From Wooden Ploughs to Welfare: Why Indian Policy Failed in the Prairie Provinces.

This discussion of Canadian Indian policy examines how the federal officials responsible for dealing with the native peoples of Canada did their jobs. It considers the era since Canadian Confederation, that is from the 1870s to the present. The author's general thesis is that despite a major effort in time and money, official policies to acculturate and assimilate the Indians failed in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Her discussion focuses on those groups that signed treaties because they were the people who received government promises, and often little else. She examines the circumstances on several reserves as case studies to illustrate the experience of people living on the 170 such settlements. In doing so the author offers little evidence that her few chosen reserves are particularly representative of the broader experience.

Canadian policy, like that in the United States, called for placing tribal people on reservations or reserves, far from the rest of the population. In theory the reserves were to provide the location and the means of transforming Indians so that they could join the rest of Canadian society at some future time. This did not occur and author Buckley uses most of her narrative to explain why that was the case. Most often the Indians were encouraged to become farmers, but rarely did government programs or officials provide enough capital, credit, equipment, livestock, or other assistance to be of much use. At the same time that Canada forced native people onto reserves, it sent Christian missionaries and white teachers who disrupted local practices and native cultures. So while Canadian policies disrupted native cultural and economic systems, official efforts included few useable alternatives. Eventually, when some Indians did leave the reserves for the cities they experienced wide spread prejudice and a lack of jobs.

Few knowledgeable scholars will argue with Buckley's thesis or her general conclusions. Her findings agree with the ideas presented by E. Brian Titley, in A Narrow Vision (1986) which focuses on the 1900-1930 era. Buckley's work also provides a clearer focus for some of the ideas and data presented in J.R. Miller, Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens (1989). Because her book moves more quickly to the present than the latter, in some ways it is less satisfying. By depending on a few case studies and by trying to analyze the preceding century and a quarter in less than two hundred pages of text, the author has to leave some gaps in her presentation. Nevertheless, her contention that Canadian policies and officials destroyed Indian economic strength and cultural cohesion cannot be disputed. Her discussion provides ample evidence to support the view that the Canadian government was the fundamental cause for the wretched conditions experienced by native people in that country since the 1870s. Her prose is clear, her ideas are reasonable, and her evidence is persuasive. Those wishing to learn about how Canada administered its native affairs or who want to compare their dealings with the Indians with what happened in the United States at the same time will find this book both useful and informative.

Roger L. Nichols
University of Arizona