Thread by @KamloopsArchaeo

This is a story about how Indian Reserves were established in BC. It lacks honour. It's also one of the clearest ways to make reparations. #GiveBackTheLand 1/

You may be under the impression that establishing Indian reserves was an orderly, top down affair headed by Ottawa, federal jurisdiction and all that. But no in general, and def NO in the wildest west. 2/

Maybe other provinces and territories can legit put the blame on Canada for alienating Indigenous lands, but BC sure af can’t.

The fathers of colonial BC FOUGHT LIKE HELL for the right to steal as much as possible. It became a condition of our entry in the union. 3/

See, Canada and BC couldn’t agree if they should give FNs *jack shit* or *fuck all*.

Canada granted reserves based on 160 acres per family, BC wanted to keep it at 10 (white men got 360 acres).

So in 1876 they struck the Joint Reserve Commission. 4/

The commission aimed to reduce reserves to the smallest possible extent. Any parts that could be better exploited by whites were whittled off. It left people destitute. 5/

*important note: fiddling with reserves was also a sort of land laundering operation.
✔️lands put into reserves come from fed crown lands, no loss for BC
✔️lands cut off became BC crown land. Great deal! It’s called “reversionary interest”, and was a major incentive 6/

Then, cos reserves were STILL too big, another Commission!

The 1913 Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for BC headed out to ask FNs what they thought of reserves: Were they using it all? Did they really need that land? Couldn’t they live with half as much water? And so on 7/

The meetings were a farce.

The commission refused to meet with organized leadership. Individuals were not to speak to the greater issue of land theft. They were shut down when they strayed from the topic of specific reserve boundaries. BCArchives E01929 8/

Oh and the commission also acted like a real estate broker, selling & leasing bits of reserves, BC & feds splitting the profits.

(in my town, the CN right-of-way was literally built right through the village, between homes and gardens) 9/

Then the BC Indian Lands Settlement Act was passed, allowing BC to override other laws and rights to carve >36,000 acres from reserves.

Without consultation, consent or compensation.

Those are called cut-off lands. 10/

SO HERE’S THE THING. People ask about how to do reconciliation. Where to start.

START HERE. With THIS land.

Putting aside for a sec that its ALL Indigenous land, THESE lands were the specific ones that were promised to FNs under settler legal systems. Then taken away. 11/

? But Joanne, these lands are provincial, municipal, some even private, isn’t reconciliation up to the Feds? Should we not wait for Canada to do this? 12/

Provinces and municipalities acted dishonourably toward Indigenous people too. Provinces and municipalities and the people living in them are STILL benefitting from these lands, and we need to reconcile too.

This is one way to start. #GiveTheLandBack 13/

The maps in this thread are from @UBCIC, which has documented cutoff lands and the processes used to execute this theft in excruciating detail. Learn more here: ourhomesarebleeding.ubcic.bc.ca/index.html 14/14

Yes this land rematriation is gonna cost a LOT, so Canada & provinces should probably split the bill with the firms & institutions that have made wealth from them

👀 👀 👀 looking at you, resource extraction companies / banks / realty boards / agrifood (yep)

A good example of the prevailing settler attitudes driving the land grab that reduced BC Indian reserves to almost nothing. From October 26, 1911, Vernon Museum & Archives via @pbritton78 (thx!)

White supremacy in Canada’s history is not a metaphor and it’s not an exaggeration.

An more explicit example, from the British Colonist in 1861, on why FNs in BC should have no land: