Treaties, reserves and residential schools, and the long fight for rights and recognition. Learn the language needed to understand the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian state.
These terms were extracted from Canadian History: Post-Confederation by John Douglas Belshaw, eCampusOntario (originally published by BCcampus, 2016) which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Defined in two ways: 1) as an abstract set of inherent and collective rights available on principle only to Aboriginal peoples, which may include land, resource and treaty rights; 2) also or alternately, cultural rights associated with traditional or customary practices which are thought to predate European contact. The latter are protected in the Constitution Act, 1982.
In a stroke, Ottawa had criminalized legal action in support of Aboriginal rights.
Usually associated with cultural displays and/or performances, sometimes with Aboriginal lifestyle experiences. The sector was very small in the 1990s, but since has become an annual multi-million dollar industry.
The Wei Wai Kum and We Wai Kai of Campbell River and Cape Mudge have utilized other models of economic advancement through commercial development and aboriginal tourism.
The successor to the National Indian Brotherhood (NIB), the AFN, a national advocacy organization that represents Aboriginal peoples, was established in 1982.
The thrust of the NIB’s efforts and those of its successor, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), was to obtain progressively greater and greater degrees of self-governance for Aboriginal communities.
The administrative centre of a First Nation band; a unit of government within the First Nation; applies principally to populations covered by the Indian Act (that is, Status Indians). The band council is the decision making assembly in the band office.
As the role of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) was progressively reduced, band offices took up a larger share of local responsibility.
Between 1999 and 2002, a confrontation between the Burnt Church First Nation (a Mi'kmaq community in New Brunswick) and non-Aboriginal fishers and the Federal Department of Fisheries.
The Burnt Church Crisis of 1999-2002 bears similarities with Sparrow in that it proved a test of Aboriginal rights over resource gathering.
Supreme Court case (Calder v British Columbia) in 1973 that decided that Aboriginal title existed prior to colonization and persisted after 1871.
The Calder Case worked its way through the BC court system and reached the Supreme Court of Canada.
Properly, an Act respecting the criminal law; the Criminal Code is a regularly amended body of legislation pertaining to criminal — as opposed to civil or statute — law.
In much of Canada, movement was limited through the vagrancy provisions of the Criminal Code or the restrictions against trespass in the Indian Act.
Premeditated and systematic attempts to eliminate a culture while not necessarily exterminating the population.
Some, such as the recent Truth and Reconciliation Commission, have even described the government’s policies for Indigenous peoples as cultural genocide.
1997 landmark decision in the Supreme Court of Canada; established a test for the existence of Aboriginal title, extended title beyond evidence of past use to include custodianship of territory, and thus includes a cultural relationship — rather than simply an economic relationship — with the land.
As regards Aboriginal title, Delgamuukw was definitive that (a) it existed, and (b) it was exclusive.
Created in 1966, a successor administrative unit to the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA).
As the role of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) was progressively reduced, band offices took up a larger share of local responsibility.
Established in 1888 to administer the Federal Government's responsibilities as regards First Nations; was housed for many years under the office of the Minister of the Interior (who was also responsible for settling the West with immigrants).
While the Canadian economy was strong in the 1920s, by the 1930s the Great Depression hit and the Department of Indian Affairs was reduced to a branch of the Department of Mines and Resources.
Negotiated by Governor James Douglas of Vancouver Island in the colonial era and concluded with 14 First Nations in the colony in the early 1850s; apart from Treaty No.8 in the Peace District, the only treaties in British Columbia before the late 20th century.
Apart from the dozen or so Douglas Treaties signed by Governor James Douglas in the colonial era, there were no attempts to extinguish title with most First Nations in British Columbia.
A category of mostly small and colonized indigenous populations around the globe; juxtaposed with First (northwestern European and North American), Second (Soviet bloc of developed nations), and Third (developing) Worlds; formalized with the establishment of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples led by George Manuel in the mid-1970s.
His conception of the Fourth World, a category of largely small and colonized Indigenous populations around the globe, resonated with those advocating for Aboriginal rights.
A peaceful protest and awareness-raising movement launched in 2012 by a group of Aboriginal and allies; catalyzed by Federal Government legislation that threatened Treaty rights.
For the next six months, Idle No More exemplified Aboriginal resurgence.
First industrial school for Aboriginal people, principally Mohawk; taught basic academic instruction and trades; based in Brantford, Ontario; opened in the 1830s under the auspices of New England Company.
Soon, the first of these industrial schools, the Mohawk Institute, opened in Brantford, Ontario in the 1830s under the auspices of the New England Company.
The opposite of zenith; it is the trough and in demographic terms it means the point at which a falling population bottomed out and from which it recovers. In the case of First Nations populations, they continued to fall until the 1920s at which point they began a steady recovery.
Population numbers bottomed out — reached their nadir — in most communities sometime between the 1890s and the interwar era, and then began a slow but steady recovery.
Established in 1967-68 and propelled into action by the appearance of the White Paper (1969). See also the Assembly of First Nations.
The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) and the National Indian Brotherhood (NIB) were established the same year as a further response to the White Paper crisis.
