Treaties

In your previous lesson, you learned a bit about the culture and way of life of many diverse Indigenous nations before the Europeans came to North America.  At that time there were several distinct groups including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples who had their own traditions and languages. They lived for thousands of years using the land to hunt, fish and gather food. Indigenous peoples set up their own political and social systems and had a deep respect for the land they lived on.

When the Europeans descended on North America, both the British and the French were very excited to settle in Canada because of its rich land and resources. The British and the French fought over different parts of what became Canada even though the Indigenous peoples had been living on the land for a very long time. The British eventually won out and in 1763 King George III issued a Royal Proclamation which stated that Indigenous people had the right to continue to live on the land and use its resources. At that time, an equal partnership was supposed to be established between the British government and the diverse Indigenous nations which included negotiating where Europeans could live. An agreement was made between the 2 parties which established that the newcomers could not take away land from the Indigenous people or buy it directly from them. This meant that arrangements would be made where specific sacred land could not be bought and in some areas Indigenous people could still hunt or fish in the areas that they sold. These individual agreements were called treaties. Sometimes the treaties were signed and sometimes they weren’t. Therefore, a lot of the time, Indigenous people never got paid for their land.

Things changed quickly though. In 1867, the Dominion of Canada was formed and the British government no longer had power over the people living there. For the next 50 years, Canada made a number of treaties to claim land and basically take over areas that were inhabited by Indigenous nations. This was the start of colonization. The Canadian government allowed its constituents to settle in the majority of the land by forming treaties and taking over areas like northern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and much of the Northwest Territories.

To this day, Indigenous communities and the Canadian government have had different understanding of what treaties meant. Canadian settlers were using up the rich resources on the land and so the Indigenous population thought that a treaty would help protect their way of life. In fact, treaties were used by the government to develop these lands which they deemed as surrendered. In contrast, reserves were created to remove Indigenous people from these areas and have them settle in places with little or no resources. Many of these reservations are in existence all over Canada today and still lacking resources.

This reading piece was inspired by the following resources:

Yellowhorn, E., & Lowinger, K. (2017, September 12). Turtle Island: The story of North America’s First People. Annick Press

Government of Canada. (2017, May 2). First Nations in Canada. https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1307460755710/1536862806124

Historica Canada. (n.d.).Treaties in Canada information guide. http://education.historicacanada.ca/files/31/Treaties_English.pdf

LISTN. (n.d.). First Peoples: Learning materials for newcomers. https://listn.tutela.ca/resources/resources-for-teachers/listn-resources/first-peoples-learning-materials-for-newcomers.html