White Settler Reserve: New Iceland and the Colonization of the Canadian West by Ryan Eyford (review)

This book explores a hitherto largely neglected area of history: the history of European settler reserves in the Canadian northwest. Specifically, Eyford focuses on the history of the New Iceland reserve on the southwest shore of Lake Winnipeg. This involved the block settlement of Icelandic migrants in the late nineteenth century. A combination of push and pull factors combined to bring the colony into being. The book uses the experience of the New Iceland reserve to make broader arguments about federal government policy at the time, not only towards white non-British settlement in the northwest, but also relations with Indigenous peoples, as the reserve was established on territories that belonged to various First Nations (specifically the Cree, Ojibwe, and Metis) and on which several groups had called to be allowed to establish reserves themselves.

The history of the New Iceland reserve was tumultuous to say the least: dealing with the harsh Canadian winter without adequate facilities, starvation, and an outbreak of smallpox, which decimated the population. Throughout all of these there were interactions with the local First Nations and highlights the intersection between immigration history and settler colonial history. This is probably one of the greatest strengths of the book. The Canadian federal government regarded the Icelanders as potential good settlers due to their supposed ‘racial superiority’ (being one of the Nordic races) and their ability to assimilate into the dominant Anglo-Canadian community. However, there was still a distinction between them and British subjects from the ‘mother-country’, the United Kingdom. So the Icelanders held an intermediate position between white British settlers at the top and First Nations at the bottom in official thinking at the time.

The New Iceland reserve was one of several bloc settlements that the federal government encouraged and supported in its desire to ‘populate’ the northwest with European settlers in the goal of it being developed and brought into primarily agricultural production. Even though the Icelandic migrants were regarded as good settlers and potential future citizens, they were expected to go through a period of tutelage in which the federal government would instruct them in the laws, practices, norms, and values of their adopted society. This caused some friction with the Icelanders as they considered themselves more than ready for the task of becoming fully-fledged citizens in their adopted country.

One of the things that I liked most about this book is its ability to combine what was going on at the grassroots level with the bigger picture of broader political developments. This is not something that is easy to accomplish (and I am talking from personal experience here), but Eyford does it well. I therefore strongly recommend this book as it makes an important contribution to the existing literature, and believe it would appeal to both specialists and general readers alike.