Treaties struck between Canada and Aboriginal peoples from 1871 (Treaty 1) to 1921 (Treaty 11), covering a territory that stretches from Ontario's eastern boundary in the North West to British Columbia, incorporating the whole of the Peace River Valley and the Mackenzie River drainage basin. Areas not covered by numbered treaties include southern Ontario (including the Rainy River area and Thunder Bay-Nippissing corridor, most of British Columbia, most of the Yukon and North West Territories, and all of Quebec, the Maritimes, and Newfoundland-Labrador.
Many of the arrangements that were presented and agreed to orally during treaty negotiations are absent or minimized in the text of the numbered treaties.
In 1990 armed Mohawk band members from Kanesatake blockaded access to proposed construction site of a golf course in Oka; the arrival of Canadian Armed Forces troops was followed by disruptions of traffic through reserve lands to the south by the Mohawk band members from Kahnawake.
The band’s response included a blockade of access to the proposed construction site in July 1990, which engendered the Oka Crisis.
Aboriginal reserve residents were required to secure a pass from their Indian agent in order to leave the reserve.
All of those involved in the implementation of the pass system understood that it had no basis in Canadian law.
Recommended to Ottawa in 1983 that Aboriginal peoples constitute a distinct order of government and ought to be recognized as such.
The Penner Report in 1983 recommended to Ottawa a form of autonomy that most Aboriginal leaders saw as an advance.
The range of experiences and perspectives that look beyond the paradigm of colonial society and colonialism; associated with the late 20th century.
The current context of that story — the post-Cold War, post-colonial, and postmodern world — is examined in the next chapter.
Refers to ceremonies associated with First Nations cultures on the Pacific Northwest Coast.
The potlatch is the central institution that binds each of these societies together.
Also called "Citizens Plus"; prepared by Harold Cardinal and the Indian Association of Alberta in 1970, the Red Paper was a response to Ottawa's 1969 White Paper (aka The Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy, 1969"). called for preservation of Treaty rights and recognition of Aboriginal rights.
They responded with a document called Citizens Plus, which became known as the Red Paper.
A continent-wide movement led by Aboriginal peoples in the late 1960s to through the 1970s to place Aboriginal issues on the political agenda.
Sometimes described as Red Power (in a nod to the Afro-American Black Power movement), AIM inevitably reached across the border to Canadian First Nations with shared grievances against colonialist forces.
1763; Britain's first constitution for post-Conquest Canada; recognized inherent Indigenous land tenure rights or Aboriginal title to the land, making it impossible for any authority or individual other than the Crown to alienate Aboriginal title; provoked objections among the American colonists because it interfered with their plans for westward expansion; sometimes called the "Indian Magna Carta."
The Royal Proclamation also promised that Indigenous peoples would “not be molested or disturbed.”
Of the Constitution Act, 1982; recognizes and affirms Aboriginal rights.
Nevertheless, inclusion in Section 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982 as “Aboriginal” peoples with legally entrenched rights has presented an opportunity.
The apprehension and removal of Aboriginal children from their families and communities by provincial child welfare authorities during the 1960s.
Known as the “sixties scoop,” social workers explained their actions by arguing that they were in the best interests of the children.
A commission tasked in 2008 with documenting the full history of the residential schools; reported presented in 2015.
Some, such as the recent Truth and Reconciliation Commission, have even described the government’s policies for Indigenous peoples as cultural genocide.
An epidemic associated with rapid urbanization, tenement housing, slums, and poverty; spread rapidly in post-Confederation period, becoming epidemic among Aboriginal populations; tuberculosis sanatoria were established and operating across Canada until the 1960s, by which time antibiotics (especially Streptomycin) had severely reduced the incidence and morbidity associated with TB.
By the 1950s, the TB epidemic among Inuit had affected a third of the population, many of whom were sent south for treatment (that included surgical draining of the lungs and the removal of ribs).
Established in 1969 in response to the Federal Government's White Paper; replaced rival coastal and interior groups.
The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) and the National Indian Brotherhood (NIB) were established the same year as a further response to the White Paper crisis.
The state of being without work or employment, homelessness, and (often) transience; associated with poverty and begging. Vagrancy was treated as a crime and was listed in the Criminal Code until 1972. The 21st century has seen the return of anti-vagrancy laws with different names.
In much of Canada, movement was limited through the vagrancy provisions of the Criminal Code or the restrictions against trespass in the Indian Act.
Typically cooperatives made up of grain growers who combined (pooled) their output — and risk — so as to reduce competition and overheads while securing the best price; replaced temporarily by the Canadian Wheat Board in 1935; competed against private grain elevators in the post-war era.
Even the right to use modern farming equipment and to participate in training programs, farm organizations, and wheat pools like their non-Native neighbours were curbed by Canadian officials.
Also known as The Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy, 1969; proposed the dismantling of the Indian Act, an effective end to Indian Status, and the conversion of reserve land to private property; introduced by the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau and led by the Minister of Justice, Jean Chrétien; met with strident opposition from Aboriginal leaders, part of which took the form of the Red Paper.
As a result of this report, the Canadian government decided to take policies in an entirely new direction, which were outlined in the White Paper of 1969.