Cree (Nêhiyawak) Mobility, Diplomacy, and Resistance in the Canada-US Borderlands, 1885 - 1917

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Date
2019-08-08Author
Betke, Tyla
Type
ThesisDegree Level
MastersMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This thesis examines the borderlands history of the Cree (nêhiyawak; primarily under Chief Little Bear) from 1885 to 1917. It combines archival research, digital mapping (GIS), ethnohistory, and data analysis to track Indigenous movements and to analyze how the Cree navigated their status as “foreign” Indians. It focuses on Cree transnational mobility, diplomacy, and resistance from the events of 1885 at Frog Lake, North-west Territories, to the eventual creation of the Rocky Boy Reservation and its membership roll in 1917. This research determines not only how the border affected the lives of the Cree, but also how the Cree created the borderlands in which they lived. I argue that although the Cree suffered from substantial hostility, violence, and dislocation, they successfully worked within and challenged restrictive colonial notions of land and nationhood imposed by the international border. Finally, this thesis argues that the shifting and haphazard ways colonial regimes defined Indigenous identities created fissures in pre-existing community and kinship structures that continue to create challenges for these communities.
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)Department
HistoryProgram
HistorySupervisor
Hoy, BenjaminCommittee
Smith, Marth; Englebert, Robert; Kalinowski, Angela; Wheeler, WinonaCopyright Date
August 2019Subject
borderlands
Indigenous history
Cree
Indigenous diplomacy
19th century history