Cree (Nêhiyawak) Mobility, Diplomacy, and Resistance in the Canada-US Borderlands, 1885 - 1917

This thesis examines the borderlands history of the Cree (nêhiyawak; primarily under Chief Little Bear) from 1885 to 1917. It combines archival research, digital mapping (GIS), ethnohistory, and data analysis to track Indigenous movements and to analyze how the Cree navigated their status as “foreign” Indians. It focuses on Cree transnational mobility, diplomacy, and resistance from the events of 1885 at Frog Lake, North-west Territories, to the eventual creation of the Rocky Boy Reservation and its membership roll in 1917. This research determines not only how the border affected the lives of the Cree, but also how the Cree created the borderlands in which they lived. I argue that although the Cree suffered from substantial hostility, violence, and dislocation, they successfully worked within and challenged restrictive colonial notions of land and nationhood imposed by the international border. Finally, this thesis argues that the shifting and haphazard ways colonial regimes defined Indigenous identities created fissures in pre-existing community and kinship structures that continue to create challenges for these communities.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor

University of Saskatchewan

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Betke, Tyla

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Hoy, Benjamin

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Smith, Marth
• Englebert, Robert
• Kalinowski, Angela
• Wheeler, Winona

• borderlands
• Indigenous history
• Cree
• Indigenous diplomacy
• 19th century history

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10388/12252

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:harvest.usask.ca:10388/12252