Community Breaking/Fracturing

Macdonald’s National Policy focused on expanding transport and reach across the country; linking it sea to sea using a transcontinental railroad, encouraging Western settlement (by Europeans, Americans, and Eastern Canadians), and encouraging domestic production with protective tariffs. In order to accomplish this, Indigenous lands in the west were sought for railroad construction and land settlement. For instance, the occupation of these lands was undertaken through treaty and reserve policies. In 1878, Macdonald made himself head of the Department of the Interior, giving himself ultimate control over settlement policy and Indigenous policy in the North-West.

According to the Indian Act, First Nations women could neither vote nor be elected to band counsels until the Act was amended in 1951. The vote for First Nations women came roughly 33 years after suffrage was granted to white settler women within Canada in all provinces exempting Quebec (1940).

After the Conservatives returned to power in 1878, Edgar Dewdney was appointed to the newly created position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the North West Territories. Using this powerful position Dewdney implemented a policy he referred to as “sheer compulsion.” The policy entailed withholding rations and agricultural equipment (promised in many treaties) from First Nations that opposed the government’s actions or decrees. Furthermore, he incarcerated chiefs and restricted movement and gatherings between bands. As the name suggests this policy was meant to ensure compulsion to the will of the government.