The Crooked Lakes Reserves: A Study of Indian Policy in Practice from the Qu'appelle Treaty to 1900
This thesis examines Indian Affairs policies between 1874 and 1900 as they were implemented in one agency in the North—West Territories within the boundaries set by Treaty Four. The study includes the negotiation and terms of this Treaty, the location of four reserves at Crooked Lakes and the movements of people to them. It examines the level of subsistence during the first six years of settlement and a major incident of protest by the Indian people against these conditions. It describes attempts made by the Department to establish an agricultural subsistence base on the reserves prior to and following the location of a resident Indian agent, the implementation of the educational policy as it affected these reserves, and finally the effect of the reserve policy and the residential school experience in contributing to the severe tuberculosis epidemic. The role played by the agent who supervised these reserves for seventeen years is carefully examined. The, study concludes that the negotiation of Treaty Four forced the acceptance by Indian leaders of terms set by the government which were totally inadequate for the required transition to agriculture. Reserves were only settled under threat of starvation, and the early rationing policy provided a precarious level of subsistence, Agricultural policies implemented under a resident agent were almost total failures. The residential school program failed in its aims and with a major contributor to the tuberculosis epidemic. The main causes of failure of economic and educational programs were the government's persistent financial strictures and its assumption of the necessity of programs aimed at assimilation which allowed the Indians no significant part in decision—making.
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