The Queen's People: A Study of Hegemony, Coercion, and Accommodation Among the Okanagan of Canada

Steven R. Hewitt is a graduate history student at the University of
Saskatchewan.

The rapidly growing literature on Native-white relations in Canada has a
new addition in The Queen’s People, a monograph by anthropologist
Peter Carstens. A single reservation near Vernon, B.C., is the focus of
this entertaining and well-written work, which blends anthropological,
anecdotal, historical, and quantitative sources to illustrate the
subject’s evolution.

The book reveals a complex and factious society that has been forced
into adapting to change initiated by a spiritually distant white
society. By avoiding a comparative study, which might have had a wider
application, Carstens is able to offer a more comprehensive illustration
of the effect of encroaching change on a reserve. Room remains for even
more detail on the everyday life of the Okanagan. For example, little
information is offered on the band’s culture in the modern era. A
brief mention of the Okanagan’s most popular sports implies that other
areas of white influence need to be studied. In turn, less material was
perhaps needed on the reserve’s politics. The monograph flirts with
becoming solely an examination of Okanagan elites, but quantitative
material rescues it from this fate.

A section recounting the history of Okanagan interaction with white
society reveals another problem with the work. Carstens rejects the
theory, put forward by certain historians, that Native Canadians in the
region maintained a measure of autonomy in such areas as the fur trade
even after the appearance of white explorers and traders. Nor does he
readily accept the opposite assertion, that Okanagan society became
subservient on first contact with the European interlopers. No
alternative argument is offered, however, leading to several confusing
passages that could be perceived as supporting either theory: an
Okanagan surrender to the wishes of the intruders or a recognition by
their leaders that change was inevitable and that they would have to
adapt to survive. The Queen’s People offers evidence that the debate
over the historical portrayal of Native-white relations remains heated
and active.