Peasant-farming policies (1889–97)

In 1889 Hayter Reed, the Indian commissioner for the North-West Territories, initiated the peasant-farming policy that divided Indigenous reserves into allotments of 40 acres and imposed a particular approach to agriculture based on the model of the self-sufficient peasant holding. This policy, requiring that families conduct their operation entirely with simple hand tools, was opposed by agents and First Nations alike. Reserve agriculture was removed from the mainstream economy and kept in a state of underdevelopment, which benefited the non-Indigenous farmers in the region. The program was abolished in 1897, not before causing damage.