Aboriginal Peoples of Canada

1. Aboriginal Peoples of Canada Living Cultures, vibrant stories

2. Pre Conceptions and Protocols As with any part of our multicultural society, we must respect the traditions and cultures of peoples within Canada. The exception has been towards Aboriginal Peoples Systematic attempts by the Canadian government to eliminate Aboriginal Culture Indian Act: Currently regulates aboriginal peoples in Canada, controls lands designated as reserves, and defines who is or is not aboriginal Residential Schools: A sponsored program where children were forced to attend schools that attempted to assimilate Aboriginal peoples by removing them from their families, breaking the chain of tradition.

3. Pre-History • What does this really mean as a term? • Pre-historic implies before written history • History is more than written works; it’s stories and songs, it’s art and technology. It’s everything embodied by a culture • Aboriginal peoples continue with their tradition of Oral History

4. Relationships with nature • Aboriginal peoples lived in regions where through ingenuity and hard work, there was an abundance of food. • When food is abundant, culture can thrive; technology develops to compensate for challenges in the environment • For many aboriginal peoples, technology remained at the pinnacle of Neolithic development, because there was no need to pursue more. Inuit Family, 1917.

5. Relationships with Nature • What do you think leads people to create new technologies? • What causes people to settle in one place, or to be migratory? • Think on these two questions for a minute

6. Relationships to Nature • Rather than apart from nature, the paradigm of aboriginal cultures is to see people as part of nature, though sadly removed from the power to speak. • Why would this be difficult for peoples so linked to the land? • As one myth describes, Raven took with him the power for man to speak to animals, and hid it away.

7. The Power of Stories • All learning, all teaching, all human interaction is based off of stories • Some studies show that over 2/3 of all conversation is gossip, and all of it is story in one form or another • Why do people gossip do you think? • Transference of social information; rules of culture and our role in the world

8. Aboriginal Stories • Animals and humans are active participants in traditional stories; • Stories exist to teach and to entertain simultaneously • Active, living things; meanings and stories are transferred from one person to another, but each storyteller adds their own flavour

9. Aboriginal Peoples during the 1910s-20s • Important Terms: • 1) Royal Proclamation of 1763 • 2) Constitution Act, 1867 • 4) Indian Act • 5) Victoria Conference, 1911 • 6) Richard-Mcbride Commission, 1912-14 • 7) 1927 Indian Act Amendment

10. Nisga’a Liems On May 11th, 2000, the Federal and Provincial Governments, together with the Nisga’a government, established the first treaty in BC since 1850 In 1973, Frank Calder, hereditary chief of the Nisga’a nation took the tribe’s land claim to the Supreme Court. The Court Ruled that aboriginal title existed and must be recognized and compensated.

11. Nisga’a Liems • The Nisga’a gave up for this agreement:1) Claim beyond the 2,019 square kilometers of land agreed to • 2) Exception from Income and Sales Taxes

12. How long was this treaty in negotiation? • In 1888, government surveyors had appeared in Nisga’a territory near Gitlaxt’aamiks. • “What’s that in your canoe?” asked Sim’oogit Israel Sgat’iin, pointing to survey equipment. • The surveyors replied that they were going to give land to the Nisga’a. • “How could you give us land that is already ours?” • Chief Sgat’iin aimed his gun at the belly of the lead surveyor, took away their instruments, and sent them packing downstream.

13. Main Street Commercial Drive Granville Island

14. The Squamish, the Musquem, the Tsleil-Watuth

17. A Coal Harbour Longhouse (1886)

18. A Story…. Of a bridge • Built in 1937, by James Taylor, and paid for by the Guinness Family to help bring people to the North Shore to sell houses… • Built in the depression, when there was no money.

19. To build the bridge, they took land from the Squamish Reservation • When the King and Queen were to drive by for the opening, the Chiefs were asked to show their support, so that they could be shown to be willing. • The people agreed, wore their full regailia, hoping that their support would help show that they were good citizens, hoping they could speak regarding their claims • The King and Queen drove by.. Without stopping..

