Federal Indian Superintendent Arthur W. Vowell was a long serving administrator, who managed the Canadian government’s relationship with Aboriginal people in British Columbia between 1889 and 1910. This research challenges the thesis that policy and practice were necessarily symmetrical by arguing bureaucracy operated as a distinct form of power in British Columbia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I argue that the power exercised by department bureaucrats was not manifested in centralized top-down organization and micro-management by Ottawa, but instead evolved through the subjective, dispersed activities and daily decision making of individual bureaucrats. Drawing on department correspondence, and other evidence derived from a study of the life of Indian superintendent Arthur Vowell, this study seeks to understand how Indian affairs bureaucracy functioned. This understanding is developed through the particular lens of Arthur Vowell’s administrative activities and their role in the larger context of the colonial project in British Columbia. / Graduate / 2016-12-23

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From the late fifteenth century onward the new world has been described, imagined, and created via the written word and the printing press. Europeans and Euro-North Americans laid claim to the new world through print culture, both politically (through written treaties and legislation) and culturally (through popular fiction and non-fiction), creating and defining popular and widespread notions of land ownership and cultural otherness. This thesis examines, from an historical-cultural point-of-view, the efforts of five early twentieth century Aboriginal writers in Canada, Charles A. Cooke, Edward Ahenakew, Bernice Loft Winslow, Andrew Paull, and Ethel Brant Monture. These individuals were writing in the period after 1915 (the death of E. Pauline Johnson) and before 1960 (roughly when the modern cultural renaissance of Aboriginal peoples in Canada began), and each used print and literary endeavour as a means of writing-back to the widespread stereotypes about Aboriginal peoples and land ownership which permeated non-Aboriginal writing about Indians in this era. The period between 1915 and 1960 has been described by previous scholars as having been void of Aboriginal literary production, but this thesis shows that some Aboriginal peoples used print and publishing, for perhaps the first time, to communicate with other Aboriginal peoples provincially, nationally, and in some cases, internationally. Writing and print were used as a kind of call-to-arms in the early twentieth century by the Aboriginal writers discussed in this work, and their efforts demonstrate that there has been a continuum of Aboriginal writing in Canada from the early nineteenth century through to contemporary times. Through the adoption and careful articulation of western print culture, Aboriginal peoples have made efforts at laying claim and asserting control over the cultural and political literary (mis)representations of Indians in Canada.

From the late fifteenth century onward the new world has been described, imagined, and created via the written word and the printing press. Europeans and Euro-North Americans laid claim to the new world through print culture, both politically (through written treaties and legislation) and culturally (through popular fiction and non-fiction), creating and defining popular and widespread notions of land ownership and cultural otherness. This thesis examines, from an historical-cultural point-of-view, the efforts of five early twentieth century Aboriginal writers in Canada, Charles A. Cooke, Edward Ahenakew, Bernice Loft Winslow, Andrew Paull, and Ethel Brant Monture. These individuals were writing in the period after 1915 (the death of E. Pauline Johnson) and before 1960 (roughly when the modern cultural renaissance of Aboriginal peoples in Canada began), and each used print and literary endeavour as a means of writing-back to the widespread stereotypes about Aboriginal peoples and land ownership which permeated non-Aboriginal writing about Indians in this era. The period between 1915 and 1960 has been described by previous scholars as having been void of Aboriginal literary production, but this thesis shows that some Aboriginal peoples used print and publishing, for perhaps the first time, to communicate with other Aboriginal peoples provincially, nationally, and in some cases, internationally. Writing and print were used as a kind of call-to-arms in the early twentieth century by the Aboriginal writers discussed in this work, and their efforts demonstrate that there has been a continuum of Aboriginal writing in Canada from the early nineteenth century through to contemporary times. Through the adoption and careful articulation of western print culture, Aboriginal peoples have made efforts at laying claim and asserting control over the cultural and political literary (mis)representations of Indians in Canada.

An examination of contemporary English-Canadian novels and poems that depict Native characters in ways that support a claim to Canada, making what Fee calls a "literary land claim."

Aboriginal Head Start Urban and Northern Communities (AHSUNC) Initiative in Ontario provides an early childhood development program specifically for urban Aboriginal children between 3 and 5 years old. Twenty-nine families from Waabinong Head Start in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, completed two questionnaires given four months apart covering a range of health and education topics. The completed surveys supported a trend toward healthier lifestyle choices, improved education of the children, upward mobility in employment, increases in self-perceived general and mental health of primary and second caregivers, and decreases in smoking, illegal drug use, and alcohol use. Families reported an increased sense of pride in being Aboriginal shown by their children, plus learning of culture and Ojibwe language, which has lead to improvement in all of the child’s skills and abilities.

