Grassy Narrows Backgrounder

Treaty 3: A Nation-to-Nation Agreement Dishonoured by the Canadian State

By Dave Brophy

This is the first of three articles by Dave Brophy about indigenous struggle in what is now northwestern Ontario. Part one looks at the history of relations between the Anishinaabe and the Canadian state in the area covered by "Treaty 3" of 1873. It looks at how the Canadian state overtly violated the nation-to-nation agreement and initiated a campaign to destroy the Indigenous economy that had until then allowed the Anishinaabe to be a prosperous people.

Part two will focus on Grassy Narrows First Nation. It will provide historical background to, and an analysis of the community’s current campaign to end clear cut logging on their traditional territory. The significance this struggle has for the broader question of Indigenous peoples’ self-determination will also be examined.

It is safe to say that most people who know that Indigenous peoples preexisted the Canadian state, believe Canada's nationalist mythology that tells of how Indigenous societies were "traditional" and "backward", and that the destruction of these peoples was an inevitable result of the advance of "progress" and "civilisation". Few know about the dynamism of Indigenous cultures prior to the arrival of Europeans, and how native communities were underdeveloped by the settlers.

A consequence of the nationalist myth is that it leads people to assume that the European domination of Indigenous peoples was a good thing, and any resistance (if such resistance existed) by Indigenous peoples to colonisation was futile. It follows from this line of thinking that the treaties, the reserve system, and so on are the result of well-intentioned, protective treatment towards weaker peoples by a benevolent Canadian state.

Such mythology is debunked by the briefest look at, for instance, the history of relations between the Anishinaabe of what is now northwestern Ontario and the Canadian state in the years leading up to and shortly after the treaty they reached (known as "Treaty 3") in 1873. If we look at the conditions under which the treaty was negotiated, the terms of the treaty itself, and the deterioration of the Indigenous economy after the treaty, we get a much different view than that which is unfortunately prevalent.

In the 1800s the Anishinaabe of northwestern Ontario had a prosperous and diverse land-based economy that allowed its population to grow and thrive. According to Boyce Richardson, the Indigenous population increased approximately five-fold between about 1820 and 1870, growing from less than 500 to 2,500 people during that period.

There were few Europeans in the area until around 1850. In the decades prior to the 1873 treaty, though the Indigenous inhabitants still far outnumbered whites, the Anishinaabe had to occasionally re-assert their control of the territory as the number of white settlers and travelers increased.

The Canadian State, competing with the US, was extremely eager to plunder the resources of the "northwest" and establish itself as the colonial power there before the US. The expansion of the Canadian state went beyond merely settling the area. If Canada’s rulers were to extend control in that direction, negotiations with the Indigenous peoples were necessary to avoid a costly war.

The need for a treaty with the Anishinaabe became especially urgent when the Canadian government recognised that continued road construction through Anishinaabe territory – later known as the Dawson route – would be impeded without the Indigenous peoples’ consent.

Dawson himself wrote in 1868:

"The Anishinaabe of the northwest angle are very intelligent, and are extremely jealous as to their right of soil and authority over the country which they occupy….They are shrewd and sufficiently awake to their own interests…and they neither reply to a proposition, nor make one themselves, until it is fully discussed and deliberated upon in council of all the chiefs."

NATION-TO-NATION NEGOTIATIONS
In the late 1860’s, representatives of the Canadian government started negotiating with the Anishinaabe of the northwest angle to acquire access to their land. However, it took numerous visits to the northwest over a number of years to reach an agreement with the Anishinaabe there on the terms under which the Canadian government would be permitted to share the land.

It is important to note that, given their wealth and capacity for war, the Anishinaabe negotiated from a position of considerable strength. Their form of democratic collective decision making made them very strong negotiators. Alexander Morris, the unscrupulous commissioner who finally succeeded in negotiating a treaty with the Anishinaabe for Canada in 1873, had to wait four days while 800 Annishinaabe gathered to discuss the treaty before coming to a decision.

As Richardson notes, a clear priority for the Anishinaabe in the negotiations was for them to maintain control of their land (a territory of 55,000 square miles), and ensure that their hunting and trapping activities would not be hampered by any treaty. Charles Wagamase (a former high school teacher on the Grassy Narrows reserve who also served on the Treaty 3 Grand Council in the early 1990s) explained it this way:

"We have researched the conditions at the time that we signed our treaty in 1873…. Our people were well aware of what the treaty was, and were perfectly content with how they were living. It was not a life of drudgery and suffering. There were a lot of beautiful songs and ceremonies. There is a lot of evidence people were living a good life here, which they did not want to change."

Though the Anishinaabe wanted to negotiate a treaty that would protect their prosperous way of life, they also sought provisions that would allow the land to be shared. They anticipated that they would need to expand their agricultural production, which already provided for about half of their subsistence food needs, to accommodate the increased pressure on the land that would result from the settlement of whites. Thus, one of the conditions for a treaty was that they receive tools and instruction in farming.

