“Spirit of the Land”
Significant Time lines
• 1500’s – 1800
– Indigenous laws
•
•
•
•
Ohcinewin
Ohcinemowin
Okicitaw iskwewak – lawkeepers
Sacred sites – graves, rock markings
1810 - 1876
• Military Indian Policy
• British North America (BNA) Act – lands
reserved for Indians
• Treaty 6 – family of 5 (more or less)
– Mapping of Treaty 6
• Indian Act – became wards – residential
schools, disconnection to lands begins.
Instead of honouring the Treaties of peace and
friendship it made with Indigenous Peoples,
Canada made the Indian Act in 1876.
By 1927, the Indian Act described over 200 crimes
which could only be committed by an “Indian.”
These included:
• holding a potlatch – one of
the primary instruments of
government
• hiring a lawyer to pursue
land rights
• keeping a child home from
Indian Residential School
• traveling without
permission of an Indian
Agent
1885 – 1950’s
• NorthWest Rebellion
– Pass system
– Our reserved lands became our prisons
– Big River Reserved lands #118
Since the Indian Act was amended to repeal the prohibition on hiring
a lawyer, in 1958, there have been hundreds – if not thousands – of
court cases where Indigenous Peoples have sued, and been sued,
for the lawful exercise of their land rights.
Below, demonstrating against the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline,
Unistoten camp, Wet’suwet’n territory, 2010
Sea-to-Sea Protest
Indigenous peoples have resisted Canada’s
control of their lands, women, children, governance,
and cultural expression since the 18th century.
In the last two decades, Canada has been the object of
hundreds of roadblocks, sit-ins, train blockades,
occupations and even armed confrontations
on traditional Indigenous lands.
Above – the Oka crisis, 1990
Mohawk
In 1990, the Mohawk
community of Kahnewake
blocked highways, roads
and bridges to halt
development of a golf
course on their burial
grounds.
Securité Québec was joined
by the Canadian army.
Indigenous Peoples
across Canada set up
demonstrations of
support and solidarity.
No golf course was built.
One of the supporting blockades was at Líl’wat, in British
Columbia. The people were also blockading development
of their smallpox burial grounds.
Representatives from every Líl’wat family were arrested for
blocking the highway which runs through the center of
their Indian Reserve.
Líl’wat
Secwepemc
In 1995, 17 Sundancers in Secwepemc fenced in their
sacred arbor against cows.
The ensuing
conflict
involved
400 RCMP,
6 APCs,
and 77,000
rounds of
ammunition
fired on the
camp.
Above, OJ Pitawanakwat and Wolverine at Gustafsen Lake.
Gustafsen Lake, 1995
Left, cops enforce a
perimeter.
Below, this red
truck was blown up
by a C-4 land mine
just after the photo.
Ipperwash, Stoney Point
Chippewa,1995
The people protested
over access to the lake
shore of Ipperwash
Provincial Park, cut into
their Reserve lands.
They occupied the park,
the Ontario government
panicked, and Dudley
George, left, was shot to
death.
Nuxalk
All the Nuxalk
hereditary chiefs
stood together to
protect their
most sacred
island from
logging.
In 1997, they did
it again.
In 1995, they
blocked the road
and were all
arrested and
charged for
disobeying a
court injunction
to leave the
road.
Grassy Narrows
The people of
Grassy Narrows
have been
protesting,
blocking roads
and launching
court actions
since the 1980’s
to stop logging on
their treaty lands.
Logging continues
as they protest
and argue in
court.
Grassy Narrows
Lubicon Cree
The people say they
may not be able to
practice their way
of life for a long
time to come, as it
has been polluted,
made desert, and
criss-crossed with
roads and
pipeline.
Right, Edward and
Josephine
Laboucan
Lubicon Cree
Lands
Over $14 billion worth of oil
has been extracted from
Lubicon territory over the past
two decades. The Lubicon
people cannot stop it, nor get a
fair share of the profit, nor
compensation for their lands.
This in spite of extensive
protests and legal action.
Burnt Church, Mi’kmaq
Decades of conflict over fisheries, including lobster
fisheries, brought the Burnt Church First Nation to defy
federal fishing closures in the Fall of 2000 and in 2001.
The Supreme Court of
Canada had
recognized their
treaty rights in 1999,
but the decision did
not affect their access
to the fisheries.
