The Indian Commissioners: Agents of the State and Indian Policy in Canada's Prairie West, 1873 - 1932

by Brian Titley

Between 1873 and 1932, Indian policy on the prairies was the responsibility of federal government appointees known as Indian Commissioners. Charged with incorporating Native society into the apparatus of the emergent state, these officials directed a complex configuration of measures that included treaties, the Indian Act, schools, agriculture, and to some degree, missionary activity. In this study, Brian Titley constructs critical biographical portraits of the six Indian Commissioners, examining their successes and failures in confronting the challenges of a remarkable period in Canada's history.

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2005

Reviews

[Bill Leach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Titley looks at the history of seven Indian commissioners over the years of 1873 through 1932.

While there is much on the bureaucracy of the civil service, it is part of the story as civil servants including the commissioners were appointed based upon patronage.

Canada's approach to dealing with the Indians was one of assimilation and integration. Most viewed the Indians as primitive and lacking in industry. Efforts toward integration included schooling and encouraging the Indians to engage in farming; both failing largely due to poor implementation.

Cultural differences, dishonesty and insufficient resourcing compromised these goals. Much reliance was placed on the churches for schooling which commissioner Graham characterized as "... a system that was little more than a massive subsidy of missionary work."

Detailed descriptions of the activities of the commissioners brings out many issues that are not well known today such as payments to get the Indians to surrender their reserve land, suppression of native religious ceremonies, imposition of Christian standards regarding marriage, and the use of Indian lands for "greater production farms".

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Want to understand more about the history of Canada's failure to deal fairly with aboriginal people's, read this. These were the men charged with meeting the treaty obligations from the beginning.