Treaties in Canada Education Guide
While the broad philosophy of treaties is generally similar (setting the terms for how to relate to each other), each treaty is a unique agreement with unique circumstances. Treaties were created to define the respective rights of Indigenous nations and colonial governments. Though many treaties pre-date Confederation, they are living documents (much like Canada’s Constitution) and their interpretation is continuously re-examined and debated by Canadian and Indigenous lawmakers to this day. In addition, treaties continue to be negotiated. In 1982, when the Constitution Act was passed, treaty rights were recognized and affirmed by Canada’s Constitution. The Aboriginal rights and title specified by the Constitution Act is the backdrop to the ongoing legal battles that result from treaties being unfinished business and, at the same time, the highest law in the land.
Beginning in the early 1600s, the British Crown (later the Government of Canada) entered into a series of treaties with Indigenous nations in Canada. The treaties were intended as formal agreements to encourage peaceful relations and to specify promises, obligations and benefits for both parties. Indigenous peoples wanted to protect their traditional lands, resources, and ways of life, while ensuring peace and friendship, and eventually receiving support as they shifted to a new reality in the mid-19th century. Today, everyone agrees that First Nations peoples agreed to share some of their land and resources in return for material support. But the terms of this exchange would ultimately be understood differently by the parties involved. This difference in interpretation is rooted in differing worldviews, with distinct concepts of land ownership. First Nations peoples had (and still have) a relationship with the land that informed their politics, spirituality and economy. Europeans, on the other hand, saw the land as purely productive and often as something to be exploited. Europeans began to impose artificial borders that do not line up with the traditional lands or jurisdictions of Indigenous peoples, which span territory that spreads across provincial lines and is located in both present-day Canada and the United States. Coupled with a language barrier and contrasting methods of knowledge transmission (oral versus written), misunderstandings multiplied. Many contemporary Indigenous peoples look to their elders as the highest authorities on the spirit and intent of the treaties because elders are schooled in the oral histories.