BEST LEFT AS INDIANS
185
centres of white population served as an integral part of a larger plan. Founded
on the belief that the future of the nomadic hunting Indians lay in the preserva-
tion of their "natural" state, the plan served to enhance social distance between
natives and whites and to keep the Indians on the fringes of the industrial
economy. 29
Government policy to restrict Indian access to white social and economic
activities served little purpose, however, without an alternative. The second
component of the federal government's strategy, that of preserving native access
to game, provided the desired substitute. Almost all missionaries, R.C.M.P.
officers, and government officials despaired of the Indians accepting "civiliza-
tion." Most observers accepted that the Indians had to hunt and fish in order to
survive. Thus native access to game resources had to be assured. Accomplishing
this goal proved relatively easy, for few whites competed for the game stocks.
Nonetheless, grave concern persisted about the prospect of this situation holding
true over the longer term. Market hunters in the Dawson and Mayo areas
competed aggressively with the Indians, and the decline of game in these areas
portended the threat of a wide-scale depletion.
While most officials could agree on the need to preserve native access to
game, finding practical means to implement these desires proved difficult. As
evident in the case of residential reserves, native rights were seldom accorded a
place of high priority within the larger government establishment, which fre-
quently gave way to pragmatic concerns for future development. The paren-
thetical attention given the matter aided the natives' interest in the short term.
Limited white settlement and restricted mining activity left the Indians sub-
stantially unchallenged in their harvesting pursuits. Several proposals were
brought forward to entrench this native-land relationship, including Acting
Commissioner Lithgow's 1907 suggestion that all the natives in the territory be
removed to the Peel-Porcupine district, an area believed devoid of mineral
resources. 30 Not until the 1930's, when increased hunting pressure tied to an
improving fur market threatened game resources, did suggestions for native-
only game preserves receive serious consideration. Preserves had been adopted,
allegedly with success, for the Indians in the Mackenzie valley. Again, however,
the government hesitated to countenance such a proposal for the mineral-rich
Yukon. 31 A proposal for large-scale game reserves first emerged for the Yukon
in 1955. Harper Reed, Indian Agent for the Stikine district in northern British
Columbia, requested that the Department of Indian Affairs take action to
protect natives in the Upper Liard district from the perceived effects of white
encroachment. 32 Although R.C.M.P. reports failed to substantiate Reed's claims
of over-trapping, his proposal foundered on other grounds. Charles Camsell,
noted northern surveyor and then Deputy Minister of the Department of Mines,
made federal priorities for the Yukon abundantly clear when he noted
If we are not going to reserve our northern regions exclusively
for the use of the natives but are looking to encourage the opening
up of these regions to the people of Canada generally, then I
think we must limit the extent of the preserves to meet the press-
ing needs of the natives but no more. 33
186
KEN COATES
Development - not native access to game - was to take precedence in the
Yukon.
The federal government approached the question of Indian access to game
in a contradictory fashion. When several white trappers began exploiting the
Old Crow flats muskrat stocks in 1929 and when whites began to compete for
fish and fur resources in the Little Atlin district in 1932, government agents
moved quickly to protect native interests. 34 There were, however, clear limits
to the level of intervention. The government maintained a solid commitment to
protect native hunting and fishing pursuits but recoiled at any suggestion that
those rights be entrenched through game preserves or special hunting regula-
tions.
The government's ambivalence finally succumbed to changing conditions
and attitudes. Continued white hunting pressure, particularly during the con-
struction of the Alaska Highway in 1942-1943, led to increased concern for the
future of native hunting. In 1947, Indian Agent R.J. Meek requested the
implementation of registered traplines, a program used to good effect in
northern British Columbia. Under Meek's plan, the natives had first claim to
trapping territories, with half-breeds and "old-timers" making their choice
before the allocation of the remainder of the traplines. 35 Implemented by the
territorial government in 1950, the registration program unfortunately came
into effect at precisely the moment when there began a prolonged downward
spiral in fur prices, which drained much of the vitality from the trade. Trapline
permits were clearly a second-best option compared to proposals for native-
only game preserves; up to 1950, however, they represented the limits of federal
munificence. 36
Federal authorities, seconded by the territorial administration, consistently
supported the concept of leaving the Indians as hunters and trappers. The
imperative nature of northern development policy, however, interfered with a
logical application of the preferred program. By definition, the Yukon served as
a national resource base for the rest of the country. The government could not
countenance entrenchment of native access to game which, in turn, promised
to interfere with northern development. Indian interests were regularly sub-
ordinated to a more pressing national concern for economic development. In
the Yukon, native access to game even had to give way to sport hunting, which
was slowly being recognized as a potential growth industry. As R.H. Gibson
noted,
There has always been a fundamental difference in wild life
management of the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. In the
Yukon Territory hunting for sport has been encouraged. In the
Northwest Territories the wild life is reserved for those who
depend on it for a living, chiefly our increasing population of
Indians and Eskimos. 37
As of 1950, most of the Yukon Indians remained hunters and trappers,
resorting to the towns only as season and need dictated. While the government's