The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.2004, Qupperneq 28

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 58 #3
research were paid for by funds provided
by the Office of the Dean, Faculty of Social
Science, University of Western Ontario.
This article is a corrected version of one
appearing in the Journal of Canadian
Studies (2001; 36(2): 164-190).
2. The number of Ramsay’s children
varies in different accounts, but those writ-
ten closest to the time of the events
described cite five children, and not two or
four.
3. This is a general explanation for
why some Icelanders emigrated, but the
motivations were more numerous and
complex than can be adequately accounted
for here.
4. An unpublished exception is
Winona Stevenson, “Icelanders and Indians
in the Interlake: John Ramsay and the
White Mud River” (University of
Winnipeg, 1986).
5. Sessional Papers (No. (8), 39
Victoria A1876); published in translation
from the original Icelandic.
6. Morris Papers, Provincial
Archives of Manitoba, MG12 B1 1066.
7. Public Archives, Indian Affairs,
RG10, Volume 3646, File 8064, Reel C-
10113.
8. Public Archives, Indian Affairs,
RG10, Volume 3646, File 8064, Reel C-
10113.
9. Public Archives, Indian Affairs,
RG10, Volume 3646, File 8064, Reel C-
10113.
10. Morris Papers, Provincial
Archives of Manitoba, MG12 B1 1458,
1466
11. Annuities were regular sums of
cash or cash equivalents (for example hous-
ing) paid by the British administration to
First Nations peoples in exchange for title
to their lands. The practice began in 1817.
Annuities were more economical for the
British administration than a single cash
payment, since the government could use
revenues generated by selling parts of the
land to settlers and land speculators.
12. RG10, Vol. 3646, File 8064.
13. Public Archives, Indian Affairs,
RG10, Vol. 3649, File 8200, Reel C-10113.
The Indian Act of 1876 has governed, and
in modified form continues to govern, the
lives of status Indians. In Brian Titley’s
words, the Indian Act is “a comprehensive
piece of legislation which confirmed the
Indians’ status as minors and wards of the
state, imposed restrictions on their civil lib-
erties and created a mechanism whereby
they could cast off these disabilities. It was
assumed that the Native peoples would
ultimately acquire full citizenship, but that
could only take place when they had
become ‘civilized’ - a transformation
which would make them culturally indis-
tinguishable from the white populations”
(Titley 1997: 35).
14. Ibid.
15. Provincial Archives of Manitoba,
LB/M, Morris Papers, Morris to the
Minister of the Interior, 29 June 1877.
16. Ibid.
17. Public Archives, RG10, Vol.3649,
File 8200, Reel C-10113.
18. Indian Affairs, RG10, Vol. 3649,
File 8200, Reel C-10113.
19. Indian Affairs, RG10, Vol. 3649,
File 8200, Reel C-10113.
20. The Canadian government
appointed William.C. Krieger and
Sigtryggur Jonasson as Icelandic immigra-
tion agents. Krieger travelled to Iceland in
1875, and in his report from Akureyri of 14
November, he states, “I visited a farm
house in this vicinity a few days ago and
was shown a letter from one of the
Icelanders now in Wisconsin, dated 8
September; in which it said that letters had
been received from Messrs Taylor and
Johnson; the former acknowledging that he
had a divine revelation in which it had been
imposed upon him to take the affairs of the
Icelanders in his hands.... I shall refrain
from arguing the validity of a Divine reve-
lation in regard to Mr. Taylor’s proposed
general scheme; as I deem it to be of no
consequence in reference to the Icelandic
emigration....”
References Cited
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined
Communities, 2nd edition. London: Verso,
1991.
Bhabha, Homi, ed. Nations and
Narration. London: Routledge, 1990.
Braid, Donald. “Personal Narrative