Aboriginal Head Start Urban and Northern Communities (AHSUNC) Initiative in Ontario provides an early childhood development program specifically for urban Aboriginal children between 3 and 5 years old. Twenty-nine families from Waabinong Head Start in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, completed two questionnaires given four months apart covering a range of health and education topics. The completed surveys supported a trend toward healthier lifestyle choices, improved education of the children, upward mobility in employment, increases in self-perceived general and mental health of primary and second caregivers, and decreases in smoking, illegal drug use, and alcohol use. Families reported an increased sense of pride in being Aboriginal shown by their children, plus learning of culture and Ojibwe language, which has lead to improvement in all of the child’s skills and abilities.

During the 1970's a variety of special educational programs were set up for adult Aboriginal people. In general these programs were designed to meet the needs of people who for a variety of reasons, were at an educational or social disadvantage in comparison to the rest of the Australian population. The Djwani project stood out in sharp contrast to these other programs. This project was designed to serve Aboriginal people who had demonstrated their ability to cope with tertiary education,and who were likely to be able to occupy important positions in Aboriginal Affairs. The Djwani project aimed to maximise beginning tertiary qualifications for the professions that the students intended to enter, and pr pare them to operate in positions of leadership. This was to be achieved by an upgrading tertiary program, coupled with a field experience system. The project was operated at the Canberra College of Advanced Education in the later part of the 1970's. It was discontinued in 1978. This document is a report of an evaluative study carried out during the operation of the Djwani project. It provides a framework in which the administration and activities associated with the project can be, recorded and examined. This study of the Djwani project, is escentially a case study of the project, which also uses a number of evaluative deviceses developed by the author in other situations. This study examines the activities of the actual Djwani project, it does not attempt to provide longitudinal information on the students after they leave the project. It does however attempt to compare the project with other adult educational projects mounted for Aborigines, and to appraise the projects value in Aboriginal Affairs in general.

In 1944, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) entered northern Saskatchewan with the goal of utilizing natural resources and restructuring the northern economy through conservation and social policy in order to rehabilitate what they viewed as an impoverished Aboriginal population. This thesis analyzes the affects of government policy on the northwestern Saskatchewan Metis during the mid-twentieth century. Specifically, this study will examine how CCF policy affected the trapping economy and the socio-cultural traditions of the northern Metis. The northwestern Saskatchewan Metis participated in trapping as one of their main sources of income, while facing deflating market prices and government intervention. Through an analysis of archival records that included government documents, government employee and northern Metis correspondence, newspapers, community and government research initiatives and transcribed interviews done by previous projects, this study found that the new government policies were met with resistance by Metis trappers who wished to maintain their traditional trapping practices. Trapping for the Metis, was not only a source of income, it was a livelihood inseparable from their socio-cultural identities and worldview. Therefore, Metis worldview had a direct connection to their acceptance and resistance of CCF policy. More specifically, the northwestern Saskatchewan Metis had a specific “work ethic.” In order to explain Metis reactions to CCF policy Max Weber’s theoretical framework of a “work ethic” derived from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was utilized. In this thesis it is posited that the Metis work ethic was based upon the concept of wahkootowin, which placed high value on kinship systems and reciprocity. Wahkootowin encompassed all aspects of northern Metis life including the economy. These cultural values were also juxtaposed with living a “northern style of life,” which involved hard work and survival skills that allowed the Metis to flourish within the northern landscape. In the mid-twentieth century CCF conservation and social policy conflicted with the northwestern Saskatchewan Metis work ethic that was based on the principles of wahkootowin and the northern style of life.

This thesis explores how nineteenth century Métis concepts of family and community have found expression in post 1930s urban development, governance and political activism. In this study, genealogical methods and participant interviews have been used to examine the social, economic and political role of women in 19th century Métis families and communities in order to determine the extent to which these traditional roles were carried forward into an urban context prior to World War II. Based on this research, it was concluded that female kinship relationships were central in structuring and determining the bounds of this Métis community despite economic changes, community movement, physical relocation and political upheaval in both traditional and contemporary contexts. By organizing in ways that were familiar and consistent with past practices, urban Métis women in the early twentieth century had the opportunity and flexibility to informally politicize community issues and recruit organization participants. Over time, the political role played by women evolved and they began to take leading roles in the day-to- day operation of programs and services. By the 1960s-70s, urban Métis women began to formally assert their political will and move from behind the scenes into a more public leadership roles. Throughout this evolution, concepts of family, kinship and tradition remained the core organization concept for this community. Through the expression of these 19th century traditions, Métis women have made a significant contribution to post-1930 urban development, governance and political activism.