No Indians allowed: Challenging aboriginal segregation in Northern British Columbia, 1945-1969

2019

Master of Arts (MA)

History

1 online resource (144 pages)

This thesis argues that Indians and White people who were sympathetic to Native issues episodically challenged racial discrimination and segregation during the post-war era by asserting Native people's growing citizenship rights while calling into question the cultural assumptions that underpinned such prejudice. Those participating in this discourse used analogies with global theatres of racial tension, namely the southern United States, to legitimize their protests. Indians articulated their demands for citizenship by leveraging their burgeoning political rights, their wartime contributions to Canada, and their growing economic contribution to post-war northern British Columbia. During this era, Indians, activists, and sympathetic Whites fought for the liberalization of Native drinking laws and the culturally deterministic preconceptions that motivated such legislation. Finally, newspaper reportage and public perceptions influenced, and to some degree shaped, public discourse on issues of racial discrimination as well as on Native political protest and activism.

Indians of North America--Public opinion
British Columbia, Northern
1945-1969
Indians of North America--Civil rights

10.24124/2019/59001

thesis

indians
native
cultural assumptions
global theatres
political rights
wartime contributions