Batoche Metis Petition for an Industrial School

Summary

The Metis community in the Batoche area petitioned the government to establish an industrial school to provide technical training in agriculture between 1888 and 1890. The Metis were interested in learning about mechanized farming and trades. The government and clergy opposed this school. Many Metis felt discriminated against by the government because First Nations peoples had received governmental aid in the agricultural sector.

Implications
The Canadian Government's aversion to provide an industrial school for agricultural technical training appears counterintuitive to the policies they had been pushing First Nations peoples towards. While development of agriculture in the west was part of the National Policy, the Canadian Government's reluctance to provide assistance and training for the Metis at Batoche upon their request shows that the government was already decided on who was allowed to develop and settle the west, and what culture was to form out of western development (an Anglo-Saxon protestant identity).
Date
1888-00-00
Community
Theme(s)