A Tax-Eating Proposition the History of the Passpasschase Indian Reserve:
Name
Kenneth James Tyler
Type of Resource
text
Abstract
--Description taken from "A Tax-Eating Proposition the History of the Passpasschase Indian Reserve"--
The surrender of „the Passpasschase Reserve in November of 1888 J I was the first significant Indian Reserve surrender in the Canadian North West-. As such, it was the precedent for the devastating series of Indian land surrenders which followed during the first three decades of the Twentieth Century. Like many precedents, however, the Passpassphase surrender was not the result of any considered government policy, nor was it intended to set the pattern for future land cessions by Indian bands. Rather', it was the product of a unique combination of circumstances which conspired to make the abandonment and sale of the reserve lands appear to be the most expedient response to immediate pressures. While the Department of Indian; Affairs was quickly r disgorged by the practical problems which it encountered in attempting to dispose of the reserve land and became rather disenchanted with the surrender process as a result, others took a different view. Prank Oliver, the editor of the Edmonton Bulletin, and a leader among the white residents of Edmonton who had campaigned vigorously against the establishment of the Passpasserhase Reserve since before, it was definitely located, found confirmation for his belief that the land was needed by better men in the final outcome of the surrender.- By the end of the century, the potential of a forty square mile tract which had been virtually unexploited by a band of Indians which had "gone into the business of starving and durring the Government for grub", was supporting a prosperous community of industrious white farmers. The Passpasschase Reserve had been transformed from a tax-eating to a tax-paying proposition and this change was most gratifying to the future Superintendent General of Indian Affairs.