20. Royal Proclamation of 1763 • The American Colonies caused a lot of trouble for the English. • Raided the Ohio Valley, taking land without permission, sought to occupy aboriginal land (Mostly Iroquois, Creek peoples) • Royal Proclamation recognized all land west of the Appalachians as belonging to Aboriginal peoples • Only the Crown could extinguish aboriginal claim (not individuals) and only through Treaties. • Canada inherits this recognition through British Case Law and the Constitution Act

21. Canadian Constitution Act, 1982 • Can we remember which documents define the Rights of Canadians and the Obligations of government? • The Constitution Act, 1982 • The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (First 34 Sections of Constitution) • Section 35 Recognizes all aboriginal rights, treaties and claims

22. Aboriginal Peoples know their rights: Know how the Law works • 1874- Protest in New West by Sto:lo. 50 chiefs, hundreds of protesters. • Sign of clear active engagement among aboriginal peoples with understanding of British Law. • 1887: Nisga and Tsimshian both most active early on in understanding of law. Met with Premier. • Premier claims to have never heard of concept of treaties, demands ‘proof of which law book you have read’ and tells them they are lucky for the reserves they have.

23. Joe Capilano and A Trip to the King (1906)

24. The Indian Act • Passed in 1876, it’s goal was to define: • Who was or was not considered aboriginal • What obligations (if any) the government had to care for aboriginal peoples • Where they could travel, work, acquire land (Reserve System) • Governed how their reserves/governments were run • Banned ceremonies and practices that bound aboriginal culture together • Potlatch on the west coast, Sun Dance for Interior peoples • Required children to attend Residential Schools. • Goal: “Kill the Indian, save the Child”

25. Reserve System: differences in perspective • The Government of Canada established the Reserve system for 2 purposes: • 1) To open land for settlement through restriction of aboriginal title • 2) To facilitate ‘civilizing’ of aboriginals by encouraging them to assimilate in order to acquire land like any other ‘good British Citizen’ Aboriginal signatories to treaties understood: • Agreements were for land sharing and their traditional practices respected • The reserves were not ‘permanent restrictions’ but rather recognized village sites • In exchange, the Federal Government would support transition to farming and other modernization through providing materials and equipment

26. 1910s Events • Indian Act Amended: Allows for corporations and cities to expropriate portions of reserves without compensation • Reserve lands, already small, could be broken up or traded for poor land • Examples Include Park Royal Mall and Lions Gate Bridge (West Vancouver)

27. 1910’s Events • March 1911: Victoria Conference • Aboriginal Chiefs and clergymen to meet with Premier Richard McBride. • Bring forth power of law and precedent Peter Kelly: Haida Nation Methodist Minister Cofounder of Allied Indian Tribes Chief Spokesman Richard Mcbride Campaign Tobacco Tin

28. 1910’s Events • 1912-16 McKenna-McBride Commission • Established to meet with all bands and consult on land use needs and provide additional reserve land if ‘deemed necessary’. • Many groups refused • Result: Some increased but useful land removed, usually where land values had gone up • 1914 Order in Council: declares that FN will take all compensation provided with no argument

29. 1927:Indian Act Amended 3 Main Revisions of importance 1) Residential School is mandatory for all children • -Somewhat voluntary before, though many groups will continue to resist 2) Path to Citizenship Proposed: • -Aboriginal Peoples become citizens in 2 ways: • A) Voluntarily giving up status • B) Gaining a University Degree (Considered ‘civilized’) • 3)……

32. Trade: Why do we value things? • What exactly do we determine to be the measure of a successful person?

33. BC Industry in the late 1800s • Highly dependant on Aboriginal labour • Aboriginal peoples worked in lumber mills, fish camps, and other industries • Every few months, the labour just walked away to go to a potlatch • Huge problem… but it’s a matter of two different cultures • Perfectly willing to give everything away..

34. Potlatch Cultures • Coast Salish, Haida, and other West Coast peoples practice a Potlatch • Sometimes a week long ritual, families gather from all around the region to share stories, songs Perform marriages, cement alliances

35. Potlatch Cultures • Status was determined by how much you gave away • People saved up the entire year to have enough goods to give away at a potlatch • 1884: Potlatch banned under the Indian Act • Considered a wasteful, unproductive custom

36. Wealth • First Nations Cultures determined wealth as a measure of how much one could provide for the group. • Accumulation of supplies becomes of paramount importance • Also, cultural objects take on greater meaning (Art is produced when there is an excess of necessities)

37. An Interconnected Continent