Edgar Dewdney

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Edgar Dewdney, 1883

Edgar Dewdney PC (* 5. November 1835 in Bideford / England ; † 8. August 1916 in Victoria ) was in Canada engineer, negotiators, politicians, holders of various offices and Deputy Governor (lieutenant governor) and in addition to the history of the First Nations exceedingly important man.

From England to British Columbia

Edgar Dewdney was the son of Charles Dewdney and Fanny Hollingshead. Raised in a wealthy family, Dewdney went to school in Bideford , Tiverton and Exeter , then moved to Cardiff to become an engineer. When he heard of gold discoveries on the Fraser River in 1858 and 1859 , he decided to return a rich man within ten years. On May 13, 1859, he reached Victoria on Vancouver Island . There he immediately got work for the Royal Engineers , who at that time had the order to expand New Westminster , the then capital of the colony of British Columbia . Dewdney won several contracts to expand the roads to the gold fields in north Yale . Together with Walter Moberly he built trails from Hope to the camps in the Similkameen Valley. By 1865 the path to Wild Horse Creek (or River) was added. With the help of Chinese and Native American laborers, he built the path known as the Dewdney Trail for $ 74,000. In 1862/63 he carried out investigations on the Cariboo gold fields , in 1866 he built paths from Lillooet and Cache Creek towards the gold fields. In 1867 he tried cattle breeding on Soda Creek, but without much success.

On March 28, 1864, he married Jane Shaw Moir in Hope .

From engineer to politician

In December 1868, Dewdney was elected Kootenay's delegate to the Provincial Legislative Assembly without making an effort . In 1870 he supported the Canadian Confederation , but played no role in the actual founding of the state of Canada .

Since the government could only persuade the province of British Columbia against the promise to join, that a rail link would be built, Dewdney was included in the group around Sandford Fleming, which should explore the site and choose the route. He represented Yale in the General Assembly of the House of Commons in 1872. Since he wanted to Ottawa , he refused the position of Surveyor general of British Columbia that had been offered to him .

In Ottawa, he supported the conservative government of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald and remained loyal to him even after the liberal Alexander Mackenzie came into power . He criticized the latter sharply for his hesitant attitude in building the promised rail link, the Canadian Pacific Railway . Dewdney preferred the route along the Fraser, where he had already made speculative property purchases. When Macdonald returned to office in 1878, the two men were already friends.

Indian commissioner of the North-West Territories (1879–1888)

On May 30, 1879, Dewdney was appointed Indian commissioner for the Northwest Territories . There the buffalos had almost been exterminated, so that the plains Indians who depend on them were starving. As a result, riots were feared, and Dewdney was given the task of keeping the Indians quiet by delivering food, settling the Indians on Indian reservations, and encouraging them to pursue the agriculture that was forced on them. He was also supposed to persuade the Sioux who had fled the USA under their chief Sitting Bull (Sitting Buffalo, Tatanka I-yotank) to return. For this he should receive an annual salary of $ 3,200 . In the Prime Minister's view, this was the only way to realize the plan for the east-west railway.

On June 26, 1879, Dewdney reached Fort Walsh in Saskatchewan , the post of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police , around which starved Cree and Assiniboine camped. He talked to Chief Big Bear (Big Bear, Mistahimaskwa) and said he would only hand out food to those willing to cooperate. The Indians complained about non-compliance with contract terms and poor quality cattle. The Blackfoot among Crowfoot (crow's foot, Isapo-muxika) were so desperate that they ate dogs. Dewdney reported the conditions to the Prime Minister in November. Then Manitoba and the Keewatin District were also subordinate to him. In the spring of 1880 he moved his official residence to Winnipeg .

But Dewdney not only had to struggle with enormous problems, also privately - his wife, the daughter of a tea plantation owner in Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ) suffered from the conditions, the climate and her husband's long absences - he found little support, and the press criticized his Politics.

But the Prime Minister flatly refused his resignation and his request for a seat in the Senate . Instead, he made him lieutenant governor of the Northwest Territories and Indian Commissioner , and he increased his wages by $ 2,000. On December 3, 1881, he accepted the dual office. This time he went to the territory's capital, Battleford , but left the Indian office to Elliott Torrance Galt and his successor Hayter Reed until June 14, 1883.

The refusal to supply Sitting Bull with food forced him to return to the United States. The remaining Indians were supposed to learn agriculture from 17 farm instructors. Although Dewdney noticed that many of these men were getting rich, got hold of their offices by patronage, or simply incapacitated, he stuck to this system of work against bread and meat. Only those who worked received the promised rations, as had been ordered in Ottawa.

Dewdney used the ubiquitous leverage over and over again. In 1881 Chief Big Bear encouraged the Indians from Treaty No. 4 and 6 of the Numbered Treaties to congregate at the Cypress Hills . He hoped a semi-autonomous reservation would be established, but Dewdney had Fort Walsh barricaded and told the Indians to go to their reservations around Fort Qu'Appelle , in the area around Battleford and Fort Pitt . Big Bear gave in to rampant hunger and signed No. 6 in December 1882. But Dewdney did not believe he had given up, even though the tribe moved to the designated reservation.

