Reinscribing colonialism: the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs in Nlha’pamux and Stl’atl’imx Territory, 1914

• Main Author: Schuurman, Nadine Cato
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: The University of British Columbia 1996
• Subjects: Indian; First Nations
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0087195; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0087195

In 1912 a joint federal-provincial Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the province of British Columbia was appointed. Intended "to settle all differences between the Governments of the Dominon and the Province respecting Indian land and Indian Affairs in the Province," the Commission travelled through British Columbia for three years interviewing thousands of native people. Its primary mandate was to settle the Indian land question. The Royal Commission also sought to measure the acculturation of native people to European society. As a representative of the state, it adjudicated issues related to railway construction and native fishing and hunting rights as well as land claims. While the Commission represented a political program for Indians,' first nation people were nevertheless persistent in advancing their own claims. Native responses to many aspects of colonialism were expressed through their testimony. Frequent objections to the reserve system, loss of fishing and hunting privileges as well objections to railway construction were woven through native testimony. First nations also beseeched the state to recognize 'Aboriginal Title' to the land. Receptivity to problems presented by witnesses was, however, mediated by an enormous gulf of power which separated native people from the Commission. This thesis examines those relations of power as they were articulated through native testimony to the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs in 1914 in the southern interior of British Columbia.