Native Studies Critical Analysis Essay
J.R. Miller’s article entitled “Victoria’s “Red Children”: The “Great White Queen Mother” and Native-Newcomer Relations in Canada” was published in July 2008 in the Native Studies Review, Vol. 17 Issue 1, p1 -23. The article examines how even though First Nations people suffered tremendously during Queen Victoria’s reign, they maintained their strong allegiance to the Crown mostly due to their kinship mentality. Miller notes that slowly but noticeably, by the end of Victoria’s reign the Great White Queen’s Red Children were beginning to adjust their rhetoric to use the Crown and imperial government at Westminster as counterweights against national and provincial governments within Canada that were oppressing them.
Miller identifies how First Nations had been important military allies for the European powers. They were treated with respect and the government made no effort to interfere with their governance or way of life. After the War of 1812, things changed. Miller states that “now that First Nations were no longer military useful, British planners had hoped to pen them up on reserves, switch their hunting-gathering-trading economy to settled agriculture convert them to Christianity, school their children, and to effect this assimilation so far as possible with their own money.” Miller goes on to argue that the government attacked first Nations’ identity, governance, land-holding, economic activity and cultural practices.
J.R Miller’s main arguments include how the Canadian government tried to assimilate the First Nations in to every day culture at the hands of the Crown. There were attempts to get Aboriginal peoples to abandon their identity, first through assimilation campaigns, which included residential schools, and legislative actions with the introduction of the enfranchisement measure through the Gradual Civilization Act. This was followed by an attack on their governance in which Parliament encouraged First Nations people to disregard
Miller identifies how First Nations had been important military allies for the European powers. They were treated with respect and the government made no effort to interfere with their governance or way of life. After the War of 1812, things changed. Miller states that “now that First Nations were no longer military useful, British planners had hoped to pen them up on reserves, switch their hunting-gathering-trading economy to settled agriculture convert them to Christianity, school their children, and to effect this assimilation so far as possible with their own money.” Miller goes on to argue that the government attacked first Nations’ identity, governance, land-holding, economic activity and cultural practices.
J.R Miller’s main arguments include how the Canadian government tried to assimilate the First Nations in to every day culture at the hands of the Crown. There were attempts to get Aboriginal peoples to abandon their identity, first through assimilation campaigns, which included residential schools, and legislative actions with the introduction of the enfranchisement measure through the Gradual Civilization Act. This was followed by an attack on their governance in which Parliament encouraged First Nations people to disregard