Strange Visitors: Documents in Indigenous-Settler Relations in Canada from 1876

by Keith D. Smith (Editor)

Overview

Covering topics such as the Indian Act, the High Arctic relocation of 1953, and the conflict at Ipperwash, Keith D. Smith draws on a diverse selection of documents including letters, testimonies, speeches, transcripts, newspaper articles, and government records. In his thoughtful introduction, Smith provides guidance on the unique challenges of dealing with Indigenous primary sources by highlighting the critical skill of "reading against the grain."

Each chapter includes an introduction and a list of discussion questions, and helpful background information is provided for each of the readings. Organized thematically into fifteen chapters, the reader also contains a list of key figures, along with maps and images.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442605688
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	08/20/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	512
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Keith D. Smith teaches in the Departments of Indigenous/Xwulmuxw Studies and History at Vancouver Island University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction

Chapter 1
"In a State of Tutelage": The Indian Act of 1876
1.1 House of Commons Debates on the Proposed Indian Act, 1876
1.2 The Indian Act of 1876
1.3 Letter from George Buck and 32 Other Six Nations Chiefs, 1876

Chapter 2
"No More Fighting Between Anyone": The Numbered Treaties
2.1 Area of Treaty 7 and the Traditional Territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy
2.2 Boundaries of the Numbered Treaties
2.3 Treaty 7, 1877
2.4 Report of Lieutenant Governor and Special Indian Commissioner David Laird, 1877
2.5 Letter from Father Constantine Scollen, 1879
2.6 Interview with Cecile Many Guns (Grassy Water), 1973
2.7 Interview with Mrs. Annie Buffalo (Sitting Up High), 1975

Chapter 3
"Then Go, and Strike for Liberty and Life":
The 1885 Resistance in the North-West
3.1 Riel's Case, 1885
3.2 Report of Superintendent of Indian Affairs John A. Macdonald, 1885
3.3 Report of North-West Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner L.N.F. Crozier, 1885
3.4 The Account of Gabriel Dumont, 1888 (1949)
3.5 The Recommendations of Assistant Indian Commissioner Hayter Reed, 1885
3.6 Address Presented to Chief Crowfoot from the Council of the Corporation of the City of Ottawa, 1886
3.7 The Poetic Interpretation of Pauline Johnson, 1885

Chapter 4
"For the General Good": Restricting Movement and Cultural Practice
Section 4a: The Pass System
4a.1 Letter from Robert Sinclair to Edgar Dewdney, 1892
4a.2 Letter from Hayter Reed to Edgar Dewdney, 1885
4a.3 Letter from A.E. Forget to Blackfoot Indian Agent, 1889

4a.4 Extract from NWMP Superintendent Steele's Monthly Report, June 1890 4a.5 "The Mounted Police and the Sarcees," Calgary Herald, June 8, 1892
4a.6 Letter from Fred White to L. Vankoughnet, 1893
4a.7 Letter from Hayter Reed to the Deputy Superintendent
General of Indian Affairs, 1893
4a.8 Chief Dan Kennedy, Recollections of an Assiniboine Chief, 1972
Section 4b: Restricting the Potlatch
4b.1 Legislation Restricting Indigenous Ceremonies, 1884–1933
4b.1a Indian Act Amendment, 1884
4b.1b Indian Act Amendment, 1895
4b.1c Indian Act Amendment, 1914
4b.1d Indian Act Amendment, 1933
4b.2 Thomas Crosby, Among the An-Ko-me-nums, 1907
4b.3 W.M. Halliday, Potlatch and Totem, 1935
4b.4 "A Plea for Potlatches," 1896
4b.5 Assu of Cape Mudge, 1989

Chapter 5
"Our object is to continue until there is not a single
Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic": Assimilation and Organized Resistance
Section 5a: Assimilation
5a.1 Duncan Campbell Scott, "Onondaga Madonna," 1898
5a.2 Duncan Campbell Scott, "The Half-Breed Girl," 1906
5a.3 Evidence of D.C. Scott on the Indian Act Amendments of 1920
5a.4 Memorandum of the Six Nations of Brantford and Other
Haudenosaunee First Nations on the Indian Act
Amendments of 1920
5a.5 Amendment to the Indian Act, 1920
Section 5b: Organized Resistance
5b.1 Letter from F.O. Loft to Chiefs and Brethren, 1919
5b.2 Letter from J.P. Wright to D.C. Scott, 1919
5b.3 Letter from D.C. Scott to J.P. Wright, 1919
5b.4 Statement of the Allied Indian Tribes of British Columbia, 1919
5b.5 Deskaheh, The Redman's Appeal for Justice, 1923
5b.6 Special Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons Appointed to Inquire into the Claims of the Allied Indian Tribes of British Columbia, 1926
5b.7 Amendment to the Indian Act, 1927

