1. Aboriginal People & Confederation: TREATIES

2. What is a treaty?
A treaty is a “written agreement between two states or sovereigns”
In Canada, treaties are negotiated agreements that sets out the rights, responsibilities and relationships of Aboriginal people and the federal and provincial governments.

3. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Royal Proclamation of 1763 established the First Nations inhabitants as the rightful occupiers of their traditional hunting grounds
Purchase of First Nations lands by any group other than the Crown prohibited
Crown could only purchase land from a First Nations group if they agreed to the sale at a public meeting.

4. Canada in the 1870s
Government was determined to gain control of the land as quickly and as cheaply as possible.
All land in Manitoba and the North West Territories was still held by the First Nations
Estimated to First Nations, 10,000 Metis and 2000 Europeans and Canadians living in North West
New province of Manitoba home to a growing population of

5. Canada in the 1870s
Canadian government began negotiations with First Nations in the Canadian Prairies to create treaties that would define their mutual relationship and establish government rights to land and other resources.

6. First Nations leaders recognized that they would have to share the land and wanted to make the best possible deal to secure the future for their people.
People were broken after the decline of the fur trade
Resources they relied on as a way of life were gone or over exploited
Epidemics, and starvation left many groups hopeless for their survival
With increased numbers of Europeans many First Nations groups saw treaties as the only way to safeguard their people and way of life. (They could use money to buy supplies)

7. Numbered Treaties
Most of the settled lands of Canada, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, were transferred from different First Nations Groups to the Crown (the Government) through treaties between and 1930
These became known as the Numbered Treaties

8. The Numbered Treaties
Treaty 1, 1871 – Chippewa and Swampy Creek First Nations, current-day lower Manitoba.
Treaty 2, 1871 – Chippewa First Nations Groups, current-day lower Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan.
Treaty 3, 1873 – Saulteaux, Ojibeway and Lac Seul (1874) First Nations groups, current-day northeastern Ontario.
Treaty 4, 1874 – Cree, Saulteaux, Assiniboine and other First Nations groups, current-day lower Alberta.
Treaty 5, 1875 – Cree, Saulteaux and other First Nations groups, current-day Manitoba.

9. Treaties 6 – 7
Treaty 6, 1876 – Plains, Woods and Plains Cree and other First Nations groups , current-day central Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Treaty 7, 1877 – Blackfoot First Nations groups, southern Alberta.

10. Treaty Terms
In exchange for agreeing to share their land, Aboriginals received:
Reserve lands to live
Financial compensation
Allowance for blankets and hunting and fishing tools
Farming Assistance
Schools on reserve land, the location of which was to be determined by each First Nations group

11. Treaty Terms
Right to hunt and fish on all ceded land (land that had been surrendered in a treaty) not used for settlement, lumber or mining. (Treaty 3 Onward)
The government had the right to build public buildings, roads and other pieces of infrastructure on reserves.
Medical chest to be kept in the home of the Indian agent for the benefit of the First Nations that signed the treaty. (Treaty 6 Only)

12. Payments for Treaty Seven
10 head chiefs
$25 each
40 minor chiefs and headmen
$15 each
4342 men, women and children
$12 each

13. Promises by the Blackfoot Promises by the Government
Gave up about km2
Natives got to maintain hunting rights
To strictly observe the treaty
2.59km2 of reserve land for every 5 persons
To be loyal subjects to the Queen
Money, tools, ammunition, clothing, small yearly payments
To obey laws and keep peace
Teachers to teach Native children how to read
Not to harm people or property
To bring justice to Native criminals

14. Different PERSPECTIVES
Both sides agree that the treaties are agreements between the Crown (the Government) and First Nations, in which the First Nations exchanged some of their interests in specific areas of their ancestral lands in return for various kinds of payments and promises from Crown officials.
Each side has a different interpretation of what was intended by the agreements.

15. If the Canadians (British) and the First Nations were at the same meetings, listened to the same speeches (translated) and signed the same pieces of paper.
How could they have had (and still have) two totally different concepts of what the treaties were about, and what each side was promising?

16. GOVERNMENT PERSPECTIVE
First Nations agreed to “cede, release, surrender, and yield up…all their rights, titles and privileges” to the land forever. ◦ in return for reserve lands, amenities, and rights to fish and hunt on Crown lands ◦ gov’t agreed to lend aid in event of hardships (famine, pestilence, sickness)

17. ABORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE
Treaty = pact of friendship, peace and mutual support between themselves and gov’t
did not intend to surrender their sovereignty
were allowing the newcomers only the use, not ownership, of their land (gov’t was renter of land)

18. EVIDENCE – EUROPEAN – TREATY 7
The source of contention is based on oral understandings versus the written understandings of Treaty.

20. DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES - EVIDENCE
Indigenous versions of treaties are another primary source that can grant us insight into the thoughts and beliefs of people involved in treaty negotiations.
Oral History - important information passed down by the spoken word during important ceremonies and at celebrations.
Wampum Belts were used to record important events
Elders recited the terms and understandings of the agreement commemorated by ceremonial wampum belts – became sacred objects
Oral histories were not recognized as a valid method of record keeping or evidence in Canadian law until 1997.

22. Wampum Belts – Primary Sources
“These two rows will symbolize two paths or two vessels, travelling down the same river together. One, a birch bark canoe, will be for the Indian people, their laws, their customs and their ways. The other, a ship, will be for the non-[I]ndigenous people and their laws, their customs and their ways. We shall each travel the river together, side by side, but in our own boat. Neither will try to steer the other’s vessel.” – Attributed to historian and Mohawk Elder Ray (Tehanetorens) Fadden
The Two Row Wampum symbolized the original agreement made between the Haudenosaunee and the Dutch. It represented how the peoples involved would share the land, with respect and friendship, and without interfering in each other’s affairs. It was later extended to the British and the Anishinaabeg, and came to represent an ideal treaty relationship for Europeans and Indigenous peoples in general.

23. Land Claims
As a result of poor documentation of historic treaties, ignored rights of various treaties, and unsettled lands, many First Nations groups have presented a series of Land Claims to the government in an effort to reclaim these rights

24. Land Claims
Some areas of Canada (Much of British Columbia and North West Territories) didn’t have Treaties negotiated, which make land claims especially complicated
1973 Calder Case - One of the first treaty rights court cases to reach the Supreme Court.
Nisga’a Tribal Council President Frank Calder argues that if no treaty had been made, his nation should still have title to their land.
Supreme Court acknowledges the existence of Aboriginal title. This opens the door for other Indigenous rights cases.

25. Land Claims Federal government creates two processes for redress:
Comprehensive Land Claims – Claims arise in areas of Canada where Aboriginal land rights have not been dealt with by past treaties or through other legal means.
Specific Land Claims - deal with past grievances of First Nations related to Canada's obligations under historic treaties or the way it managed First Nations' funds or other assets. 

26. Self Determination and Self Government
Ultimately First Nations groups believe they have the right to govern themselves as sovereign groups living within Canada on treaty lands and reserves
They have and continue to seek this right as well as the rights laid out in historic treaties across Canada.