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

This study explores the application of liberalism between 1877 and1927 in the land which became southern Alberta and the British Columbiainterior. In these regions, liberalism acted as an exclusionary forcethat enabled the use of extraordinary measures to remove Indigenouspeoples from their ancestral territories. The expansion of liberalism,diverse and multifaceted in construction but undeniably debilitating inits impact on First Nations people, was facilitated, fashioned, andjustified by means of disciplinary surveillance. This network, whichincluded government officials, police officers, church representatives,and ordinary settlers, inculcated Anglo-Canadian liberal capitalistvalues, structures, and interests by presenting them as normal,natural, and beyond reproach. At the same time, it worked to exclude orrestructure the economic, political, social, and spiritual aspects ofIndigenous cultures. While none of this proceeded unchallenged,surveillance served as well to dampen, even if it could nevercompletely quench, opposition.