Aboriginal Claims
Following a precedent first established in 1763
by a royal proclamation of King George III, the
Canadian government began to enter into treaty
with the First Nations of the Prairie West within
a year of the annexation of Rupert's Land. The
federal government started the treaty process,
not to give First Nations a homeland, but to pave
the way for commercial agriculture. To distinguish
the post-Confederation treaties from earlier ones
in the east, the western
treaties were given numbers (rather than names)
and were referred to as the "numbered treaties."
The treaty ceremony was an elaborate affair in
which representatives of the Crown passed out
small gifts of food, tobacco, and cash, along
with treaty
medals, uniforms, and flags to the chiefs
and headmen. Although the ceremonies and regalia
varied from one treaty to the next, they had one
philosophical constant. In return for giving up
their "Indian title" to the landscape,
bands received reserve
lands which would be held by the Crown for
their exclusive use.
For the Métis, the process by which the
Crown extinguished their "Indian title"
was very different. Rather than receive reserve
lands, Métis heads of family and their
children were awarded one-time grants of land
or money scrip.
The scrip was the equivalent to a certificate
or voucher and theoretically could be used only
to acquire lands listed in a Dominion Lands Office
as open for homestead entry. In practice, a market
for scrip grew up across the West - a black market
in which many western financial institutions actively
participated. It saw Métis scrip sold at
considerably less than its face value (as little
as 20 percent) to agents who resold the same
scrip at a profit to immigrant homesteaders. The
result of the scrip process left the Métis
landless and without a community base.
One of the basic responsibilities assumed by
federal officials in their administration of Indian
affairs was education. In some instances, the
First Nations requested provisions for schools
in their treaties. The first Indian schools were
established on the Prairies in 1883. From this
basis, the federal government and Christian churches
developed a system of residential
schools in which Canadian ideals and Christianity
were delivered to young minds without interference
from their families and communities. As agents
of social integration, the schools were a failure;
as agents of learning, they were not much better;
as agents of cultural genocide, they were phenomenally
successful.
Further
Readings
See also
Hard Bargains -- The Making of Treaty 8
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Administration
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