|
Copyright/Source
|
1923 - 1950: The Williams Treaties and Land Transfer Agreements
|
This period was a decisive one in Aboriginal
history in Canada. While the William Treaties would clean up many
faulty land cession
agreements dating back to the 1700s, they would come at a price:
the complete loss of fishing and hunting rights for Aboriginals
on surrendered lands. What was more, some western provinces received
new powers to rule over hunting and fishing land. However, it is
in this period that Aboriginals began to come into their own by
organizing protest movements.
Topics in this section:
The Williams Treaties, 1923
Pow-wows Banned, 1925
Provincial Land Transfer Agreements, 1930
Aboriginal Protest Movements
Other Interesting or Important Documents
The Williams Treaties, 1923
Williams Treaties
In late 1923, treaties were signed dealing with outstanding Aboriginal
land claims in southern and central Ontario. The treaties covered
some 28,000 square kilometers of land. Some areas had been improperly
seized through late 1700s-era blank treaties - simply put, treaties
where the Aboriginals signed nothing but a blank piece of paper.
Like the Numbered
Treaties that preceded the Williams Treaties, the Aboriginals
received cash in exchange for formally giving up this land. However,
they lost their right to hunt, fish or trap on any of this land.
The worst fears of many Aboriginals to the west had finally come
true: the government seemed to be clearly saying it was not interested
in preserving their way of life.
Pow-wows Banned, 1925
Copyright/Source
Two years after the Williams Treaties, the federal government decided
it would ban further Aboriginal cultural ceremonies, including pow-wows,
sweat lodges and Indian Sun Dances through Indian
Act legislation. These ceremonies would be driven underground
and held in secret until 1951, when the ban was finally lifted.
Provincial Land Transfer Agreements,
1930
New agreements gave Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba
the right to have greater control over their natural resources.
Once again, Aboriginals in these provinces were not consulted. They
were greatly upset because these agreements gave provincial governments
in most of western Canada the right to curb fishing, hunting and
trapping on Crown
land if needed.
British Columbia, Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia, on the other hand, already had constitutional control over
their land and natural resources through Section
109 of the British
North America Act.
Aboriginal Protest Movements
Copyright/Source
Aboriginal political protests really began in earnest during the
early 1910s, when a Native delegation was sent from the Prairies
to Ottawa to protest the breaking of Numbered
Treaty promises. However, the movement really started gain momentum
in the 1920s and 1930s, fuelled by broken treaty promises and the
introduction of new laws that went against these promises. The most
active agitation came from Aboriginals in the Treaty Six area of
Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The League of Indians of Canada was established in the early 1920s,
and was eventually followed by at least two more provincial organizations:
the Indian Association of Alberta in 1939 and the Federation of
Saskatchewan Indians in 1944. These groups would go on to make presentations
to a joint Senate-House
of Commons committee studying changes needing to be made to
the Indian
Act between 1946 and 1948. (These changes needed to be made
of in light of Canada's anticipated signing of the UN Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, which forced the government
to rethink it's treatment of Aboriginals.)
Other Interesting and Important Links
|
