BEST LEFT AS INDIANS
193
program. While the church's efforts to reform native cultural and social values
should not be underestimated, it is clear that even in the field of education the
government had not deviated from its intention of leaving the Indians in the
bush.
To the end of World War II, the federal government's program for the
Yukon Indians departed in several significant respects from declared national
policy. Many of the elements laid out in the Indian Act, including the encourage-
ment of self-sufficiency, the protection of the natives from white society, and
support for the Christianization of the "heathens", found their way into Yukon
practice, albeit often by default. In contrast, there was no commitment to
assimilation. The authorities remained dedicated to keeping the Indians as
Indians, supporting their continuing desire to hunt and trap and working to
avoid their absorption into the unreliable industrial economy. The low priority
ascribed to Indian matters by the federal government prevented any entrench-
ment of this position in the form of game preserves or guaranteed access to
game, but the emphasis remained intact. While the government shied away from
imposing its assimilationist model on the Yukon Indians, they did offer compen-
sation to overcome the difficulties attending white expansion. Somewhat sur-
prinsingly, the medical and welfare benefits available to the natives began well
in advance of government programs for other Canadians, a faint but nonetheless
clear precursor of the safety net provisions of the post World War II welfare
state.
After World War II, federal programming with regard to Yukon Indians
took a dramatic shift, ushering in a new era of government-native programming.
While the administration of native affairs before 1945 resulted from a pessimistic
assessment of territorial prospects, the striking increase in interventionism after
that date was tied to new national imperatives. The post-war commitment of
the Mackenzie King's Liberal administration to a national social welfare system
foreshadowed major new directions in government programming for all Cana-
dians (Guest, 1980; Coates, 1982). While much of the increased intervention
stemmed from national policies, including the Mothers' Allowance introduced
in 1944, other programs originated more particularly from recognition of
changing conditions in the Yukon, such as the construction of the Alaska
Highway and Canol Pipeline during the war, and a precipitous decline in fur
prices after 1948.
Much of the "new" policy involved an expansion of existing programs.
This period saw the extension of medical care offerings outside the Dawson-
Whitehorse corridor, a tuberculosis survey, a special tuberculosis wing addition
to the Whitehorse General Hospital, the hiring of a Public Health nurse to
administer routine medical services and offer health education, an immunization
programme and special dental clinics. The government also fleshed out relief
measures, particularly in the aftermath of the collapse of the fur trade. 57
Indian Agent R.J. Meek tried to divert the natives from the welfare rolls, instead
"assisting the Indians to be self-supporting and reliant". Whenever possible,
according to Meek, financial aid was "given to Indians to assist them in possible
worthwhile fields of endeavour, in preference to direct relief. "58 As before, the
myriad medical and welfare programs available to Indians far exceeded those
194
KEN COATES
provided to the white population.
The program of greatest impact in the 1945-1950 period was the Mothers'
Allowance. To qualify for the monthly allotments, one had only had to be a
resident of Canada with children under the age of 16 registered in and attending
school. However, the inadequate day school system, coupled with the refusal
of most territorial public schools to accept native students, eliminated the
immediate need for the Indians to fulfill the education requirement. Afraid that
the Indians' nomadic lifestyle would lead to profligate waste of the federal
grant, the government insisted upon issuing the payments "in kind." Offering
food and clothing instead of a cheque allowed the government to dictate native
purchases. Seeing little of value in native eating habits, the authorities insisted
that canned milk and tomatoes and prepared baby foods be included in
individual allotments. 59 The program had other, even greater significance than
the important alterations it dictated in diet and material culture. The require-
ment that children attend schools, applied with increasing vigour with the
passage of time (beginning in the early 1950's), forced difficult choices between
seasonal mobility and a more sedentary existence calculated to ensure a
continuity of payments. The government expanded the day school and resi-
dential school programs in the same period, drawing more children into its
educational network and more families into permanent settlement near the
towns. 60
The federal government had embarked on a new direction in social
programming after 1945, not just for Indians but for all Canadians. For the
Yukon Indians, this increased activity had marked consequences. Mothers'
Allowance, pensions for the aged, educational support, employment programs,
expanded welfare and medical care offered a greatly enhanced level of govern-
ment support. Through the 1950's and following decades, government inter-
vention increased, as the federal bureaucracy sought new ways to "improve"
the natives' condition. For the Yukon Indians, it was only after 1945 that the
federal government's native policy approached the interventionist-assimilationist
program long believed to typify government-native relations. 61
The Yukon example illustrates how declared public policy goals can be
transformed in the process of becoming administrative practice. The national
commitment to protection and assimilation remained intact well past 1950, but
in the hands of national bureaucrats and Indian Agents sensitive to local con-
ditions, the imperatives of federal legislation were not applied with unwavering
conviction and were altered significantly over time. Paradoxically, federal
involvement in the Yukon was both more active and less interventionist than is
typically suggested. Accepting an unwritten obligation to compensate the
Indians for the impact of white expansion, the government offered relief and
medical care far in advance of that available to white residents. Simultaneously,
however, the Department of Indian Affairs shied away from a policy of direct
assimilation of the natives. The policy of "best left as Indians" dominated
through the 1940's. The allotment of residential reserves and preferential game
regulations represented a conscious attempt to encourage the social and
economic segregation of native and white, and hence preserve the "native way."