D’après certains, Douglas aurait manqué de fonds et n’aurait pu obtenir de ressources supplémentaires du gouvernement britannique (Frank Cassidy, « Aborig
inal Land Claims in British Columbia », dans Aboriginal Land Claims in Canada: A Regional Perspective, éd. Ken Coates, Copp Clark Pitman, Toronto, 1992, p. 13); pour d’autres, Douglas croyait à l’assimilation des Indiens et au renoncement aux terres ancestrales (Paul Tennant, Aboriginal Peoples and Politics: The Indian Land Question in British C
olumbia, 1849–1989, University of British Columbia ...[+++] Press, Vancouver, 1990, p. 36 et 37).Some suggest Douglas ran out of funds and was unable to obtain additional
resources from the British government (Frank Cassidy, “Aboriginal Land Claims in British Columbia,” in Aboriginal Land Claims in Canada: A Regional Perspective, ed. Ken Coates, Copp Clark Pitman, Toronto, 1992, p. 13), while another view is that Douglas later subscribed to a system that anticipated the assimilation of Indians and the abandonment of traditional communities for homesteads (Paul Tennant, Aboriginal Peoples and Politics: The Indian Land Question in British C
olumbia, 1849–1989, University of Britis ...[+++]h Columbia Press, Vancouver, 1990, pp. 36–7).