Great Spirit's gift was land, not treaties

The basic problem of the Native people of Canada is colonialism. This is the underlying problem of Native grievances. This is the government of Canada’s Indian problem. Jean Chretien, the prime minister during the years 1993 to 2003 realized this way back in 1969 when he was minister of Indian Affairs, when he presented the Indian policy statement in parliament, although he never mentioned colonialism.
He called this problem legal discrimination. The law of this legal discrimination is the Indian Act, which instituted a separate legal status for Indians. Chretien said, referring to the treaties, the weight of history is heavy on some people, because of historic undertakings that have been misunderstood or neglected.
He said the problem of treaties or the Native people in general was too complicated to deal with. He said the only way justice could be done was to terminate this separate legal status.
This underlying problem of historic injustice committed upon the Native people of Canada is not going to go away by trying to deal with this problem on individual basis, like dealing with individual First Nations or trying to negotiate with Native protesters on an individual basis. Neither is it going to go away by making it a provincial issue.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty claims that his government was handicapped at the negotiations to end the occupation in the Caledonia crisis because the protesters insisted on being dealt with by the government of Canada on a nation-to-nation basis.
This means that Native people of this country are not provincial citizens. Neither are they federal citizens. They are Aboriginal citizens and this Aboriginal citizenship is not entrenched in the Constitution of Canada because it is not recognized by the government of Canada.
What is entrenched is federal citizenship. Aboriginal citizenship existed from time immemorial and can never be extinquished. It is written in the hearts of patriotic Aboriginal people for all time.
Federal citizenship came into being only at the time of Confederation, when Canada became an independent nation. This federal citizenship is based on treaties, which became federal responsibility in dealing with Indians. This federal citizenship was called wards of the federal government.
However, treaties are colonial laws imposed on the Native people of this country and they are illegal and unjust. They can never be justified. The Caledonia crisis is rooted in colonialism in Canada. Likewise, all other Aboriginal grievances, which result in road blockades, are rooted in this colonialism.
As we read the June issue of Windspeaker, Ontario’s proposal to exchange Crown lands for the disputed lands in Caledonia was simply laughed at by the protesters. That’s negotiations. When you try to solve a problem, you deal with the root cause, not just its symptoms or side issues.
Canada is no different from other countries that were colonized by the Europeans, such as South Africa and other African countries. Ever since Confederation, some conscientious Canadians have asked from time to time, who really owns Canada anyway? As far as Native people across Canada are concerned, they own Canada. The Great Spirit gave them this land they say.
The colonial government took this land illegally from them. They were required to sign these treaties to legalize this seizure of Aboriginal lands.
Colonization was in progress and these treaties were imposed to keep Native people out of the way of development.
These treaties were not sacred contracts with the approval of the Great Spirit, as the Elders were made to believe at the time of signing of these treaties. But the land that the Great Spirit gave to these Native people is sacred and is not negotiable for all time.
The commissioners deceived these Nation people when they told them to sign these treaties; in the case of Treaty 9 by making extra promises and statements of which they did not have the mandate to make.
These commissioners did not inform these Native people that this was a fixed-term treaty, that is was not alterable, and non-negotiable for the Indians. It was negotiable only to the government of Canada and its settlers, but not to the Indians. And that’s the way it is to this day. Only the government and the big companies are cashing in on the wealth of this country.
To address the colonialism in Canada is long overdue. Colonialism in Canada has never been addressed by the Aboriginal people as a national issue since the time of the signing of the treaties. The chiefs have always dealt with treaties, trying to interpret the meaning of these treaties. The government and the court have their own interpretations. It is an ongoing debate that will go on forever.
There is no legitimate authority of Aboriginal people to deal with this issue. The former national chief, Matthew Coon Come, tried to bring up this issue at the United Nations, but he was booted out at the next election. The Assembly of First Nations is the wrong forum to deal with the issue of colonialism. You have to set up a legitimate authority as the first step to deal with this issue, and that’s as far as the story goes for now.