Creation of Reservation 1876-Present Day
Reservations were originally for Indian people to be confined until they became civilized people. Once they have learned proper habits of industry and thrift and enfranchised, they can then be released from the reservation to participate as a citizen of Canada.
That is what is said on paper about reservations. In all reality it was to contain and confined the Indian on a piece of land to make access to the rich resources of the land such as fishing, forestry, water, and mineral resources that originally sustained Indigenous culture.
During the agricultural era, the Europeans needed access to the richest and most fertile lands available and needing the Indian to not be a problem when doing so.
With John A. McDonald as the leader of Canada, he had two primary goals.
- To lure European farmers to move and settle in Canada
- To connect a railway from the West Coast to Ottawa
The government needed the land for these two goals but standing in the way were thousands of Indigenous people who already occupy the land practicing their traditional ways on the lands.
Reserves helped move the Indigenous people away, while making room for settlers.
Reservations were usually a portion of their own traditional lands or lands that were far away from their traditional lands.
There wasn’t a consistent formula for where reservations should be.
For example for Treaty 1-2, they used 160 acres for every family of 5.
Treaty 3-11 allocated 640 acres per family of 5.
In British Columbia there was an average of 20 acres granted per family.
Indigenous people were forced into European style homes that did not support the traditional concept of family. The dwellings and areas of Indigenous people were focused on climate, food gathering, and hunting traditions.
These were more single family homes which countered community connectedness in which we lived, with family living together with open spaces for gatherings, eating, and practicing spirituality.
The homes itself are not owned by the family on reservation that live in them, but by the federal government.
Some communities were removed all together from their traditional lands which separated them from their traditions, culture, and identity.
In other words all that these tribes knew was gone from relocation and they were left with a future full with poverty, malnourishment, vulnerable to disease and controlled by the crown.
Resources
- Get the book About the Indian Act – Click Here
- Get Weekly Foundational Knowledge – Click Here
- Learn how to Speak an Indigenous Language – Click Here
