Review of The Blackfoot Confederacy, 1880-1920: A Comparative Study of Canadian and U. S. Indian Policy

Authors

Calvin Luther Martin, Rutgers University

Date of this Version

1989

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly WINTER 1989. Copyright 1989 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska—Lincoln.

Abstract

"God"-read the brass buttons on the Indian police uniforms, "God helps those who help themselves" (p. 61). The picture stamped on the button showed what was intended to be an Indian farmer diligently turning the earth "wrong side up" (p. 57) behind a horse-drawn plow. Thrift, hard work, individualism, promise of a better life, the great American myth of the yeoman farmer-that little clasp packed a lot of message. Samek's book details how both Canadian and American bureaucrats, humanitarians philanthropists, and missionaries tried mightily to instill that very message in the hearts and minds of their Blackfoot Indian wards at the tum of this century-and how, and why, the effort largely failed.