Walk for
Justice
Families and friends have been advocating for justice:
proper investigations and an inquiry into the whole
situation.
Rallies and marches are held in the major cities, marches
for justice have crossed the country several times, and a
judicial inquiry specific to Vancouver took place last year.
Indigenous women
represent an
alarming majority
in cases of
unsolved
disappearances
and murders.
Thousands of
women have
gone missing
while traveling
Highway 16, from
Prince Rupert on
the west coast of
BC to Winnipeg,
Manitoba.
Athabaskan and
Mikisew Cree
The Athabaskan of
Fort Chipewyan
and the Mikisew
Cree of the same
Tribal Council, and
Treaty 8, have
beautiful lands rich
in wildlife, birds and
fish, which have
sustained them for
thousands of years.
Alberta Tar
Sands
In these Athabaskan
and Cree territories
the tar sands
development takes
place.
The Alberta Tar Sands
are the single largest
producer of carbon
emissions in the
world.
Treaty 8
The Alberta Tar Sands are in the midst of Treaty 8, where
Canada says they can use the land as they please and
they have bought it from the indigenous, and it is such
an important economic driver that it outweighs the
infringement of aboriginal rights.
Above, a fish caught downstream in the Mackenzie River.
Delgamuukw, 1997
• The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that
aboriginal title exists in the province of
British Columbia, where there were almost
no historic treaties.
• Unfortunately, this ruling does not affect
Canada or the province’s strategies to
extinguish the aboriginal title by coercion,
corruption and forced capitulation.
In 2003, the Nuxalk people stood again to bar access to
industrial salmon feedlots in their territory.
Again they were criminalized.
Skwelkwek'welt, Secwepemc
• In 2004, people built
winter lodges and camps
in the way of ski resort
expansion, at Sun Peaks
in BC.
• The lodges were
bulldozed and expansion
went on in spite of
protest, blockades and
legal action.
• The 1862 map of the
Secwepemc Indian
Reserve includes the ski
resort area.
Sign posted by BC government at Skwelkwek'welt, 2004.
Caledonia The Haldimand Tract
Toronto
The Mohawk people of what is
now called Caledonia, Ontario,
were promised this land in
perpetuity in recognition of
their allegiance with England
during the American War of
Independence, the American
Revolution.
Canada now says it cannot
honour this compact because it
failed to purchase the land
from the Mississauga people,
the original owners.
This does not stop Canada or the
province of Ontario from selling
off the land to developers and
non-native people. It does not
make Canada settle with the
Mississaugas either…
Sterling Street Bridge, Haldimand Tract
The Sterling Street bridge, within the Haldimand Tract, was burned
during attempts to reclaim the land from Canada, in 2006.
Non-native businesses
were awarded
$20 million in 2010,
after they brought a
class action suit
against government
for damages incurred
during the conflict.
The indigenous have
neither received their
promised lands nor
compensation or
reparation.
Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug
In 2008, six KI leaders
were imprisoned for
rejected the unequal
opportunity to
“consult” with Platinex
over mining plans.
They were imprisoned
for two months, and
released.
A cash settlement has
kept Platinex out of KI
territory for the
meantime.
Repatriation of Constitution
The Rocky Mountains
The Canadian economy has been underwritten by
resource industries operating on unceded
indigenous lands for over 200 years. Many of
the logging clearcuts are so extensive they can
be seen from space, as can the tar sands.
There are 4,464 toxic sites in treaty territories of
Indigenous Peoples – an average of 1.5 toxic
site per Reserve, or 7 toxic sites per First Nation.
Typical Canadian view:
Bill C-45
Canada has created a suite of legislation that may entrap impoverished
indigenous communities. It is yet another attempt to get Indigenous
agreement to Canadian control; agreement to release
self-determination and accept municipal status.
Above: “Treaties Are Between The Crown and Indigenous Nations”
INM Original Organizers
These women called attention to Canada’s plan
to extinguish the Treaties unilaterally, and held
teach-ins about Bill C-45. There has since been
many organizers.
L-R:
Sheelah McLean,
Nina Wilson, Sylvia
McAdam & Jess
Gordon
Alex Wilson, Erica Lee,
Janice Makokis Shannon
Houle, Dion Tootoosis,
Tori Cress, Angela
Bercier, & many others.
Idle No More.
in Montreal…
in Edmonton…
in Toronto…
in Whistler…
from James Bay to Ottawa…