Chapter 11. First Nations from Indian Act to Idle No More
Chapter 11. First Nations from Indian Act to Idle No More
11.4 Indigenous – Settler Relations before Confederation
Jennifer Pettit; Department of Humanities; and Mount Royal University
Relations between the Crown and Indigenous peoples in what is now Canada began hundreds of years ago and have been affected by both internal and external forces. These interactions have changed over time and continue to evolve today. While there were periods in which some have deemed the association a partnership, more often it has been exchanges that were largely characterized by myopic policies and actions by the British, and later Canadian federal government; a lack of consultation; and an absence of consent by Indigenous peoples — in short, Canada is built on colonialist foundations. Some, such as the recent Truth and Reconciliation Commission, have even described the government’s policies for Indigenous peoples as cultural genocide.[1] In the words of historian Susan Neylan:
…most Canadians have trouble regarding themselves as living in an Aboriginal nation or seeing how historical legacies have relevance for contemporary identities. However, scholars of Aboriginal History are well aware of how Canada was founded upon acts of resettlement and dispossession. The erasure of its original inhabitants and their histories is the byproduct of a persistent “settler myth” that views Aboriginal peoples as obstacles to, or in the least, passive players in the “real” history of non-Indigenous peoples, who are presumed to have dealt peacefully and benevolently with those Aboriginal societies.[2]
This section and the three that follow trace the history of these dealings of the British and Canadian government with Indigenous peoples from just prior to Confederation up until and including more recent events such as political activism, land claims, confrontations such as Oka, and new movements such as Idle No More.
Economic and Military Allies
Historians such as J. R. Miller have described early interactions between Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous newcomers as an “era of cooperation” in which reciprocal relationships existed.[3]These contacts began hundreds of years ago when Europeans began to travel to North America in search of resources such as fish and timber. Soon they discovered that furs, in particular beaver, was a profitable commodity. While the extent to which Indigenous groups became involved in the fur trade varied, many willingly and readily became “partners in furs,” since they too saw various benefits to being involved in the trade.[4] However, in these early years, the British and French clashed over control of the trade and other events external to North America. Before long, Indigenous peoples were drawn into various battles and were also encouraging the British and French to join with them as allies in their own conflicts.
Cognizant of the value and importance of military alliances with Indigenous peoples, in 1755, the British government established th