This study’s primary focus is on white settlement and
Indian dispossession and marginalizatian, the theme being
developed in the context of a comprehensive local history
A number of sub-themes are developed including the relationship
between political power and landholding, the changing role of
chiefs in Indian society, the importance of the railway in
consolidating economic power, the connection between
transportation and changing industrial activity and the
significance of land tenure regimes in economic performance.
After an introduction and outline history the paper is
organized in three parts. The first deals with the institutions
which supported settlers and were imposed upon Indians. The
four institutions examined are missionary activity as it related
to Indians and the political, judicial and educational
structures as they affected Indians and whites. The notable
characteristic of these institutions is that the services
delivered to the two racial groups were markedly different, that
Indians never received the benefit of their support. The second
section considers the critical question of Indian access to
resources, the conditions under which reserves were assigned and
then repeatedly altered, and the question of aboriginal rights
to the land The discrepancy in the terms in which whites and
Indians could claim land and the insecurity of tenure of Indians
is documented. The third section considers economic sectors:
hunting, fishing and gathering, mining, stockraising and
agriculture. In the latter two industries, pursued by both
Indians and whites, the two communities are juxtaposed to
observe differences in their conduct of those industries. The
critical elements determining different performance are
identified as the differing quantities of obtainable land, and
the land and water tenure regimes under which the participants
operated although other factors such as increasing
capitalization, an oppressive Department of Indian affairs,
inadequate access to education and health services and
restricted rights in the political and judicial spheres were
contributing factors.
Okanagan society in the pre-World War I era is seen as a
racist society, one in which a completely different set of rules
existed for each race and in which social distance between races
increased over time White settlers succeeded in building a
society with all the features of the modern world: well
developed transportation and communications, urban centres,
supportive social service institutions, and an educated and
prosperous population, in short, a harmonious and just society
But this development occured at the expense of the Indian
Population. As a society they could only be characterized as a
dependent, impoverished, diseased and illiterate people, prone
to alcohol and appearing to lack in ambition White success was
built upon Indian dispossession. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/42611 |
| Date | January 1985 |
| Creators | Thomson, Duncan Duane |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| 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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