When Europeans first arrived in northern North America they saw
it as a terra nullius - empty land - but in reality it was a
complex environment containing many cultures and communities. On
the west coast the peoples had built societies of wealth and
sophistication with plentiful resources from the sea and forest; in
the prairies and northern tundra, the aborigines lived off the vast
herds of buffalo and caribou; in central Canada the forests were
home to peoples who harvested wild rice from the marshes and grew
corn, squash and beans by the rivers, supplementing their harvest
with fishing and hunting; on the east coast and in the far north,
the sea and land supplied their needs, and with incredible
ingenuity enabled the inhabitants to survive harsh conditions.
Encounters between aboriginal and nonaboriginal people began to
increase in number and complexity in the 1500s. There was an
increased exchange of goods, trade deals, friendships and
intermarriage as well as military and trade alliances. For at least
two hundred years, the newcomers would not have been able to
survive the rigours of the climate, succeed in their businesses
(fishing, whaling, fur trading), or dodge each other's bullets,
without aboriginal help.
Meanwhile diseases (typhoid, influenza, diptheria,
plague, measles, tuberculosis, venereal disease and scarlet fever)
killed tens of thousands - it is estimated that within a 200-year
period aboriginal populations were reduced by as much as 95
percent.
As the fur trade intensified, the animal populations were wiped
out in certain areas. This not only removed the traditional hunting
practices but sparked off inter-tribal wars , all the more
bloody now firearms were involved.
During this period, the French and British were few in number,
the land seemed inhospitable and they feared attack from the
aboriginal nations surrounding them. They were also fighting wars
for trade and dominance - they needed alliances with Indian
nations, so many treaties were consequently negotiated. The
treaties seemed to recognize the nationhood of aboriginal peoples
and their equality but also demanded the authority of the monarch
and, increasingly, the ceding of large tracts of land (particularly
to British control for settlement and protection from seizure by
the French and Americans). Usually what was agreed orally differed
from what actually appeared in the treaties. The aborigines did
accept the monarch, but only as a kind of kin figure, a distant
"protector" who could be called on to safeguard their interests and
enforce treaty agreements. They had no notion of giving up their
land, a concept foreign to aboriginal cultures:
In my language, there is no word for "surrender". There is no
word. I cannot describe "surrender" to you in my language, so how
do you expect my people to [have] put their X on
"surrender"?
- Chief François Paulette.
In 1763, the Royal Proclamation was a defining document
in the relationship between the natives and the newcomers. Issued
in the name of the king, it summarized the rules and regulations
that were to govern British dealings with the aboriginal peoples -
especially in relation to the question of land. It stated that
aboriginal people were not to be "molested or disturbed" on their
lands. Transactions involving aboriginal land were to be negotiated
properly between the Crown and "assemblies of Indians". Aboriginal
lands were to be acquired only by fair dealing: treaty, or purchase
by the Crown. The aboriginal nations were portrayed as autonomous
political entities, with their own internal political authority.
Allowing for British settlement, it still safeguarded the rights of
the aborigines.
By the 1800s, the relationship between aboriginal and
nonaboriginal people began to tilt on its foundation of rough
equality. Through immigration the number of settlers was swelling,
while disease and poverty continued to diminish aboriginal
populations - by 1812, whites outnumbered indigenous people in
Upper Canada by ten to one. The fur trade, which was established on
a solid economic partnership between traders and trappers, was a
declining industry. The new economy was based on timber, mining and
agriculture and it needed land from the natives, who began to be
seen as "impediments to progress". Colonial governments in Upper
and Lower Canada no longer needed military allies, the British were
victors in Canada, and the USA had won its independence. There was
also a new attitude of European superiority over all other peoples
and policies of domination and assimilation slowly replaced those
of partnership.
Ironically, the transformation from respectful coexistence to
domination by nonaboriginal laws and institutions began with
the main instruments of the partnership: the treaties and the Royal
Proclamation of 1763. These documents offered aboriginal people not
only peace and friendship, respect and approximate equality, but
also "protection". Protection was the leading edge of domination.
At first, it meant preservation of aboriginal lands and cultural
integrity from encroachment by settlers. Later, it meant
"assistance", a code word implying an encouragement to stop being a
part of aboriginal society and merge into the settler society.
Protection took the form of compulsory education, economic
adjustment programmes, social and political control by federal
agents, and much more. These policies, combined with missionary
efforts to civilize and convert, tore wide holes in aboriginal
cultures, autonomy and identity