Indian agents as the fact that elders used the ceremonies to maintain their influence over the younger generation and to promote traditional values. In 1881 the agent at Cowichan wrote that “these dances have been sadly on the increase during the present winter, and many young men have impoverished them- selves and their families because they had not the moral courage to oppose the cus- tom. Indeed, this want of courage or inability to withstand the sneers of the old people always forms one of the greatest drawbacks to the advancement of the Native races on the coast.” Coastal Native people who had been converted to Christianity often parroted this argument, as did those who resented chiefs who exceeded traditional bounds of chiefly power. Missionaries raised other objections about Native customs. Traditionally West Coast families arranged the marriages of their children because inheritance deter- Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. mined a person’s titles and privileges and those of his or her relatives. Among matri- lineal groups, such as the Kwakwaka’wakw, traditional marriage customs gave the impression that young girls were being “sold” for the goods exchanged when the marriage pledges were made and the unions celebrated. Missionaries charged that this was scandalous. Even more shocking to them was that some Native women engaged in prostitution to raise money to pay for family-sponsored potlatches. In 1873 Dr I. W. Powell was appointed Indian superintendent for British Columbia. Siding with the missionaries, Powell advocated appointing more agents in the remote north and banning the potlatch altogether. Gilbert M. Sproat, British Columbia’s first Indian reserve commissioner, also took up the cause. After touring the province, he wrote to Prime Minister Macdonald in 1879 to voice his worries about the “evils” of the potlatch. When Macdonald took up the issue in the House of Commons in the spring of 1883, he did so not out of concern for the coastal Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  It Is a Strict Law That Bids Us Dance 225 Dancing in elaborate ceremonial costumes was an integral part of a potlatch. Colonial settlers, who in this photograph are watching from a railway bridge, enjoyed the ceremonies, and many of them did not support government and missionary efforts to ban the events. Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. nations but for fear of the physical threat that they represented to settlers. “There are a large number … of the said Indians,” Macdonald told the House, who “are now, I believe, very profitably employed in the [salmon] canneries and establish- ments of that kind. Indians are now employed as miners and they work very well. But it must be remembered that they are not white men, and civilized, and must be strictly watched.… They are very suspicious and easily aroused; the white popula- tion is sparse and the Indians feel yet that they are lords of the country in British Columbia.” It is hardly surprising, therefore, that Macdonald and other politicians were sympathetic to the idea of eliminating a ceremony that brought West Coast Native people together. Because he was eager to avoid a costly subjugation program requiring the use of police, Macdonald issued an Order in Council on July 7, 1883, directing Indians to abandon the custom. Macdonald thought “such a Proclamation from the Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  226 An Illustrated History of Canada’s Native People well-known loyalty of the Native people generally and their reverence for Her Majesty the Queen will go far to induce them to abandon the heathenish custom of ‘Potlack.’” However, the continuing clamour for tougher measures led the Macdonald government to amend the Indian Act on April 19, 1884, making it a misdemeanour for anyone to encourage or participate in the potlatch “or in the Indian dance known as the ‘Tamanawas.’” Violators would be subject to imprison- ment for a minimum of two months and a maximum of six months. Subsequently, Section 3 of the Indian Act came to be widely known as the Potlatch Law. The coastal nations had no intention of abandoning this important institu- tion, and geography helped them preserve it. Most areas of coastal British Columbia remained beyond the easy reach of Indian agents until well after the turn of the century. Nations living in these remote areas flouted the Canadian law. For instance, four years after the imposition of the ban, the magistrate living at Hazelton on the Skeena River visited the Gitxsan village of Kitwangak to tell the people there that they had to refrain from any further potlatching. Later a local missionary told the magistrate, “They replied, that the law was a weak baby, and in several speeches defied you, and the Government.” In more accessible areas, the people took a more tactful approach and simply pointed out the hardships the new law created for them. They said that those who owed debts to their kinfolk and others before the passage of the law wanted to be allowed to repay their obliga- tions. Some of them wrote letters to Powell. The letter of Tummeen, the son of Chief Lohah of Comeakin, is typical: “I am not a chief, only a boy, but I owe near- ly $200 worth of property. My father has always tried to keep the law and teach us Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. to do so. But if he is not allowed to return his debts, in public, the disgrace will be more than he can bear.