Dewdney decided to tear the upbringing of the offspring out of the hands of the Indian parents. He hoped the schools outside the reservations would turn the Indians into farmers. In 1883 and 1884 he deployed a greater number of instructors, divided the country into more manageable units, and had Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs Lawrence Vankoughnet tour the northwest - who in turn found that much more help was needed. Dewdney protested in vain against the cut in his budget.

Northwest Rebellion

With the growing stream of settlers, the construction of the railroad and the brutal supply policy, the unrest of the Cree grew . The Métis , too , were increasingly demanding that the system be abandoned, especially after they were joined by Louis Riel . They claimed land in Saskatchewan. As recently as February 1885, Dewdney was urging Ottawa for better supply, land, and contract performance. At the same time, he acted ruthlessly when individual chiefs incited resistance.

But already in March there was a clash between Métis and the police at Duck Lake. This was the prelude to the Northwest Rebellion . The next day, March 27, 1885, Dewdney met with General Middleton in Winnipeg, where they discussed how to deal with the insurgents. Dewdney traveled from tribe to tribe, handing out gifts, tobacco, and more groceries. After the rebellion, he asked Macdonald to have Riel executed. He wanted to withdraw rifles, horses and food from Indians who stood by him.

Encouraged by the victory of the Métis at Duck Lake, on April 2, 1885 warriors Big Bears led by Wandering Spirit (Kapapamahchakwews) on Frog Lake (now southern Alberta) rounded up the settlers in the area in a church and shot nine of them . They held three hostages. Troops were immediately sent to Battleford to stop the rebellion from spreading west. Battalions that had just arrived in Winnipeg were also diverted there and troops under General Strange broke out from Calgary . The Indians living in the neighboring reservation under Poundmaker had maintained neutrality until then. On May 2, 1885, about 300 men were ambushed at Cut Knife Hill and had to flee. After the final defeat of the Métis on May 15, the men of Big Bears won a drawn battle at Frenchman's Butt on May 29 , but the Indians were defeated in the Battle of Loon Lake on June 3. Big Bear surrendered on July 2 and was sentenced to prison, but Wandering Spirit was executed on November 27.

Crowfoot and Red Crow , who had remained loyal, should finally get farm equipment, extra rations and money. But instead, the Indian bureaucracy became more and more cumbersome and slow, it only reacted quickly with reprisals. Dewdney tried to overcome the tribal system through rapid land division and closer surveillance, to which more schools should contribute. Any demand for more autonomy was suppressed.

At his instigation, Regina became the capital of the territory in 1882; there he had speculatively acquired land that he could now sell to the railway company at a high price. There was no instrument of control against its high-handedness, for the Northwest Territories Council was partly elected and partly appointed. But as the number of settlers increased, so did the number of elected members. They demanded provincial status for good reasons. Dewdney and, behind him, Macdonald made little concessions.

Dewdney, who had asked after the Métis rebellion to send him to British Columbia as lieutenant governor, discovered that the prime minister had agreed to someone else.

From Ottawa to Victoria

Finally, with the death of Home Secretary Thomas White in the spring of 1888, Macdonald offered him his post. On July 3, Dewndey resigned and was appointed to the House of Commons on September 12 .

He became Minister of the Interior and Superintendent General for Indian Affairs , but basically carried on with his previous policy. In March 1891 he represented Assiniboia East in the general election. When Macdonald died in June, he remained in the cabinet of his successor John Abbott until October 16, 1892 .

On November 2, he actually became Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia . He stayed largely out of political disputes and enjoyed his status, received British nobles and celebrated Queen Victoria's jubilee until he resigned on December 1, 1897.

After the resignation

Dewdney had always well-earned and successfully speculated, albeit semi-legally. For lack of reserves he tried his hand at mine speculation, which brought him little, tried again as a candidate for New Westminster (1900), but had to work again as an engineer in 1901, when he tested the Dewdney Trail for suitability for a rail link. His wife died in late January 1906.

During a lengthy stay in England he married Blanche Elizabeth Plantagenet Kemeys-Tynte in September 1909, the youngest daughter of a childhood friend. When she returned to Victoria, she took care of her husband, who was constantly in financial trouble and begging for a Senate seat or at least a pension.

Until his death from heart failure on August 8, 1916, his requests remained unanswered. He was buried in Ross Bay Cemetery . He died childless. His wife went back to England and outlived him by 20 years.

His two great-grand-nephews are the Canadian writer and poet Christopher Dewdney and the Canadian computer scientist Alexander K. Dewdney .

literature

  • Hugh A. Dempsey (Ed.): Edgar Dewdney's diary for 1879. In: Alberta History 31/1 (1983) 1-12 and 31/2 (1983) 1-15
  • Jean Larmour, Edgar Dewdney: Indian commissioner in the transition period of Indian settlement, 1879–1884. In: Saskatchewan History 33 (1980) 13-24

Web links

Remarks

  1. See Sylvia M. Van Kirk's short biography: biographi.ca .