The Frontier World of Edgar Dewdney PDF
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The Frontier World of Edgar Dewdney Brian Titley The Frontier World of Edgar Dewdney © UBC Press All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted,in any form or by any means,without prior written permission of the publisher,or,in Canada,in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying,a licence from (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency),– Adelaide Street East,Toronto,ON . Printed in Canada on acid-free paper ¥ --- Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Titley,E.Brian. The frontier world of Edgar Dewdney Includes bibliographical references and index. --- .Dewdney,E.(Edgar),-. .Northwest,Canadian – Biography. .Politicians – Canada,Western – Biography..Northwest,Canadian – History. .Indians of North America – Canada – Government relations – -.* I.Title. .. .´´ -- .. This book has been published with a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada,using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. UBC Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program () for our publishing activities. We also gratefully acknowledge the ongoing support to our publishing program from the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council. UBC Press University of British Columbia Memorial Road Vancouver,BC () - Fax:--- E-mail:[email protected] www.ubcpress.ubc.ca Contents Introduction / vii The Trailblazer / The Politician / Indian Commissioner / Rebellion / Lieutenant Governor / Minister of the Interior / Semi-Retirement / A Frontier Capitalist / Notes/ Bibliography/ Index/ Introduction This story takes place in the latter half of the nineteenth century in what are now the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskat- chewan, and Manitoba. The West, as we shall call it, was experiencing breathtaking change in this period,and the upheavals and convulsions that transformed society are central to our narrative. The frontier is an expression often used in association with this time and place. The concept is useful, although lacking in precision. Sometimes fi fl de ned as the outer edge of a zone of in uence,jurisdiction,and civility, the frontier might also be seen as an idea or attitude.Frontier conditions imply wilderness – tracts of terra incognita awaiting occupancy, a social and economic blank slate on which an invading culture could make its mark. Frontiersmen and women in this context are intrepid adventurers who brave physical hardships to tame the new land and whose labours pave the way for a material nirvana to be enjoyed by themselves and their descendants. This rough-hewn image of pioneer folk persists,and with good reason, but Western Canada as a destination was more complex than a mere haven for land-hungry peasants.While the region drew its share of the ordinary and unremarkable,it also attracted those who considered themselves a cut above the rest. Unable, for whatever reason, to maintain social status at home,well-bred Britons looked to the West,and to British Columbia in particular,as a realm where they might either live to respectable standards fi or return home to do so after having pro ted from their adventures.It was to this class of immigrant-adventurer that Edgar Dewdney belonged. Whatever the personal motivations of Dewdney and his fellow migrants, and those motivations varied greatly in individual cases, the newcomers were part of a colonial project that envisaged the re-creation of a British society far from home. The project also anticipated unrivalled ffi economic returns through the e cient harnessing of human and physical viii The Frontier World ofEdgar Dewdney fi resources.In some ways,a rationally ordered society geared to pro tability was easier to create in the colonies than in tradition-bound Europe.Hence, the political and economic development of Western Canada was always a mix of the rugged individualism so readily associated with the American frontier, and the sentimental attachment to feudal symbolism and class privilege so characteristic of British imperial outposts. These tensions and contradictions were at the heart of the dialectic that marked the political, social, and economic evolution of the West. And Edgar Dewdney was never far from the centre of the most vital decisions and actions. He experienced the gold rushes of the s, building key pathways to the British Columbia interior and trying his hand at prospect- fi ing and mining.The entry of the Paci c colony to Canadian Confederation was by no means a foregone conclusion,and Dewdney was a participant in the vigorous debates that preceded the union in . In the decade that fi followed,the completion of the Paci c railway was the major preoccupa- tion of British Columbia politicians, and Dewdney, as MP for Yale, was at the forefront in reminding Ottawa of its obligations.More importantly, perhaps, he championed the route with a western terminus at Burrard Inlet that ultimately prevailed,in spite of keen opposition from Vancouver Islanders. As lieutenant governor of the North-West Territories in the s, Dewdney wielded virtually autocratic power.There,he presided over the gradual democratization of political institutions in the region, ensuring that the will of the people was constrained by his wisdom and experience. fi There, too, he played his most signi cant role as Indian commissioner. Colonialism is about land and race.What ought to be done with the dis- placed or conquered peoples who had lived unchallenged in the newly acquired territories? In the Prairie West,marginalization with a touch of forced labour (that is, work for rations) dressed up in the language of a mission civilisatricebecame the Dewdney solution. fi He continued to keep his nger on the pulse of the West after leaving his fi Regina posts, rst as minister of the interior and later as lieutenant gov- ernor of British Columbia.And he was a player in the enduring tribute to greed that engulfed the West as the century drew to a close,the Klondike gold rush.He was not just an eyewitness to history;he helped to make it. In many ways,his career is a metaphor for the maturing western frontier. His exploits tell the story of a region experiencing staggering change. Biography is akin to necromancy.We exhume the bodies of the dead – skulldiggery,if you like – and breathe life into them.But we cannot ques- tion them, and our reconstruction hinges largely on the fragments they leave behind, whether deliberately or accidentally. In Dewdney’s case, a Introduction ix fi formidable dossier of private papers and public documents testi es to his deeds and motivations.The records,however,relate mainly to the various ffi o ces he held, and this focus inevitably becomes our concern, too.The paper trail does not permit much insight into his youth or personal life. The reader expecting a chronique scandaleuse – a tiresome idiom all too familiar in popular writing today – will be disappointed.The man had his shady side,to be sure,but because it was motivated by avarice rather than fi ff lust,Dewdney’s life hardly quali es as the stu of breathless revelations. People are interested in others of their kind,especially in the fortunes of individuals who have some claim to pre-eminence.This remains so in spite of the puzzling attempts of some social historians to write of a past peopled with nameless collectivities.There is,nonetheless,no impulse towards cre- ating an idealized biography here.I do not consider Dewdney a great man or a nation builder. Rather, I see him as a type – a representative of that class of adventurer who saw in the western frontier an unprecedented opportunity for self-aggrandizement.
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