Chapter 6
"Please don't blame yourselves": Residential Schools
6.1 N.F. Davin, Report on Industrial Schools, 1879
6.2 House of Commons Debates, 1920
6.3 P.H. Bryce, The Story of a National Crime, 1920
6.4 Mary Carpenter, "No More Denials Please," 1991
6.5 Isabelle Knockwood, Out of the Depths, 2001
6.6 Thomas Moore, Before and After Photographs, 1896

Chapter 7
"We Do Not Ask for Special Favours from Anyone":
Indigenous People and Global Conflict
Section 7a: World War I
7a.1 Report of the Privy Council 393, 1918
7a.2 Amendments to the Indian Act , 1906 and 1918
7a.2a Indian Act Amendment, 1906
7a.2b Indian Act Amendment, 1918
7a.3 Letter from Kainai Chief Shot-on-Both-Sides and Others, 1922
7a.4 D.C. Scott, "The Canadian Indians in the Great War," 1919
7a.5 Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs , 1919
Section 7b: World War II
7b.1 Testimony of Gordon Ahenakew, Saskatchewan
Indian Veterans Association, 1992
7b.2 Testimony of Norman Quinney, Indian Veterans Association, 1992
7b.3 Testimony of Ray Prince, Northern Region of National
Aboriginal Veterans Association, BC Chapter, 1992
7b.4 Testimony of Harry Lavallee, National Aboriginal Veterans Association, 1993
7b.5 The Aboriginal Soldier after the Wars, 1995

Chapter 8
A "Complete and Final Solution":
Preparing for the New Indian Act of 1951
8.1 Evidence of Diamond Jenness, 1947
8.2 Testimony of Andy Paull, President of the North American Indian Brotherhood, 1946
8.3 Submission of the Union of Saskatchewan Indians, 1947
8.4 Presentation of Mathew Lazare for the Mohawk of Caughnawaga, 1947
8.5 House of Commons, "A Summary of the Proceedings of a Conference with Representative Indians," 1951

Chapter 9
"We Had No Hesitation in Using the Word 'Experiment'":
The High Arctic Relocation of 1953
9.1 The High Arctic Relocation, 1953
9.2 Testimony of Markoosie Patsauq and Samwillie Elijassialuk, 1992
9.3 Examination of Bent Sivertz, 1993
9.4 Memorandum from the Privy Council Office, 1952
9.5 The Hickling Report, 1990
9.6 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1994

Chapter 10
"A Faulty Understanding of Fairness":
The White Paper of 1969
10.1 Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy (White Paper), 1969
10.2 Indian Association of Alberta, Citizens Plus (Red Paper) , 1970
10.3 William Wuttunee, Ruffled Feathers, 1971
10.4 National Indian Brotherhood, "Statement on the Proposed New 'Indian Policy,'" 1969

Chapter 11
"An Epic Struggle Which Has Left its Mark":
Striving for Gender Equality in the Indian Act
11.1 Amendment to the Indian Act, 1951
11.2 Amendment to the Indian Act, 1985
11.3 Cathy Baily, "Indian Women Struggle for Rights," Poundmaker, 1974
11.4 Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1985
11.5 McIvor v. The Registrar, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 2007
11.6 Letter from Sharon McIvor to Members of Parliament, 2010

Chapter 12
"Its Intentions Remain Hostile":
The 1982 Constitution and Charter of Rights
12.1 Union of BC Indian Chiefs at the Russell Tribunal, 1980
12.2 Petition by the Indian People of Canada to Queen Elizabeth II, 1980
12.3 United Kingdom House of Commons Debates, 1982
12.4 The Canada Act, 1982

Chapter 13
"Securing 'Necessaries'":
The Constitution and the Courts
13.1 Guerin v. The Queen, 1984
13.2 R. v. Sparrow , 1990
13.3 R. v. Marshall, 1999
13.4 R. v. Powley, 2003