… My father, Lohah, has always helped white men even against the old or bad Indians, and if Mr. Powell does not help him now he will always be laughed at.” Many settlers did not support the war against potlatches. They enjoyed watching them; many local merchants profited when the participants stockpiled goods for redistribution; and they feared that violence might erupt if the govern- ment used force to suppress the feasts. Citing this last concern, the provincial MLA Henry Dallas Helmcken, the grandson of Sir James Douglas and a lawyer repre- senting Nisga’a potlatchers, introduced a resolution in the provincial Parliament in April 1897 that urged the immediate repeal of Section 3. Subsequently, the legisla- tors asked the federal government to investigate Indian complaints about the Potlatch Law. Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  It Is a Strict Law That Bids Us Dance 227 Indian agents were supposed to help enforce the law by collecting evidence and planning court actions against suspected violators, but there were not enough agents in British Columbia to do this and Parliament lacked the will to appropriate money for enforcement costs. The British Columbia government did not co-operate either, taking the position that the Indian Act was a federal responsibility. Provincial officials refused to allow the police to help Indian agents, and they denied them the use of provincial jails. The federal government was forced to backtrack. Powell told the Native peo- ple that they could hold ceremonies to “witness a return of gifts made on some for- mer occasion.” He granted this permission on the understanding that once people had discharged their debts they would stop potlatching. Of course, this was folly. In 1889 British Columbia and Ottawa worked out an arrangement whereby the province agreed, with great reluctance, to provide the police and jails needed to enforce Section 3. It did so on the understanding that local constables would con- sult Indian agents before taking any actions against violators. Just as the enforce- ment program was set to begin, however, it suffered a setback when a local justice of the peace arrested, convicted, and sentenced a Kwakwaka’wakw man for violating the Potlatch Law. The case was appealed to Matthew Begbie, the first chief justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. He overturned the summary convic- tion, noting that “[d]ifferent people appear to have very different notions as to what the word [potlatch] means.” The judge made it clear that the statute would have to be changed so that it fully described the acts that were prohibited. Begbie’s ruling came at a time when Indian Affairs also wanted to move against Plains Indians’ sun- Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. dance ceremonies, so federal officials drafted an amendment to the Indian Act that covered all ceremonial redistribution of wealth. In 1895 Parliament passed the amendment as Section 114, banning “any Indian festival, dance, or other ceremony of which the giving away or paying or giving back money, goods or articles of any sort forms a part, or is a feature, whether such a gift of money, goods or articles takes place before, at, or after the celebration.” The growing effort to stamp out the potlatch intensified new divisions in the Native community. Many Christian converts opposed the ancient custom and urged the government to enforce the law. They deeply resented the attempts by traditionalists to claim their hereditary titles and rights because they did not con- firm them in the customary way. At the turn of the century, the conflict between the “anti-potlatchers” and the traditionalists came to a head in Nisga’a country. The Christian chiefs charged their potlatching kinfolk with stealing “our names, fishing Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  228 An Illustrated History of Canada’s Native People streams & hunting grounds.” In 1899 the local Indian agent reported that these chiefs had warned that the government would have to eliminate the practice because “wherever it is allowed to exist, no other government is respected or obeyed by the Indians.” The Nisga’a chiefs wrote to the superintendent-general of Indian Affairs in Ottawa: “We want to follow the Queen’s law and the Indian Act, but the Potlatch Law will not agree to the Queen’s law.” Because they claimed to represent the majority of the Nisga’a, the new Indian superintendent for British Columbia, Arthur Vowell, believed them. Nonetheless, he opted to follow the same lenient approach of his predecessor. He warned agents not to interfere with exchange ceremonies provided that no one destroyed any property. He was par- ticularly anxious that the law not be enforced