Enough to Keep Them Alive: Indian Welfare in Canada, 1873-1965 (review)

Hugh Shewell's study of 'Indian Social Welfare in Canada, 1873–1965' merits our attention. It adds to the small but growing body of material on twentieth-century Aboriginal history. It is written by an author who has had practical experience as an administrator of welfare in First Nations communities. And its argument, that social assistance has been used by the state 'as a weapon to undermine First Nations' cultures and to induce their assimilation and hence disappearance into the dominant Canadian economic and social order,' has relevance not only for Canada but for many similar colonial contexts.

Shewell's own experience may well have led him to recognize the cumulative impact of many seemingly small bureaucratic decisions. In a chapter on the 'Emergence of Indian Welfare Bureaucracy 1945–60,' for example, he underlines the role of the unseen bureaucrat who brings to the table an often unspoken liberal and assimilationist perspective. He recognizes how committees work, how interdepartmental rivalries and strong deputy ministers can shape policy. His portrait of Colonel H.M. Jones's reign as director of Indian Affairs in the 1950s is well drawn both analytically and by anecdote. Shewell notes, too, the generational shift in Indian affairs in the 1960s when experienced and energetic men such as Jean Lagasse and Walter Rudnicki took the department in the new direction of community and economic development.

Shewell also makes an important contribution in demonstating how mid-twentieth-century social science research played a significant role in redefining First Nations and their 'problems.' Academic research, he argues, comes to supplant the church as the agent of the dominant culture offering 'a fully secular interpretation of the Indian "other" for Euro-Canadians.'

This study is based on the extensive records of the Department of Indian Affairs and is enhanced by personal interviews and the use of contemporary documentaries. Some of the material has been published elsewhere (Canadian Historical Review, Journal of Canadian Studies, and Social History/Histoire Social) and may find there the broader academic audience it deserves. This longer and more inclusive work, however, would have benefited from a clearer vision of its intended audience. This is not, unfortunately, a book for the beginning student.

Shewell chooses to place himself in the intellectual context of Edward Said, Antonio Gramsci, and C.B. Macpherson.Yet his use of long quotations from theorists and others, the long reproductions of correspondence, and the frequent insertion of statistical tables in the text make this an awkward work to assimilate easily.

'Indian Welfare' has had and continues to have an enormous impact on the lives of thousands of Aboriginal families. In the twentieth century it had a central place in Canada's public discussion of First Nations issues in both the coffee shop and parliamentary committee room. Although Shewell offers little optimism and chooses not to venture into future policy directions, he has set out a pursuasive and coherent argument. There is much here that enables us to have a deeper understanding and a more informed discourse.