Road Allowance

Colonies, however, provided very little to ebb the widespread poverty that many Métis at this time experienced, as land, livestock, and resources obtained in the ‘colonies’ were not owned by any Métis. CCF officials rationalized this by believing that the Métis were incapable of caring for themselves or their land. This belief was firstly, unfounded, and second, predicated on years of land dispossession and colonial interference across the prairies that robbed Métis from wealth and resources they formerly had access to. In doing this, the CCF continued to perpetuate the same behaviour as federal agents wherein Métis peoples were disadvantaged and assumed to be ‘incapable.’ 

Barron writes,

“Colonies, as a rehabilitation scheme for the Métis, were entirely in keeping with this thinking because they were seen as a way of making the Métis competitive in mainstream society. By removing the Métis from the road allowances and grouping them into distinct settlements, the government would be able to manipulate the environment to maximize local community development. The understanding was that, if the Métis could not integrate individually, they might do so collectively through the creation of economically viable, self-sustaining communities. Through proper training, self-actualization, and cooperation, they would evolve as a community of farmers contributing to the regional agrarian economy.”

In addition to a lack of access to education and healthcare, being restricted to the road allowance with no access to farmland and limited work opportunities meant that families were often relegated to finding temporary, low-paying work. Racism and prejudice also factored into the struggle for many Métis to find long-term, well paying work; Métis were socially relegated to undesirable jobs due to hiring discrimination and an assumption that they were incapable/unreliable. As well, the search for such work resulted in a high level of transience and disrupted schooling for Métis children that were able to attend. Many Métis families experienced poverty, and this was particularly severe during the Great Depression when conditions worsened both economically and environmentally (the Dust Bowl).

The above summary of events demonstrates that there were several federal tactics employed to make it exceedingly difficult for the Metis to obtain their land title after scrip had been issued.  Prime Minister MacDonald actively vetoed the plans of Lieutenant Governor Archibald, in the hopes that delaying the distribution of land to the Metis would allow white settlers to outnumber the Metis, forcing them to leave.  These federal delay tactics were effective, as many Metis migrated, although they continued to petition the government in Ottawa to settle their outstanding claims.  As well, the Metis were still involved in the buffalo economy.  The government was aware that many Metis families left their farms for extended periods of time while on the hunt, during which they allowed non-Aboriginal settlers to occupy and steal Metis farm lots .  As a result of these federal tactics, approximately 65 percent of Metis people lost their land to non-Aboriginal homesteaders in Manitoba.

The efforts of MacDonald to send a large number of troops into the newly formed province demonstrate a retaliatory effort to keep the region under tight state control.  The permissive attitude of the government towards methods of psychological and physical intimidation including murder, physical beatings and rape of an already oppressed people would have served to severely fracture the sense of community safety and family cohesion.  The psychological trauma caused by rape in particular is known to have long-term and even intergenerational consequences for emotional and mental health if appropriate or sufficient social supports are not available.  These tactics of physical and psychological violence were used to keep the Metis in a position of political subordination.  The researcher notes that in the era of the modern state, criteria provided by the United Nations in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court would classify the actions of the government as war crimes (extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly) and crimes against humanity (murder, rape, persecution based on ethnicity). 

According to a report prepared for the Department of Municipal Affairs, A Guide for Development, Uranium City and District., Uranium City housed tent encampents and isolated bush dwellings. These abodes were occupied by approximately 150 First Nations people, as well as 200 to 300 Métis. To further prevent the establishment of Indigenous dwellings in and around Uranium City, planners proposed that a boundary demarcate land 1.5-2 miles beyond the townsite unavailable for 'settlment.' It is noted that the policy was in effect but not rigidly applied.  This likely hindered the economic development and stability of Indigenous residents in the region, while also segregating them away from settler colonists who relocated north for employment. This was both a tactic of economic, social, and political isolation.