NAMES & FACES, SET IN STONE
City joins wider historical commemoration dialogue as once-honoured figures’ legacies are questioned
Dewdney Avenue cuts a wide swath as it bisects Regina’s North Central neighbourhood — a grand old street with a grand old name.
But when North Central resident Joely BigEagle-Kequahtooway looks at those street signs, she thinks about the man — Edgar Dewdney — and how his history is paired with that of her ancestors.
“For myself, there’s an anger there,” she said.
It’s fuelled by Dewdney’s deeds as the Indian commissioner of what was, in the late 19th century, the Northwest Territories. He was tasked with controlling food supplies for Indigenous people while the government sought to force them toward a more agrarian lifestyle.
Dewdney has been accused of wielding starvation like a weapon.
“He put people in a place of famine, and it wasn’t like there was no food,” BigEagle-Kequahtooway said. “He had the keys to the pantry.”
He also had an integral role in the creation of residential schools, which sought to assimilate Indigenous children by stripping them of their culture — “to kill the Indian in the child,” as referenced by former prime minister Stephen Harper in his 2008 apology on behalf of Canadians.
BigEagle-Kequahtooway, from White Bear First Nations, is part of a group of people who want Dewdney Avenue renamed.
Dewdney is one of a number of historical figures honoured decades ago for legacies in question today.
Regina has a school named after Nicholas Flood Davin, who, incidentally, founded the Regina Leader, precursor to the Leader-Post. He also penned the 1879 “Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half Breeds,” paving the way for the residential school system.
The report was commissioned by Canada’s first prime minister, John A. Macdonald, immortalized by a statue in Regina’s Victoria Park.
Some have called to remove Davin’s name from the school and the Macdonald statue from the park. It’s part a wider historical commemoration dialogue across North America that, at times, has become polarizing, even leading to violence. This year in Charlottesville, Va., a rally to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee erupted into bedlam, leaving one dead and 19 injured.
The monuments debate hasn’t sparked such violence in Canada — an important point, says Raymond Blake, head of the history department at the University of Regina.
“If they become points of rallying against a particular segment of the community, that’s a dangerous moment,” Blake said. If that happens, “we’ve crossed a line.”
But, as an educator and a professional historian, Blake feels obligated to say, “let’s pause for a moment.”
During times when Canadians have celebrated the country’s history, their views may have been somewhat misguided. “We didn’t have the full picture,” he explained.
But in 2017, when some view the country’s history as “evil” and once political leaders as today’s “dastardly men,” Blake repeats the sentiment.
“If you look at these people from our own perspectives and our own realities, you’re not going to find anything but flawed individuals.”
But Blake noted Davin once stood in the House of Commons and advocated for women’s right to vote. And when John A. Macdonald was in power, some critics chastised him too much spending on Indigenous issues.
Blake sees debate around the legacies of historical figures as healthy.
“Once we get to a point where there is an accepted view of the past, and everyone has to buy into that, that’s a troubling time.”
While he takes no specific stance around what, if anything, should be done with controversial monuments, Blake feels a deeper understanding of history would be beneficial for all Canadians.
While debate continues, some changes have already occurred.
On National Aboriginal Day in June, Ottawa announced that the name of Hector-Louis Langevin would be stripped from the building housing the Prime Minister’s Office. A father of Confederation, Langevin has been called an “architect” of the residential school system.
“He’s a low-hanging fruit. He’s the easy person to say, ‘Look, I’ve done something,’ ” Blake said, noting most people don’t know about Langevin.
But they know much of Canada’s first prime minister. “If we’re trying to build a cohesive society, then I think taking down Macdonald — and I think Mr. Trudeau realized this — is probably going to be a divisive matter.”
Indeed. Protesters covering the Macdonald statue in Victoria Park this summer riled Stew Fettes.
“John A. Macdonald gave us the country, for God sakes,” said the retired Realtor and Regina resident, who also opposes renaming Davin school.
“Not one single thing of our past history should be touched,” insisted Fettes. “It should be left to look at and learn from.”
Past leaders “thought they were doing the right thing,” he said, while admitting that perceptions of the “right thing” have evolved.
Fettes is fine with plaques being added to monuments for historical context. “Giving our students a historical look at all of these people and all of the things they’ve built and done is certainly a positive thing.” He believes they did “far more good than they did wrong.”
Some opponents of renaming Davin School or Dewdney Street do so because they’ve simply always been that way or argue the change is historical revision and presents a learning opportunity unchanged.
But delve into the basis for Fettes’s stance, and a picture emerges of viewpoints that, like the statues, might have once been accepted by mainstream society but in today’s age of truth and reconciliation, appear out of step, even if still embraced by some. In public online posts and during the interview, Fettes made what many would consider inflammatory remarks about Indigenous people’s history, intelligence, aptitude and desire for education, opining they “don’t like the white man’s school.”
When questioned about his opinion, Fettes could only point to dropout rates among Indigenous students. He wouldn’t concede that factors — such as the legacy and dysfunction wrought by the residential school system — might also cause students to reject or leave school.
Fettes suggested the best way forward is for people to “get over it.”
This fall, University of Regina professor James Daschuk, author of Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation and the Loss of Aboriginal Life, told the Leader-Post the contention First Nations people need to “just get over it” comes exclusively from the white community. “They want to be pardoned or absolved and move on, but we can’t move on until we actually deal with racism,” he told reporter Pamela Cowan. “Racism isn’t in the past.”
Asked if he considers himself a racist, Fettes replied: “Oh hell no, I love the Indians,” later adding, “I feel for them just like everybody else does.” But he still contended, “reading, writing and arithmetic are not going to help these young Indian men and women.”
BigEagle-Kequahtooway counters Fettes on several levels. She holds degrees in both mathematics and civil engineering and doesn’t think a plaque to provide context on a monument is enough to properly educate people about the past.
“It needs to be in elementary schools. It needs to be in high schools. It needs to be in university.”
She said there is a distinct lack of recognition when it comes to the national contribution of Indigenous people. “This land wasn’t just built on the backs of pioneers.”
Through Buffalo People Arts Institute, BigEagle-Kequahtooway visits schools when invited. She shares her knowledge of Indigenous history, including coverage of treaties and the reserve system. She hopes her teaching prompts children to ask questions of their parents.
When asked if efforts to remove the names or likenesses of historical figures might deepen divisions and raise ire, she interjected.
“But it’s OK for Indigenous people to be angry, right?”
Efforts to change the Dewdney Avenue name are being made in hopes of replacing it with something all people can view as positive, she explained.
“Nobody wants change. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it,” she said.
“But this is broken and we need to fix it.”
Once we get to a point where there is an accepted view of the past, and everyone has to buy into that, that’s a troubling time.