An examination of the impact of settler colonialism on Blackfoot food security and sovereignty: a landscape and policy approach

Abstract

The thesis examines how the destabilization of food security and the diminishment of food sovereignty occurred for the Blackfoot Peoples in Treaty 7 (the Blackfoot Treaty) territory between 1877 and 1913. Using an ethnographic archival approach, I analyze documents from Library and Archives Canada and the Galt Museum. The study focuses on three areas: the criminalization of the Sundance as a disruption to food sovereignty, the use of rations to destabilize food security, and the imposition of agriculture, ranching, and industries as tools of assimilation as an impact on food security and sovereignty. The archival documents indicate that the destabilization of Blackfoot food security and the decline of food sovereignty were influenced by colonial land and assimilation policies. These policies disrupted ceremonies and restricted mobility under the guise of promoting self-sufficiency and civilization. While the impacts of policies varied across reserves, the policies consistently disrupted land-use practices. In short, the thesis demonstrates that food was central to colonial governance, used to dismantle Blackfoot destabilization of food security and the diminishment of food sovereignty by attempting to replace them with settler economies.