Edgar Dewdney, Commissioner of Indian Affairs and Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories:
Name
Jean B. D Larmour
Type of Resource
text
Genre
Thesis
Abstract
--Description taken from "Edgar Dewdney, Commissioner of Indian Affairs and Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories"--
Edgar Dewdney was appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the North-West Territories in 1879. Two years later he became
Lieutenant Governor of the Territories, occupying both of these positions until 1888, when he was appointed Minister of the Interior.
As Commissioner Dewdney was the principal agent of the federal government responsible for administering Indian policy in the Territories. For the Indian it was a difficult and painful period of transition from an unfettered nomadic way of life to a sedentary confined existence, fraught with danger of the explosion of frustration into violence and bloodshed. Although the non-Indian population was small in the early years, increasing settlement required the establishment of laws and institutions for a more developed society. Administratively the Territories was in a colonial position, the Lieutenant Governor having the responsibility for executive and legislative action. He was also responsible for the organization of the judicial system and for the location of the police force. He was the interpreter of the North-West Territories to-the federal-government as well as its political agent.