Making Native Space: Colonialism, Resistance, and Reserves in British Columbia

by R. Cole Harris

This elegantly written and insightful book provides a geographical history of the Indian reserve in British Columbia. Cole Harris analyzes the impact of reserves on Native lives and livelihoods and considers how, in light of this, the Native land question might begin to be resolved. The account begins in the early 19th-century British Empire and follows Native land policy--and Native resistance to it--in British Columbia from the Douglas treaties in the early 1850s to the formal transfer of reserves to the Dominion in 1938.

"Making Native Space" clarifies and informs the current debate on the Native land question. It presents the most comprehensive account available of perhaps the most critical mapping of space ever undertaken in British Columbia--the drawing of the lines that separated the tiny plots of land reserved for Native people from the rest.

Genres: Canada, Indigenous, Geography

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Katie]

This is an incredibly detailed book recounting the creation of Reserves in British Columbia. At times, it felt dense and a labour to read. However, it is very informative and well-researched. Unfortunately, Harris did not choose to foreground the native voice and instead relied heavily on colonial records. The author's final chapter envisioning a postcolonial British Columbia is, in my opinion, out of touch and unnecessary.

[Katie Wilson]

So dense and theoretical. It was hard to get through.