Assiniboine Agency Sports Days Petition

Summary

Thirty-three individuals from the Assiniboine Agency signed a petition and sent it to Ottawa requesting two designated days for feasts and celebrations, just as Euro-Canadians did on Dominion Day. They promised that in exchange for the designation of these two days, they would stay on their reserves and work all summer, and not participate in their sun dances. Some believed this was simply an attempt for them to participate in their ‘heathen’ dances with permission, but it was accepted, and they held their sport days on July 18 and 19. The Indian Agent recognized that they had kept their promises to stay on reserve and not participate in sun dances, though he believed it to be a waste of time and money.

Implications
This is an example of the way in which Aboriginal groups had to negotiate complex and paternalistic bureaucratic structures in order to arrange communal gatherings. Such gatherings became particularly difficult to organize following the 1895 Sun Dance ban as a result of government paranoia about the detrimental consequences of participation in "pagan" Indigenous ceremonies. This event shows that Indigenous peoples were successful in asserting autonomy against the Canadian Government in new ways that evolved due to the colonial rule; Indigenous peoples negotiated ways in which they could celebrate with their communities even when the government's mission was to assimilate Indigenous peoples, thus attempting to remove their cultures and spiritualities.
Sources

PAC, RG 10, vol. 3825, file 60, 511-2, F. Pedley to F. Oliver, 30 March 1906; W. Grant to Headquarters, 2 July 1906 Winnipeg Telegram, 11 July 1906

Sub Event
Assiniboine Sports Days
Resources
A Narrow Vision: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Administration of Indian Affairs in Canada
Date
1906-07-18
Theme(s)
Local Governance