I'm pretty sure that this ticket was a ticket issued for a local member of
the First Nations reserve at Savona. The federal Dept. of Indian Affairs
would have paid for the ticket. It would be marked 'Indian' so that the
ticket couldn't be presented by a non-Indian. Such tickets would have ways
of turning up bargained away for a bottle of booze or whatever, otherwise.
These tickets would have been quite common in areas where there are lots of
Indian reserves. In those years, most First Nations peoples were living at
poverty levels and would not be able to afford an ordinary ticket. Hence,
the Dept. of Indian Affairs would provide a certain amount of transportation
for band members with legitimate needs to get to town and back out to the
reserve.
I would say that this ticket is a real unusual collector's item and well
worth grabbing. I've never seen one before.
Joe Smuin
1. - "Joey, the secret to telling a good railway story is to always try to
stick just as close to the facts as possible." --- (the late) Cliff
Inkster; CPR Engineman, raconteur and philosopher.
2. - The secret to contacting Joe by email is to be sure to insert "Joe" or
"Smuin" into the main text portion of any message you send to him, and thus
your message should percolate through his spam filters.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob Kirkham" <rdkirkham@xxxxxxx>
To: <cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 9:13 PM
Subject: [cpsig] what's with the "Indian" Ticket on eBay
This came as an odd find on e-bay this evening! Can anyone explain what the intent of an "Indian" ticket was and say anything about when they were used and in what circumstances. They're new to me,
the link to the Ebay auction follows:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Canadian-Pacific-CPR-Card-Stock-Indian-Ticket_W0QQitemZ120380311559QQihZ002QQcategoryZ4135QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Rob Kirkham -
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