at public gatherings, fearing that vio- lence would be the result if it was. Officials continued to have difficulty stamping out the potlatch. Native people frequently held the ceremonies in isolated locations and posted lookouts. They also devised ways of continuing the old custom in modified forms that were either less offensive to anti-potlatchers or harder to detect. The so-called disjointed potlatch was one of these clever schemes. It involved distributing gifts and establishing debts several months after a public gathering for dancing and singing took place. Because no public gift giving occurred at the ceremony, the participants could avoid prosecu- tion. Holding a “private potlatch” was another strategy. In this instance a person sent two messengers out to visit various people in their homes to give them presents—usu- ally money, which was not readily identifiable as a potlatch gift. One of the envoys took care of distributing the gifts, while the other wrote down the names of the recip- Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. ients and the amounts they were paid. Some Native people did not attempt to dodge the law at all; instead, they chose to defy it openly. A few Indian agents sympathized with their Aboriginal clients and refused to make a concerted effort to carry out offi- cial policy. Unless local missionaries complained, the Department of Indian Affairs usually did little to prod these reluctant agents into action. Circumstances changed, however, when Duncan Campbell Scott took charge of Indian Affairs in 1913. Scott, who is best remembered as an accomplished poet, was a dedicated career civil servant and a loyal Conservative. His biographer, Brian Titley, writes that despite being well educated, Scott harboured most of the nega- tive stereotypes about Native people that were common in his day. Scott thought Native people had been unreliable allies in the past and “a real menace to the colo- nization of Canada.” Like many government officials before and after him, he pre- sumed that Native people were a dying people and this belief guided his policies as Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  It Is a Strict Law That Bids Us Dance 229 the director of the department. Scott looked forward to a day when they would no longer exist as distinct nations and would adopt all the ways of the dominant society. In his opinion, “the happiest future for the Indian race is absorption into the general population.… [T]his is the object of the policy of our government.” Scott dedicated his career to achieving that end. In his effort to stamp out West Coast Native culture, Scott found a willing ally in William Halliday, the infamous Indian agent for the southern Kwakwaka’wakw who was stationed at the Namgis (Nimpkish) village of Alert Bay, just off the north- ern coast of Vancouver Island. In his annual reports to Ottawa for the years 1911 to 1913, he complained that the people under his jurisdiction continued to hold pot- latches. Shortly after Scott became superintendent-general, he ordered Halliday and his other agents to enforce the Potlatch Law, thereby ending the conciliatory approach initiated by Powell. Scott had little to fear in making this change. By the turn of the century, the influx of settlers and the steeply declining Native population meant that Aboriginal people no longer posed a credible threat, except perhaps in central and north-coastal territories, where white settlers remained in the minority. Halliday wasted no time. When the Namgis of Alert Bay, the Nimpkish peo- ple, assembled to head off to their summer employment at the coastal salmon can- neries, he read them the law and decried the evils of the potlatch. Halliday related that after listening quietly and respectfully, the Nimpkish “said they would think about what I said and let me know what they thought after they came back from fishing.” In the autumn, Chief Bagwany decided to challenge Halliday by calling the neighbouring nations to a potlatch. Halliday charged him, and one of his co- Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. conspirators, Ned Harris, with violating Section 114 of the Indian Act. The two chiefs were tried twice in Vancouver. At the first trial, the jury could not decide whether the potlatch was a religious ceremony with fixed rules. The following day, Harris and Bagwany were retried and convicted on the charge that dances had been held at the “festival.” The jury recommended mercy, and the judge gave the two sus- pended sentences. A number of other arrests and convictions of Kwakwaka’wakw people followed over the next decade; at subsequent trials, judges were not so lenient and many defendants went to jail. Probably the most notorious aspect of the potlatch-suppression program involved the government’s use of extortion to pry ceremonial regalia from West Coast people. In the 1920s the government stepped up enforcement. Those who were convicted in the flurry of prosecutions in 1922 were told they would not be given prison terms if their fellow villagers surrendered to authorities all their