Walking in Indian Moccasins is the first work to offer a different view of the Tommy Douglas provincial government in Sakatchewan: their policies, their applications, and their shortcomings. Much more than that, however, it is a careful account of the development of Indian and Metis people in Saskatchewan in the post-war period. The goal of the CCF was to “walk in Indian moccasins,” promising a degree of empathy with Native society in bringing about reforms. In reality, this aim was not always honoured in practice and essentially meant integration for the Indians of the province and total assimilation for the Metis.

Laurie Barron's profile page

F. Laurie Barron is a professor in the Department of Native Studies, University of Saskatchewan.

Has the merit of pulling together a wide and varied body of material and giving us the first comprehensive portrait of a neglected aspect of the Saskatchewan CCF's reform agenda. It is well worth reading by anyone interested in the history of government Indian and Metis policy in Canada.

Prairie Forum, 23:1

An important contribution to our understanding of Saskatchewan's Aboriginal policies under CCF premier Tommy Douglas ... Walking in Indian Moccasins is especially valuable due to its focus on provincial government Aboriginal policy in the recent past. It provides a model for future studies of both Alberta's and Manitoba's Aboriginal policies immediately after the second World War ... the book greatly advances our understanding of the Native Peoples of the prairie provinces in the twentieth century.

Saskatchewan History