Liberalism, Surveillance, and Resistance: Indigenous communities in Western Canada, 1877-1927

by Keith D. Smith

Overview

Canada is regularly presented as a country where liberalism has ensured freedom and equality for all. Yet with the expansion of settlers into the First Nations territories that became southern Alberta and BC, liberalism proved to be an exclusionary rather than inclusionary force. Between 1877 and 1927, government officials, police officers, church representatives, ordinary settlers, and many others operated to exclude and reform Indigenous people. Presenting Anglo-Canadian liberal capitalist values and structures and interests as normal, natural, and beyond reproach devalued virtually every aspect of Indigenous cultures. This book explores the means used to facilitate and justify colonization, their effects on Indigenous economic, political, social, and spiritual lives, and how they were resisted.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781897425404
Publisher:	Athabasca University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2009
Series:	West Unbound: Social and Cultural Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	337
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Keith D. Smith is Chair of the Department of First Nations Studies and teaches in the Department of History at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Table of Contents

Front Matter Table of Contents Acknowledgements Chapter 1 The Liberal Surveillance Complex Chapter 2 The Transformation of Indigenous Territory Chapter 3 Churches, Police Forces, and the Department of Indian Affairs Chapter 4 Disciplinary Surveillance and the Department of Indian Affairs Chapter 5 The British Columbia Interior and the Treaty 7 Region to 1877 Chapter 6 The British Columbia Interior, 1877 to 1927 Chapter 7 The Treaty 7 Region After 1877 Chapter 8 Exclusionary Liberalism in World War I and Beyond Notes Bibliography Index