'Enough to Keep Them Alive': Indian Social Welfare in Canada, 1873-1965

Evidence from the National Archives of Canada and interviews with key federal players help Shewell (social work, York U.) reconstruct the formulation of Canadian Indian welfare policy, which he argues continued oppressive practices that originated with early fur trading companies. The state has used welfare as a weapon, Shewell says, to undermine First Nations cultures and induce their assimilation--and hence disappearance--into the dominant economic and social order. Although the language of the "white man's burden" became more muted after World War II, the underlying ideology of Euro-Canadian superiority remained intact and continued to inform the approach to Indian social welfare. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR