Canada's Subjugation of the Plains Cree, 1879–1885

ONE OF THE MOST PERSISTENT MYTHS that Canadian historians perpetuate is that of the honourable and just policy Canada followed in dealing with the Plains Indians. First enunciated in the Canadian expansionist literature of the 187os as a means to emphasize the distinctive Canadian approach to and the unique character of the Canadian west, 1 it has been given credence by G.F.G. Stanley in his classic The Birth of Western Canada, • and by all those who use Stanley's work as the standard interpretation of Canada's relationship with the Plains Indians in the period 187o-85 . Thus students are taught that the Canadian government was paternalistic and far-sighted in offering the Indians a means to become civilized and assimilated into white society by the reserve system, and honest and fair-minded in honouring legal commitments made in the treaties. • The Plains Indians, and particularly the Plains Cree, are said to be a primitive people adhering to an inflexible system of tradition and custom, seeking to protect themselves against he advance of civilization, and taking up arms in rejection of the reserve system and an agricultural way of life. 4 This traditional