From Wooden Ploughs to WelfareFrom Wooden Ploughs to Welfare examines the reserve system imposed by the Canadian government in the 1870s a system, rooted in theories of racial difference, that stifled initiative, opportunity, and self esteem. The 1960s saw the collapse of the reserve economy, until then sustained by casual wage work or trapping. The government's answer was a welfare program which marked a new era of deeper dependency. Helen Buckley argues that later government