masks, Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  230 An Illustrated History of Canada’s Native People rattles, whistles, coppers, and other “potlatch gear.” The Alert Bay and Cape Mudge people agreed, and the government paid the owners the modest sum of $1,450.50 for several hundred of their treasured possessions. Officials shipped this precious her- itage to the Victoria Museum (later the Canadian Museum of Civilization) in Ottawa and to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The government also sold thirty- three articles to the Heye Foundation Museum of the American Indian in New York. In the end the potlatch not only survived, albeit in modified form, but even flourished among some groups such as the Gitxsan and Kwakwaka’wakw. The ban lasted until 1951, when it was simply left out of the revised Indian Act. Today the consensus among historians seems to be that the extent to which the potlatch ceremony diminished in significance or was altered in a Native group depended more on the influence of the local missionaries than on the application of the law. Missionaries appear to have been particularly successful among the Haida, coast Tsimshian, some Nisga’a, and many Coast Salish groups. Initially Native nations often turned to the new religion for economic reasons. Many missionaries operated stores, for example, which provided goods more cheaply than traditional sources, such as the HBC. In addition, the missionaries taught them new skills, helped them run a variety of non-traditional enterprises, and were frequently in the vanguard of the defence of Aboriginal economic rights—especially land claims. Finally, mission- aries operated hospitals and taught at the schools Native children attended. ATTACKING THE SUN (THIRST) DANCES Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. Sam Steele, superintendent of the North-West Mounted Police (renamed Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920), was one of the first government officials to regard the continuation of the sun or thirst dance as a potential threat to Canada’s colonization of the West. After attending the ceremony at a Kainaiwa (Blood) encampment in 1889, he warned headquarters: “Old warriors take this occasion of relating their experience of former days counting their scalps and giving the num- ber of horses they were successful in stealing. This has a pernicious effect on the young men; it makes them unsettled and anxious to emulate the deeds of their fore- fathers.” Officials in Indian Affairs shared this worry. They also thought that cere- monial activities diverted the Plains nations from “more important” activities. In particular, the department expected them to devote the summer months to farming. Indian agents and their superiors thought that it was outrageous for their clients to spend up to six weeks every summer dancing and feasting in the old way. Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  It Is a Strict Law That Bids Us Dance 231 A Siksika sun-dance circle, 1943. The 1884 amendment to the Indian Act, known popularly as the Potlatch Law, was also intended to curtail the sun dance. Until the law was repealed in 1951, Plains groups continued the ceremony by eliminating the banned elements or by disguising them. Indian Affairs’ first attempt to put an end to the sun dance involved using the “pass system.” Officials originally introduced the system as a temporary measure aimed at halting the spread of the North-West Rebellion of 1885. Maj.-Gen. Frederick Middleton first proposed the scheme to the Indian commissioner for Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. Manitoba and the North-West Territories, Edgar Dewdney. He said that it would be wise to issue a proclamation to “[half]breeds and Indians” telling them to return to their reserves and remain there. Middleton also suggested that those who refused should be treated as rebels. Dewdney replied that he lacked the authority to issue such an edict; nonetheless, he did circulate a warning to the Native people in the North-West, informing them that anyone who was absent from his or her reserve without a pass would be arrested as a possible “hostile.” When the conflict ended, Dewdney was prepared to lift the restriction; he had no authority under the Indian Act, or any other legislation, to make it perma- nent. In fact, it violated the provisions of some of the treaties that gave Native peo- ple the right to hunt and trap freely on undeveloped Crown lands. However, the idea did not die at this time, mainly because an important official in the Department of Indian Affairs—Hayter Reed—supported it. Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  232 An Illustrated History of Canada’s Native People A meeting of the hereditary council of the Six Nations, 1898. The Six Nations resented the provisions of the Indian Act that provided for elected councils and facilitated Indian Affairs’ autocratic control over their lives. In 1890 the chiefs petitioned Ottawa for self-government by asking that their people be exempt from the pro- visions of the act. The petition set off a long-running battle with officials from Indian Affairs and a minority group of dissidents on the Six Nations reserve, who favoured democratic reforms. In the end, the department succeeded when Parliament passed a bill in 1920 abolishing the hereditary system. Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. Reed was a vengeful and rigid man who rose rapidly through the ranks of Indian Affairs. He became assistant Indian commissioner for Manitoba and the North-West Territories in 1884, took over the role of commissioner in 1888, and was appointed deputy superintendent-general of the department in 1893. Reed thought Native people had no right to be consulted about government policies that might affect them. Holding them responsible for all their misfortunes, he regarded Indians as the “scum of the prairies.” He favoured hanging rebel leaders to teach Native people a lesson and openly applauded the natural deaths of tradition- al chiefs in subsequent years because he regarded them as bad influences. Given his outlook, it is not surprising that Reed strongly supported the idea of curtailing freedom of movement for Native people in the West. He acknowledged that the treaties guaranteed them this right, but he noted that these agreements also forbade them to trespass on settlers’ land. On this basis Reed proposed that towns, Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  It Is a Strict Law That Bids Us Dance 233 villages, and farms be declared off limits to Indians. Moreover, he thought that a pass system could be introduced even without a proper legal foundation. In 1886 the government introduced this shameful scheme, which required Plains Indians to carry passes for all off-reserve activities. To obtain a pass, a person had to get the approval of the local farming instructor and the Indian agent who issued the passes, which gave these officials dictatorial control over the lives of Indians. Agents denied passes to anyone they thought was troublesome, and the police backed them up by patrolling the borders of the reserves day and night looking for absentees. In this way Indian Affairs essentially imprisoned Native people on reserves. Although rigorously enforced in the beginning, the pass system fell into disuse after the early 1890s because no one feared the Native people once the memory of the North-West Rebellion had faded. In addition, it was clear that the absence of legislative authority for the system meant that it would never withstand a legal challenge by Indians. As a result, officials began to look for new ways to control Native people. The 1895 amendment to the Indian Act, which spelled out more clearly what practices were forbidden by the Potlatch Law, strengthened the department’s hand. While this amendment was being drafted, Indian agents from the prairies had asked their superiors if the new provisions could also be applied to the prairie bands. Department officials in Ottawa successfully pressed the government for changes that would make it an indictable offence under Section 114 to take part in any “cele- bration of which the wounding or mutilation of the dead or living body of any human being or animal forms a part or is a feature.” Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. Although Indian Affairs now had the authority to stop the ceremonies, Reed wanted to move slowly and carefully to avoid provoking a hostile reaction from the Plains nations. The presence of North-West Mounted Police at celebrations dis- couraged the participants from performing the illegal rituals. Like some West Coast groups, several bands were prepared to alter their ancient sun-dance customs rather than risk the imposition of a total ban on the dances. They discontinued the distri- bution of gifts and eliminated the bloody “making a brave” parts of the celebration. Some groups also shortened the length of the dance and discouraged their children from leaving school to join in. In this way they hoped to ward off criticism about those features of the rituals that had not been banned but nevertheless were frowned on by missionaries and Indian agents. As on the West Coast, Indian agents on the plains held widely differing views about whether to zealously pursue the department’s objective of stamping out Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  234 An Illustrated History of Canada’s Native People ancient traditions. Some readily granted their wards the right to hold dances if they promised not to engage in the forbidden aspects. Others opposed Native dances in any form, believing that such events undermined the department’s basic goal of turning the people into subsistence farmers. Sometimes agents acted ruthlessly. In 1903, for instance, the agent responsible for Piapot’s reserve in Saskatchewan arrest- ed a man named Etchease for holding a dance at which, apparently, nothing was given away except a supper for the guests. Etchease received a three-month jail sentence! In a particularly notorious case, a nearly blind ninety-year-old man from Fishing Lakes, Saskatchewan, was convicted of “dancing” and given a two-month sentence of “hard