Easterville : a case study in the relocation of a Manitoba native community

Abstract

With the ever-increasing need for hydro-electric power in Canada, it is inevitable that the interests of the government agencies charged with the development of such resources will come into conflict with the interests of those native peoples resident in the areas affected by such developments. One policy toward such commnunities that has been pursued by the Government of Manitoba has been the relocation of the affected communities. It is the objective of this thesis to examine, evaluatively, the reformation of such a relocated community. In this case, the reformulation of the community centers around the establishment of a co-operative economic structure in the community of Easterville, Manitoba. The co-operative was introduced to reformulate the economic base of the community following the disruptions of a relocation and the upsetting of the ecological balances in a newly formed water reservoir. The conclusions reached at the end of this thesis are critical of the specific relocation, and of the co-operative structure as failing to meet the needs of the community.