The Indian Problem

Treaties with Europeans started when they first reached Turtle Island. Europeans sought alliances with Indigenous peoples to maintain peace and gaining access to natural resources and making gaining alliances in trade and European colonial wars. There was a formal diplomatic relationship  between the Dutch and Indigenous peoples in the earlier part of the 17th century. This later became Known later as the “Covenant Chain” by the English.

There is another tradition of treaty relations between the British Crown and Mi’kmaq, Passamaquoddy and ​Wolastoqiyik​ (Maliseet) peoples in the eastern maritime regions. These treaties did not deal with land ownership or settler issues. These agreements, were made as mutual promises of peace and friendship between the parties. The agreements also guaranteed Indigenous rights to trade and the right to fish and hunt in their customary manner. 

After the British defeat of France, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 laid out the process for further colonization of Turtle Island. The Crown claimed “dominion” and “sovereignty” over Indigenous territories and that only the Crown could make treaties with Indigenous peoples. The king decreed that no individual person or colony could purchase territory from Indigenous peoples; instead, the British Crown was to be the essential actor in negotiating treaties.

The Robinson Treaties of 1850, negotiated by William Benjamin Robinson with the Anishinaabe were among the earliest land cession agreements in Canada.

These treaties—Robinson-Huron and Robinson-Superior—saw the Anishinaabe share large portions of land around Lake Superior and Lake Huron in exchange for reserves, annual payments (annuities), and the continued right to hunt and fish on the these lands. The Robinson Treaties became a model for later Numbered Treaties.

Canada negotiated treaties with the nations of the Prairies. Based upon the 1850 Robinson Treaties, treaties with a large numbers of bands assembled together for the negotiations. These treaties were complex agreement and included to onetime lump sum payments, annuities, specific amounts of reserve lands, continued rights to hunt and fish on unoccupied Crown lands, schools, agricultural implements and cattle, ammunition, as well as medals, flags and suites of clothing. Between 1871 and 1921, the Crown signed 11 treaties, known as the Numbered Treaties, divided into two groups: those for settlement in the South; and those for access to natural resources in the North.

The Indian Act of 1876 was a consolidation of regulations that impacted First Nations people living throughout the country. It gave greater authority to the Department of Indian Affairs by permitting it to intervene in a wide variety issues and to make sweeping policy decisions across the board such as determining who was an Indian, managing Indian lands, resources and moneys, controlling the access to intoxicants and promoting "civilisation". The principle behind the Act was that it was the Crown's responsibility to care for and protect interests of First Nations people by acting as their "guardians" until such time as they could reach a level of sophistication that allowed them to fully integrate into Canadian society.