labour.” This merciless action created such a public outcry that the department had to give the “offender” a suspended sentence. Although episodes of this kind tended to evoke public sympathy for Native people, most local missionaries largely supported the hard-line approach to enforcement. They generally shared the belief of their West Coast comrades that the fastest way to convert Native people to Christianity was to eliminate those cul- tural institutions that passed on old ideologies and value systems to new genera- tions. Only a handful of them favoured a more tolerant approach. At the same time, local public support for the Indian Affairs department’s effort to undermine Native cultures began to weaken. White settlers no longer believed the Indians were a threat. In fact, they became interested in Native cere- monies and wanted to include them in their county fairs and stampedes. For their part, most nations were eager to participate. However, such public celebrations of Native culture, even if highly transformed, undermined the work of the depart- Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. ment. Predictably, the senior civil servants, with their Victorian mindset, were scandalized at the prospect of “half-clad” Aboriginal men dancing before white women and children. They were even more worried that press coverage of the events would give the outside world the perception that the Plains people still lived the way they always had. Consequently, when organizers of the 1908 Dominion Exhibition, the forerunner of the Calgary Stampede, invited various nations to participate, the deputy superintendent-general of Indian Affairs, Frank Pedley, asked the minister of Agriculture to make any financial support for the exhibition conditional on the cancellation of the authentic “Indian performance.” Pedley was too late; the donation had already been made. In later years, politicians successfully pressured the department to allow Native groups to participate in the Calgary event. Federal bureaucrats did not abandon their struggle in the face of this kind of Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  It Is a Strict Law That Bids Us Dance 235 opposition. After he became head of the department in 1913, Scott used the same heavy-handed tactics in the western interior as he did on the coast. He draft- ed a revision to the Indian Act, which Parliament approved in 1927 with little dissent, that banned the Native people in the four western provinces or in the territories from engaging in Native dances off their own reserves and from appearing in public exhibitions in “abo- riginal costumes.” An offender was sub- ject to a fine of $25 and a one-month prison term. Agents still had discre- tionary power, however, so enforcement continued to be uneven. Despite all the efforts of Indian Affairs, the Plains people continued to Tom Three Persons and his wife, Ambush Woman, hold sun dances. Numerous accounts in 1912. He is wearing the championship medal he indicate that in the late 1920s their gath- won at the first Calgary Stampede. Native people erings were as lavish as ever. Furthermore, had taken part in the predecessor of this event, the many participants openly flouted the law Dominion Exhibition, since its inception in 1886. prohibiting them from attending cere- Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. monies off their own reserves. The North-West Mounted Police usually attended, but took no action, provided that the celebrants did not drink alcohol or distribute gifts openly. Dancing declined but after 1951 it was revived. SCHOOLS FOR INDIAN CHILDREN The most draconian assimilation scheme the government imposed on Native peo- ple involved the use of schools. Assimilation through white education programs was a cornerstone of British colonial policy, largely as a result of the lobbying of church groups. After Confederation, the federal government was obligated to pro- vide education in its role as custodian of Native people. In western Canada, the numbered treaties reinforced that obligation. Native elders knew that their chil- dren would have to gain a “white man’s” education to hold their own in the new Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  236 An Illustrated History of Canada’s Native People economic order. Government negotiators were very aware of their thoughts on this matter and effectively held out the prospect of free education as a carrot to encourage Native groups to yield up their land. When negotiating Treaty 4, the lieutenant-governor for the North-West Territories, Alexander Morris, told the assembled nations: “The Queen wishes her red children to learn the cunning of the white man and when they are ready for it she will send schoolmasters on every Reserve and pay them.” Treaty 1 made a promise to the Native people of southern Manitoba: “Her Majesty agrees to maintain a school on each reserve hereby when- ever the Native people of the reserve should desire it.” All the other prairie treaties and Treaty 3 contained a similar clause. Beginning with Treaty 7, revised wording gave the government the right to