Put me in coach @AylanX! There is a hard disconnect between the actual treaties that the Mi’kmaq, Great Lakes nations, and Métis forced through strength of arms and today’s “reconciliation moment”.
And it is this: no indigenous person in the history of this place ever wanted large numbers of non-indigenous Canadians (NICs) to live here, not bc of isolationism or pettiness but bc they knew than,
as now that NICs would steal from, rape, and murder them w disproportionate vigour. On the other hand the British, later Canadian, governments never WANTED to live peacefully w FNMI people and tried over and over
to assert political and legal supremacy over them. The treaties were built of necessity to square that circle. Bc they use the diplomatic language of “peace and friendship” and shared economic interest they get read and
Deployed as expressions of affection, trust, and a kind of preference. This interpretation has been useful to the Canadian state bc it’s nicer to think of ourselves as having freely extended largess to the FNMI here than to have
failed in a supremacy attempt and been forced to adopt a nation to nation stance at gunpoint, many times. SO... over to BC. one of the things we had to promise to keep from being dead if we tried to b here
Is that we, through our military and police forces, would promise to proactively control and prosecute any of our own citizens who attempted to steal from, physically harm, or squat on the land of any FNMI people.
Hence Sir William Johnson at the Treaty of Niagara “no ill disposed People [in this case TransCanada] will ever be suffered into your Country, nor any Lies [impact benefit agreements] told to blind your Eyes whilst they stole your Furs [traplines/land]
The English will deal fairly with you. They will treat you kindly, and trade with you honestly. You will grow Rich, and happy, and your Brothers [warriors] Contented [they won’t even WANT to shoot us anymore]
so that our Union cannot be shaken.” Again, everyone at the time of these treaties acknowledged as a first principle that the two communities had directly conflicting interests and the negotiators were laying out
The minimum requirements to avoid an imminent hot war. The Canadian government did not want to take on the role of disciplining / private interests who stole from FNMI people but in order to live on the land they/we
we’re forced to make that promise. The Wet’suwet’en again demand that promise. That we should resist is 💯on brand for us. At the treaty of Niagara the western alliance won that struggle and forced the British to guarantee vigorous
policing of private interests saying that we would “bring to justice any persons who commit Robberys or Murders on them” and later “Keep your eyes on me , & I shall be always ready to hear your Complaints [and] procure you Justice.”
We come to this contest again, as many times in our past, Canada, and it’s private interests have asserted supremacy, the Wet’suwet’en, like the Mi’kmaq, Shawnee, Lenape, Anishinabek, Seneca, Métis, Pottawatamie, Odawa, Haida before them
have asserted sovereignty. What remains to be seen is what pressure will be brought to bear on each groups behalf. Will the other First Nations stand against Canada in solidarity and common interest w the Wet’suwet’en? Check.
Will “pro indigenous” settlers pressure their government to respect at least some real expressions of indigenous sovereignty as the Aborigines Protection Committee did in the nineteenth century? Check.
Will pragmatic socially savvy moneyed interests reign in the extreme behaviour of TransCanada and the Trudeau liberals to protect their own wealth and moral standing as Sir William Johnson and his British Indian Department did in 1764?
This is the weakest link, todays elite have less reticence to use violence to protect and amass wealth than they did in the early colonial era. Point is Canada never MEANT the treaties - not then - not now. But then, and it sure as hell looks like now,
there was enough real force ranged against them to enforce those promises.
#aslongasthesunshines
#wetsuwentenstrong
#aslongasthesunshines
#wetsuwentenstrong
***I am speaking only about treaties made between Indigenous People and Europeans under the condition of a violent colonial invasion. I am in no way commenting on treaties between FNMI people.