It was therefore no easy task for the Anishinaabe to agree to a treaty with the Canadian government. They had concerns about how their society might be adversely affected, but they also saw potential benefits from cultural exchange. In the end, they made an important collective decision that Charles Wagamase summed up as follows:

"We find out [the white man] needs a place to live, to raise his kids. He says, ‘I want to come and live with you people.’ He wants to share this beautiful country with us, every square foot of which we use. Every little pond, somebody travels it and knows it.

"We take it back and think about it. We know what is going on. There is active trading all over North America. We have made deals in the past with the Sioux and Mohawks. We are well aware of the Indian wars. We can use violence and eject him, or come to some kind of arrangement. That’s what we did."

THE TREATY DISHONOURED
The practical, even generous approach the Anishinaabe had in their dealings with Europeans, however, was not returned in kind. Before Treaty 3 was signed, the Canadian government had already begun legislating policies that were completely at odds with the agreement they were to make. But even after the treaty, the Canadian government continued to pursue its colonialist course in blatant disregard of the agreement it signed.

The first major attack on the Indigenous economy was the destruction of the Lake of the Woods sturgeon fishery. Canadian negotiator Alexander Morris had understood the Indigenous peoples’ demands around hunting and fishing rights, and assured them that those activities would not be affected by the settlement of whites in the area. But an influx of commercial fishers beginning shortly after Treaty 3 was signed, and the subsequent pillaging of the sturgeon fishery proceeded without any intervention from the Canadian state. Before, the bountiful yet sustainable catches of fish had helped the Anishinaabe prosper and were a long-time staple of the Indigenous economy. But the resource was destroyed following a short bonanza for white fishermen.

A second major attack took place in 1881. As noted above, at the time of the 1873 treaty the Anishinaabe already were producing significant amounts of food through agriculture, especially wild rice, potatoes, and corn, and they wanted to expand their endeavours. The treaty stipulated that the Indigenous peoples would be designated "wild land reserves" as well as "farming reserves". With this arrangement, it would appear that the Anishinaabe were well placed to continue diversifying their economy by furthering agricultural production.

However, an 1881 amendment to the Indian Act (initially created in 1876) systematically discriminated against Indigenous peoples. The amendment prohibited "western" Indians, including the Treaty 3 Anishinaabe, from selling any agricultural produce. This measure undermined the Anishinaabe efforts to extensively expand their agricultural production – efforts that had been underway for 10 years.

A third major colonialist attack came in the 1890s, when Ontario's northwestern boundary was extended to the far side of the Treaty 3 area. In 1894 the federal government had transferred the natural resources on "Crown" land to the provinces. This provided a loophole of sorts, designed to let the federal government avoid meeting its legal obligations to Indigenous peoples who had signed treaties. The federal government's assurances of Indigenous land rights were clear under the treaties (even though the federal government ignored those obligations whenever it was convenient). But when jurisdiction vis-à-vis management of "public" lands was transferred to the provinces, there were no explicit stipulations made to clarify what level of government would be responsible for upholding Indigenous peoples' treaty rights.

As a result, under Ontario’s jurisdiction, Indigenous land rights, even in legal terms, went completely unrecognised. In the name of slowing rampant depletion of animal and fish populations, the Ontario government enacted laws limiting hunting and fishing that were to be applied equally to Indians and whites, even though the animal and fish stocks had been stable until the arrival of the settlers. Not only did these laws violate the Indians’ treaty rights; they were also enforced unequally against them, as they are to this day.

Furthermore, during these years various industries expanded into the Treaty 3 area. There was a rapid expansion of logging, mining, hydro-electric projects, and later, the development of tourist lodges and the cottage industry. However, because of the racist hiring practices in these industries, the Anishinaabe found it increasingly difficult to secure employment despite all this growth. And while native people were being excluded from the wage labour opportunities that came with this economic expansion, alternatives to wage labour were disappearing as the land base continued to deteriorate with the growth of industry.

By 1946, Treaty 3 Grand Council spokesperson Tom Roy had this to say to members of the federal parliament in Ottawa:

"We contend that the terms of our treaty were violated or abrogated by the federal government on or about April 16, 1894 when, without notifying the Indians, the federal government transferred the natural resources to the provinces, with whose laws we have [had] to comply since then. The Indians have tried to protest against this; they have made trips here to Ottawa asking the Indian department for protection. The answer has been: 'This comes entirely under the provincial governments, and there is no authority whatever vested in our department to change their laws.'"

As we will see in the next article, Tom Roy's grievances in 1946 concerning the refusal of the federal government to take responsibility for fulfilling its treaty obligations are just as relevant today as they were back then.

Today, Grassy Narrows First Nation leads the struggle of the Anishinaabe of the Treaty 3 area against colonisation of their lands. The refusal of the federal government to make good on its part of the treaty agreement continues to fuel the Ontario provincial government’s relentless attack on the Indigenous economy. The resistance of the Anishinaabe at Grassy Narrows is a reassertion of the legitimacy of Indigenous peoples’ rights after years of colonialist repression. That resistance will be taken up in Part 2.

RECOMMENDED READING
Research for this article was from the following sources:
Boyce Richardson, The People of Terra Nullius
Deborah Lee Simmons, Against Capital: The Political Economy of Aboriginal Resistance in Canada
Also check out:
Sarah Carter, Lost Harvest: Prairie Indian Reserve Farmers and Government Policy