The White Man's Gonna Getcha: The Colonial Challenge to the Crees in Quebec (review)

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Reviewed by: The White Man’s Gonna Getcha: The Colonial Challenge to the Crees in Quebec Jean-Paul Restoule (bio) Toby Morantz. The White Man’s Gonna Getcha: The Colonial Challenge to the Crees in Quebec McGill Queen’s University Press 2002. xxviii, 372. $27.95 The fur trade is commonly said to be the starting point for the erosion of Cree culture spiritually, economically, socially, and politically. Toby Morantz argues that the encroachment of bureaucratic colonialism and the institutions imposed upon the Cree after the Second World War were a greater challenge by far to Cree culture. Tracing the relationship between Cree and non-Cree from the peak of the fur trade in the 1800s until the negotiation of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in the 1970s, Morantz portrays the Cree people as survivors, adapting to new challenges with remarkable adeptness. Even in the early twentieth century when the great depression and its adverse effect on fur prices combined with the low point in sustenance animal population cycles to cause widespread hunger and poverty, Morantz avoids portraying the Cree as hapless victims. While their fates are described as being tied to decisions beyond their local lands (including the development of Indian policy in Ottawa, the setting of fur prices, and the arbitrary setting of the border between Quebec and Ontario), the Cree still come across as largely in control of their own destiny. Morantz illuminates the workings of colonialism by focusing in great depth on a specific local case: the Cree in Quebec. The book reveals particular examples of age-old themes at play yet again in this particular region: provincial and federal government disagreements, with the Cree caught in [End Page 451] the middle; Catholic and Anglican denominational wrangling; non-Cree visitors demonstrating a sense of cultural superiority, to name but a few. Even in the era identified by Morantz as bureaucratic colonialism, the Cree were bemused by intergovernmental wrangling and denominational fights among Christian groups and only took to plans that were based on a Cree foundation, such as beaver preserves conservation efforts and the trapline registry, both of which relied on Cree notions of land tenure for their success. There is a wealth of information presented here, culled from primary sources, historical documents, and archival records. For much of the book Morantz demonstrates great care in presenting the Cree voice fairly. Any history involving the Cree people should include Cree voices, and Morantz deserves credit for attempting to do so in her historical construction. However, she admits that her book is limited in telling the Cree story and also tells little of Cree women's history in the area. One source of frustration in this work, especially in the early pages, is the author's rhetorical tactic of attempting to make her point by appealing to an unqualified consensus. For example, Morantz writes: 'I do not see in contemporary histories of Canadian society an underlying premise that we are all exploited by the usurious banks. I believe we all know that, just as we know that the Hudson's Bay and the North West companies were in Canada to serve their own interests, not those of the Indians.' It does not work to speak for everyone. Such hasty generalizations do little to serve her cause. In another telling example, Morantz writes: 'Welfare is a mid-twentieth-century phenomenon that, as we now know, has sapped the energies and desires of millions of Canadians, not only Indians.' What do you mean, 'we,' Morantz? Still, in reading this work, my understanding of the encroachment of Euro-American institutions on relatively remote Aboriginal communities has deepened. In particular, chapter 6, 'Pale Versions of Southern Institutions,' is a thorough case study of colonialism in practice. Anthropologists, historians, and scholars with an interest in the workings of colonialism may find this book valuable and instructive. Jean-Paul Restoule Jean-Paul Restoule, OISE, University of Toronto Copyright © 2005 University of Toronto Press Incorporated