decide when to comply with Indian requests for education. This treaty stipulated that “Her Majesty agrees to pay the salary of such teachers to instruct the children of said Native people as Her government of Canada may seem advisable, when the said Native people are settled on their reserves and shall desire teachers.” This movement away from the policy of granting Native people a say in deciding when instruction should begin continued in Treaty 8. In this agreement the government retained complete discretion in the matter. However, it did respond to another Native and missionary concern about education policy. When the Treaty 8 commissioners reported to Ottawa about their deliberations, they said the local Native people “seemed desirous of securing educational advantages for their children, but stipulated that in the matter of schools there should be no inter- ference with their religious beliefs.” This concern was being expressed by Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. Christianized Native people who wanted to be taught by members of the same denomination that had converted them. The treaty contained no provisions to address this matter, but the commissioners reported that “the Native people were assured that there was no need of any special stipulation, as it was the policy of the Government to provide in every part of the country, as far as circumstances would permit, for the education of Indian children, and that the law, which was as strong as a treaty, provided for non-interference with the religion of the Native people in schools maintained or assisted by the Government.” Concerned with running a frugal operation, a succession of deputy superintendent-generals of Indian Affairs sought to provide schooling as cheaply as possible. The easiest way to accomplish this was by using schools for Native chil- dren operated by the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches. In 1879 an adviser to the Department of Indian Affairs provided Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  It Is a Strict Law That Bids Us Dance 237 another reason for turning to the missionaries. He noted that they were the best suited to root out “simple Indian mythology,” a necessary first step in the “civiliza- tion” process. Needless to say, the churches were eager to participate. Federal sub- sidies, which ranged from $72 to $145 a student, depending on the kind of school, placed missionary operations on a sounder financial basis. The churches developed two very different kinds of schools—residential schools and day schools. Missionaries had been operating residential elementary schools for Aboriginal children for many years. By the late nineteenth century, they had come to the conclusion that these facilities offered the best means for advanc- ing their assimilationist agenda because children were removed from the influence of their fathers, mothers, and elders. This view was at the centre of an 1847 report on Indian affairs published by the government of Canada West. It was written by Egerton Ryerson, the strong-willed and arrogant Methodist minister who was superintendent of education. He concluded that educating Indians “must consist not merely of the training of the mind, but of a weaning from the habits and Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. Methodist Day School, Saddle Lake, NWT, 1901. After 1867 the education of Indian children became a federal responsibility, whereas that of Inuit and Métis children became provincial and territorial obligations. The federal government turned to religious denominations to operate its schools, especially the Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic churches. Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  238 An Illustrated History of Canada’s Native People feelings of their ancestors, and the acquirements of the language, arts and customs of civilized life.” According to Ryerson, Native people should be kept under the control of federal rather than provincial authority, missionary efforts should be continued, the churches should operate the schools, and manual labour should be emphasized. Ryerson’s recommendations became the cornerstone of the Canadian government’s education policy for Native people for many years to come. The expansion of the church-run residential-school system was one legacy of that policy. To provide education beyond the primary grades, the government encouraged the development of industrial schools for children between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years of age. These facilities for job training were situated away from the reserves. Occupational instruction for boys focused on agriculture and various trades—usually carpentry, blacksmithing, and cobbling. Girls were taught household skills. Schools of this type first appeared in Upper Canada in the 1840s. The United States began to operate similar institutions in 1869 as part of its “aggressive civilization” plan. If successful, the schools would turn out a cheap labour force, which was sorely needed in frontier areas. The government established three industrial schools in western Canada in 1883–84, after studying the American system. The Roman Catholic Church admin- istered the schools at Qu’Appelle and High River, and the Anglican Church man- aged the one at Battleford. In the beginning, the churches received a subsidy of between $110 and $145 a student to cover their costs. At the turn of the century, twenty industrial schools operated in western Canada, and the Methodists and Presbyterians had become involved. Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. In recent years the dark side of residential-school life has come to light as traumatized former students, and the children of those students, have recounted their experiences and passed on the stories of their parents. In his book The Fourth World, the Shuswap political activist George Manuel recalls his school days: “Three things stand out in my mind from my years at school: hunger; speaking English; and being called a heathen because of my grandfather.” Others tell of torture, sexual abuse, and other crimes. In Resistance and Renewal, a very important collection of Native reactions to their residential-school experience in British Columbia, Celia Haig-Brown writes: “My father, who attended Alberni Indian Residential School for four years in the twenties, was physically tortured by his teachers for speaking Tsehaht; they pushed sewing needles through his tongue, a routine punishment for language offenders.” A former student she interviewed reported: “I was first sexual- ly abused by a student when I was six years old, and by a supervisor, an ex-Navy Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  It Is a Strict Law That Bids Us Dance 239 homosexual, when I was eight. Homo- sexuality was prevalent in the school. I learned how to use sexuality to my advantage, as did many other students. Sexual favours brought me protection, sweets (a rarity in the school), and even money to buy booze.” Since the public has become aware of these nefarious aspects of residential- school life, most Canadians now regard these institutions as synonymous with abuse. Some sociologists maintain that the legacy of the institutions is dysfunc- tional families and communities, chronic alcoholism, and a very high teenage sui- cide rate. On the other hand, one of the tragic ironies was that the schools prob- ably had the opposite effect from what the government intended. Instead of A page from First Reader in the English and stamping out Aboriginal culture, they Blackfoot Languages, 1886. created a new group of determined Native leaders by bringing children together from disparate cultural areas, by forcing them to help one another to survive, and by teaching them the ways of Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. their oppressors. Learning the new ways would have been painful even if the schools had had the very best of intentions, as some did. Haig-Brown’s interviewees tell us, for exam- ple, that some of the children’s suffering was not due simply to ill treatment by teachers and other staff. Rather, some of it was the inevitable result of culture shock. Because most Aboriginal societies did not use corporal punishment, the rigid disci- pline of the schools was horrifying. Making matters worse, the students faced an English-only rule the day they entered the institutions, which was inhumane because many of them spoke little, if any, English or French. In short, the children found themselves in a strange, harsh world where for years they were cut off from the solace of their parents. In the elementary schools, academic training was minimal and Eurocentric. At the Kamloops residential school operated by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Ray, A. J. (2016). Illustrated history of canada's native people, fourth edition : I have lived here since the world began. McGill-Queen's University Press. Created from ualberta on 2024-10-26 05:05:23.  240 An Illustrated History of Canada’s Native People The carpenter shop at the Qu’Appelle Industrial School, 1895. The federal government introduced these types of residential schools in western Canada, beginning in 1883. Boys between fourteen and eighteen years of age received training in agricultural skills and trades. students spent the first hour of every class day studying the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. They spent the next two hours learning reading, writing, and arithmetic. As one former elementary student said, “You learnt the three R’s there, you know, the basics. You learned a little bit about history … but there was no his- tory about B. C.… They never taught us why Vancouver was called Vancouver or Copyright © 2016. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved. anything like that. They taught us all about Quebec and French and all the explor- ers. We learned a bit about South America.… We learned about King Henry the Eighth and Fifth and all those guys.” Of the many problems associated with the education that Indian children received, two stand out. First, the zeal with which most teachers sought to divorce their pupils from their cultural an