Collaboration Geographies: Native-White Partnerships During the Re-settlement of Ootsa Lake, British Columbia, 1900-52

Abstract

COLONIALISM WAS THE FIRST STAGE in the experience of Western modernity for most Aboriginal peoples of the world. Colonial discourses were part of an expanding capitalist and imperialist world system that generated profits for an elite group of Westerners who orchestrated the resettlement of alien territories through ever more complex systems of state administration and industrial production. Europeans brought their own imaginative geography to bear on distant lands as a means of legitimizing and, indeed, promoting the often brutal institution of colonial rule. They viewed their European homeland as the fully modern pinnacle of civilization and most nonEuropean regions as anachronistic, unclaimed, and often uninhabited stretches of territory awaiting settlement and cultivation. Such perceptions motivated settlers to travel thousands of miles in search of new wealth and opportunities. The successes of colonialism hinged on the establishment of European power in non-Western regions of the globe. Colonialism was therefore attempted in many different places and through many different means. These measures ranged from outright violence and conquest to treaty settlements and codified forms of discrimination. Conversely, colonialism varied according to the forms and intensity of resistance presented by both Aboriginal peoples and the physical environment. In fact, in some areas indigenous societies resisted colonization long enough to trigger alterations in its implementation and socio-cultural