Indian water rights regarding irrigation agriculture and the construction o f storage and
hydroelectric dams took shape from the 1870s to the 1930s and largely determined
economic activities on and near reserves and reservations in Western Canada and the
American West respectively. Although historians recently have provided extensive studies
of American cases, Indian water rights issues in Western Canada have gained scant
attention. The present study focuses on this neglected part of the history placing particular
emphasis on the interactive roles Native peoples, government officials, agricultural
businesses, hydroelectric developers and homesteaders played in "reclaiming" aboriginal
landscapes for irrigation and water storage or hydroelectric dam projects. I explore the
jurisdictional debates over water rights that these projects generated.
Recognizing the importance of inter-provincial and international contexts, the
thesis examines the extent to which American reclamation laws and practices influenced
Canadian policymakers, bureaucrats, and technocrats. It also focuses particular attention
on the development of water laws and policies in British Columbia and Alberta to identify
similarities and differences that subsequently affected Native peoples. I accomplish this by
providing four case studies. I note that the differences between these two provinces with
respect to the development of Indian water rights were particularly significant before 1930.
A key reason was that the federal government held title to Crown lands in Alberta until the
latter date, whereas British Columbia entered confederation holding that title.
My dissertation demonstrates that the idea of Indian water rights emerged in the
late-nineteenth-century from political and legal philosophies and practices of colonialism that attempted to transform the "primitive" Native populations into the mold of yeoman
farmers. It was also shaped by modifications of the common law that sought to address the
needs of industrialists, miners, and settlers who developed the semi-arid and arid North
American west. The water rights regime that emerged was based on a perception o f this
resource that was very different from the holistic one held by indigenous populations. I
note that as the Native peoples increasingly relied on the agricultural economy in the early
twentieth century, and as the competition with neighboring settlers for water intensified,
the question o f the extent to which the Native peoples were entitled to water became the
subject of serious political and legal wrangling. Native peoples demonstrated that they had
a strong desire to maintain control over water at a local level by actively carrying out
irrigation projects, protecting their own reclamation works from the obstruction of settlers,
fighting against the construction of storage dams by neighboring ranchers, and by
successfully negotiating the terms of agreements for surrendering reserve lands to facilitate
on-reserve hydro-electric projects. My thesis closes with a reflection about how these
historical events help us understand contemporary Indian water claims. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/14806 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Matsui, Kenichi |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Format | 16942284 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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