Chapter 14
"It Was Time to Protect our Lands":
Conflict at Ipperwash
14.1 Report of the Ipperwash Inquiry, 2007
14.2 Testimony of Nicholas Cottrelle, 2005
14.3 Presentation of Sam George, 2006

Chapter 15
"A Unique Trust-Like Relationship": Modern Treaty Making
15.1 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, "Treaties," 1996
15.2 Speech by Chief Joseph Gosnell to the British Columbia Legislative Assembly, 1998
15.3 Are Treaties the Answer?: Panel Discussion at the Preparing for the Day After Treaty Conference, 2007

Appendix: Key People
Sources
Index

What People are Saying About This

Jennifer S.H. Brown

This book presents a remarkable collection of primary documents that cover a wide range of Indigenous/settler interactions and (mis)communications from the 1876 Indian Act to recent times. Its rich diversity of sources juxtaposes views and interpretations from multiple angles, deepening our understandings of the major issues facing Canada's Indigenous peoples over the last century and a half.

J.R. Miller

Strange Visitors contains an essential collection of documents that anyone seriously interested in the policies applied to Indigenous peoples in Canada needs to examine.

Sarah Carter

This is an excellent collection. It is a challenging task to compile a reader given the vast diversity of experiences across Canada over one hundred and forty years. I can imagine using this in Native Studies and History courses to introduce students to the challenges, silences, and constraints of the documentary record. There is nothing like it that I know of on the market.

Editorial Reviews

This is a timely, thoughtful, and useful collection of primary documents on the history of the interactions among Indigenous people, non-Indigenous people, and the Canadian state. Given what is currently available, it will be invaluable to those teaching Native Studies, Canadian history and, at least as background material, Indigenous law.—BC Studies
Keith D. Smith's Strange Visitors: Documents in Indigenous-Settler Relations in Canada from 1876 is an excellent resource for instructors and students alike, and it could not have been published at a better time. In a clearly written introduction to a collection of primary source documents for Indigenous studies and Canadian history classes, the author has provided a how-to manual to critically assess both historical and modern documents. Smith reminds us that critical reading is 'a life skill—some might say even a duty in a democratic society' (xxiii). In very accessible language, he breaks down the difference between 'reading with the grain'—what an author wants the reader to believe—and 'reading against the grain'—that is, interrogating the document to uncover embedded meanings. The introduction is so clearly written that Smith's book should serve not only as a text for undergraduates but could easily find a niche in high school classes where teachers often struggle to find high-quality resources for their students.—Canadian Historical Review

This is an excellent collection. It is a challenging task to compile a reader given the vast diversity of experiences across Canada over one hundred and forty years. I can imagine using this in Native Studies and History courses to introduce students to the challenges, silences, and constraints of the documentary record. There is nothing like it that I know of on the market.—Sarah Carter, University of Alberta
Strange Visitors contains an essential collection of documents that anyone seriously interested in the policies applied to Indigenous peoples in Canada needs to examine.—J.R. Miller, University of Saskatchewan
This book presents a remarkable collection of primary documents that cover a wide range of Indigenous/settler interactions and (mis)communications from the 1876 Indian Act to recent times. Its rich diversity of sources juxtaposes views and interpretations from multiple angles, deepening our

understandings of the major issues facing Canada's Indigenous peoples over the last century and a half.—Jennifer S.H. Brown, Professor Emeritus, University of Winnipeg

From the Publisher

This is a timely, thoughtful, and useful collection of primary documents on the history of the interactions among Indigenous people, non-Indigenous people, and the Canadian state. Given what is currently available, it will be invaluable to those teaching Native Studies, Canadian history and, at least as background material, Indigenous law.

BC Studies

Keith D. Smith's Strange Visitors: Documents in Indigenous-Settler Relations in Canada from 1876 is an excellent resource for instructors and students alike, and it could not have been published at a better time. In a clearly written introduction to a collection of primary source documents for Indigenous studies and Canadian history classes, the author has provided a how-to manual to critically assess both historical and modern documents. Smith reminds us that critical reading is 'a life skill—some might say even a duty in a democratic society' (xxiii). In very accessible language, he breaks down the difference between 'reading with the grain'—what an author wants the reader to believe—and 'reading against the grain'—that is, interrogating the document to uncover embedded meanings. The introduction is so clearly written that Smith's book should serve not only as a text for undergraduates but could easily find a niche in high school classes where teachers often struggle to find high-quality resources for their students.

Canadian Historical Review