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Author Carter, Sarah, 1954-

Title Lost harvests : Prairie Indian reserve farmers and government policy / Sarah Carter
Published Montreal [Que.] : McGill-Queen's University Press, ©1990

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Description 1 online resource (x, 323 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations, maps, portraits
Series McGill-Queen's native and northern series, 1181-7453 ; 3
McGill-Queen's native and northern series ; 3. 1181-7453
Contents Contents -- Illustrations -- Figures -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1 Two Solitudes: Myth and Reality of the Plains Indian and Agriculture -- 2 The Queen's Bounty: Government Response to Indian Agitation for Agricultural Assistance -- 3 The Home Farm Experiment -- 4 Assault upon the Tribal System: Government Policy after 1885 -- 5 The Pioneer Experience: Prairie Reserve Agriculture -- 6 Prelude to Surrender: Severalty and Peasant Farming -- 7 Without a Leg to Stand On: Undermining Reserve Agriculture -- Appendices -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Ab -- c -- d -- e -- f -- g -- h -- i -- j -- k -- l -- m -- n -- o -- p -- q -- r -- s -- t -- u -- v -- w -- y -- z
Summary Despite repeated requests for assistance from Plains Indians, the Canadian government provided very little help between 1874 and 1885, and what little they did give proved useless. Although drought, frost, and other natural phenomena contributed to the failure of early efforts, reserve farmers were determined to create an economy based on agriculture and to become independent of government regulations and the need for assistance. Officials in Ottawa, however, attributed setbacks not to economic or climatic conditions but to the Indians' character and traditions which, they claimed, made the Indians unsuited to agriculture. In the decade following 1885 government policies made farming virtually impossible for the Plains Indians. They were expected to subsist on one or two acres and were denied access to any improvements in technology: farmers had to sow seed by hand, harvest with scythes, and thresh with flails. After the turn of the century, the government encouraged land surrenders in order to make good agricultural land available to non-Indian settlers. This destroyed any chance the Plains Indians had of making agriculture a stable economic base. Through an examination of the relevant published literature and of archival sources in Ottawa, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, Carter provides the first in-depth study of government policy, Indian responses, and the socio-economic condition of the reserve communities on the prairies in the post-treaty era
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-315) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Indians of North America -- Agriculture -- Prairie Provinces -- History
Indians of North America -- Prairie Provinces -- Reservations -- History
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Industries -- General.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Ethnic Studies -- Native American Studies.
Indian reservations.
Indians of North America -- Agriculture.
Indianerreservat
Indianerpolitik
Geschichte
Indiens -- Canada -- Provinces des Prairies -- Agriculture -- Histoire.
Indiens -- Canada -- Provinces des Prairies -- Réserves -- Histoire.
Bauer.
Prairie Provinces.
Kanada
Plainsindianer.
Genre/Form Electronic books
History.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780773562431
0773562435