Utopia on trial : perceptions of Canadian government experiments with Inuit relocation
In the 1950s, the Canadian government embarked on an ambitious experimental programme of resettling Inuit (Eskimos) in unoecupied regions of the Aretie, sometimes far to the north of their original homelands. In this dissertation I analyze the Canadian government's Inuit reloeation policies during the years 1950-59, by exmaining two princpal case studies. They occurred during a gradual introduction of the welfare state to the Nortli. I will argue that the government's relocation policy during the 1950s can be analyzed largely as an experiment in social reform. The dissertation is divided into four sections. Part I (Chapters 1 and 2) explores the causal factors behind the government's Inuit relocation policies. In Chapter 11 describe the symbolic representation of the Inuit hunter-trappers in Canadian and American literature and films, and the manner in which those perceptions might have influenced and reflected government attitudes and policy towards the Inuit. In particular I will demonstrate the connection between the government's actions to identify an "Eskimo Problem" in 1952 and its subsequent attempts to find remedial solutions, of which the relocation experiments played a prominent role. In Chapter 2 I examine the reason for the government's decision to target the Inuit living in the area of Port Harrison in Arctic Quebec for relocation. 1 then explore the linkage between a social reformist policy designed to use relocation as a means of shifting "surplus" Inuit populations to unoccupied areas of the High Arctic, and the government's geopolitical initiatives to colonize those areas as a demonstration of Canadian sovereignty. In Part II (Chapters 3 and 4) I explore the first case study involving the relocation in 1953-55 of a group of Inuit from Port Harrison, the Inujjuamiut, to Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord in the High Arctic. In each case, the government moved the Inuit by boat to distant "wilderness sites". While the relocations were inspired by utopian initiatives within government to implement a reformative ideology suffused with metaphors from the Garden of Eden, these experiments were viewed by officials and the Inuit as being only partly beneficial. Understanding the rhetoric the government used to describe the relocation projects and keywords it employed is an essential component for reconstructing the events which occurred. These keywords include "relocation", "migration", "rehabilitation", "experiment", and "volunteers". By analyzing these keywords and situating the two principal ease studies within the government's broader resettlement policies, I try to place the events' historical significance in a wider context. In Part III (Chapters 5, 6, and 7) I present the second case study, which involved the relocation of a band of Inuit called the Ahiarmiut in 1950 to Nueltin Lake, and in 1957 to Henik Lake. Chapter 5 examines the Ahiarmiut's encounters with officials which ultimately led to relocation from their homeland at Ennadai Lake. The operation ended in tragedy, with the deaths of seven people, and the incarceration of several Inuit. In Chapter 6 I search for the causal factors behind the Ahiarmiut deaths in the investigative reports and transcripts related to the criminal trial which followed, Regina vs Kikkik. The manner in which the Administration controlled the discourse on the relocation and their role in shaping public perceptions of the Inuit deaths is analyzed in Chapter 7. In Part IV (Chapter 8) I assess the aftermath of the relocations and their implications for Inuit social welfare and the development of government relocation policy, which was curtailed and re-directed after the Ahiarmiut deaths and those of other Keewatin Inuit in 1958. At the end of this chapter I draw together the metaphors relating to Eden, utopia, and migration hinted at throughout earlier chapters, and suggest how they can be used to interpret the relocation experiences from contrasting perspectives of the White officials and the Inuit themselves.
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