Liberalism, Surveillance, and Resistance: Indigenous communities in Western Canada, 1877-1927

Canada is regularly presented as a country where liberalism has ensuredfreedom and equality for all. Yet with the expansion of settlers intothe First Nations territories that became southern Alberta and BC,liberalism proved to be an exclusionary rather than inclusionary force.Between 1877 and 1927, government officials, police officers, churchrepresentatives, ordinary settlers, and many others operated to excludeand reform Indigenous people. Presenting Anglo-Canadian liberalcapitalist values and structures and interests as normal, natural, andbeyond reproach devalued virtually every aspect of Indigenous cultures.This book explores the means used to facilitate and justifycolonization, their effects on Indigenous economic, political, social,and spiritual lives, and how they were resisted.