3.7

Question 1

Why did the Canadian Government sign treaties with Aboriginal people?

Answer 1

1) From the RPC of 1763 and even before the Canadian government had used treaties as a major relationship tool through the cod trade to the fur trade. This history was hard to erase as well as the partnership between Europeans and Aboriginals.
2) The other point is the Aboriginal wars to the south. The US did not have the history of Treaty making with Aboriginals and in turn went to war with these groups.

Also, the government was ill equipped to go to war with the Aboriginal people as the US was spending ever increasing amounts on the wars.

Question 2

Why did the federal government want to place First Nations people on reserves?

Answer 2

So the agricultural west could be settled by Europeans.

Question 3

What did the government promise in the treaties?

Answer 3

education, work of missionaries, help building homes

Question 4

Western Canada focused on the government’ plan to assimilate Natives into European society. According to this theory, the government’s actions were part of a well-developed plan to ptoect the First Nations from what?

Answer 4

the worst parts of the white society like alcoholism, while educating them to see the wisdom of adopting the best parts of the Newcomer’s society.

Question 5

What is the more recent interpretation of the government’s plan?

Answer 5

That the actions of the government, thought to be a careful and deliberate scheme, were really not developed into a comprehensive plan.

Question 6

What is the debate among historians regarding whether the government had any plan for the Indian policy in the west?

Answer 6

Some argue that the government had no plan at all while others claim that a governmental plan did exist, but was sketchy. Many argue that the government intended to extend pre-Confederation Native policy to the post-Confederation period, following the precedents set by the Robinson Treaties and the Manitoulin Island Treaty.

Question 7

When were the majority of treaties signed?

Answer 7

1871-1877

Question 8

Why did the FN sign the treaties?

Answer 8

They did not want it to come to violence as it had in the US.

Question 9

What did all treaties include?

Answer 9

privisions for livestock and farming equipment

Question 10

What was the purpose behind treaties at the time of 1871-1877? (Indian Act maybe??

Answer 10

To make FN advance from being government dependent to full citizenship.

Question 11

What did the Act label Indians as?

Answer 11

Legally different. but it still set out to make FN the same?

Question 12

What does the term Band describe?

Answer 12

FN who had a reserve

Question 13

What was Indian motivation at the time of the Numbered Treaties?

Answer 13

primarly an attempt to protect native culture
Indian bands hoped to ensure the physical and cultural survival of their people, establish peaceful relations with the government and make a transition to a new way of life, namely that of agriculture.

Question 14

Who were the first groups in the west to sign traties? What did they express their concern about?

Answer 14

Ojibwa and Swampy Cree

They were concerned about the advance of settlers into their territory.

Question 15

What were Aboriginals anxious to ensure for themselves in traty negotiantion?

Answer 15

A land base that could be used to protect themselves and eager to dela with the government before settlement had taken over Indian land, leaving the band nothing to bargain with.

Question 16

What did most Indians realize about settlemtn?

Answer 16

That is would come with or without treaties and they wre determined to obtain concessions that would allow their people and culture to survive.

Question 17

What was the Indian Act?

Answer 17

It was an instrument ot implement the traties. It was the “Bible and Plough” turning Aborignals into Farmers and Christians.

Question 18

What did the Indian Act govern?

Answer 18

Reserve life including economic (including trading between FN and EUropean people) as well as political, social, and personal.

Question 19

The Indian act was an effective policy of____.

Answer 19

assimilation

Question 20

What was the main goal of the Indian Act?

Answer 20

Was to change the FN way of life into a European way of life

Question 21

Was was the Pass System?

Answer 21

Required First Nations to request permission to leave their reserves, thus disallowing trade, po-wows, and the exchange of cultures and ideas.

Question 22

Were the FN allowed to use new agricultural tools?

Answer 22

No, they had to use hand tools

Question 23

What were the responsibilities of Indian Agents?

Answer 23

To make sure they didn’t practice any traditional ceremonies and handout rations to Aboriginals in which they could had out extra tartions if there had not been formal resistance to their control.

Question 24

What was the Indian Act designed for?

Answer 24

To give FN a protected way of life on their reserves

Question 25

What was needed in order for reserve lands to be purchased?

Answer 25

Government approval and consent of the band

Question 26

Could First Nations sell or trade products?

Answer 26

Not without the consent of the Government Indian agent

Question 27

Could FN be taxed on reserves?

Answer 27

no

Question 28

What were Peace and Trust treaties?

Answer 28

signed in the eighteenth century as the British crown wanted to encourage cooperation with FN on the east coast of BNA. They wanted to ecourage trade and European settlement and peaceful reltions with FN and these owuld further their goals. The treaties did not ask FN to surreneder their land, they were agreement ot share te land ina state of peaceful coexistence.

Question 29

What were the long term consequences of the government practice of settling Metis claims to land on an individual, not a communal basis?

Answer 29

Lost their traditional view of land being share. Ownership was a foreign concept to the FN and Metis and by government settling land this way it introduced ownerhsip and greed and personal gain into their culture.

Question 30

What was treaty adhesion?

Answer 30

when the FN were not present at the original traty signing or that refused to sign a treaty were added at a later

Question 31

What was the Dominion Lands Act?

Answer 31

Encouraged the settling of the WEst by immigrants by setting out the rules and procedures for the distribution of land to homesteaders.

Question 32

What is the relevance to the numbered treaties today?

Answer 32

They are still legally binding under the Canadian Constitution today and they wer ethe bulding blocks for the future of the relationship between the FN and the rest of Canada even though they had many problems.

Question 33

In what ways have the treaties been of lasting significance to all Canadians?

Answer 33

• enforcement of treaty rights for FN has been an ongoing concern
• lack of clarity and different understnading of the terms, many FN have ongoing disuputes with the federal gov’t over treaty rights, land use rights, , etc.
• they were the building blocks between the fn and the rest of Canada
• they were an agreement between nations–the fn agreed to share their land and resources which is the reason why we live in the country we live in today

Question 34

What does Eurocentric mean? What does paternalism mean? How do they apply to the relationship between FN and europeans?

Answer 34

Eurocentric: a worldview in which European based cultures and traditions are view as superior
Paternalism: the policy or practice of governing a group of people by providing for their needs without giving them any rights.
These terms apply because the Europeans tried to assimilate the FN into their culture because they believed the FN wer einferior. They negotiated so that they could keep the FN alive by giving them the bare minimum, but they had no rights as they weren’t considered to be people; they couldn’t vote, for example. They were completely under the control of the government.

Question 35

What are some consequences of the Canadian government making FN ward of the government under the Indian Act?

Answer 35

• it gave them the status of minors so they would not have the same citizenship rights
• discouraged FN leadership and each reserve was to have a band council
• participation of women and Elders in gov’t was not allowed
• act defined who would have Indian status and only status Indians were eligible for the provisions under the act
• women who married non Indians were no longer status Indians and their children weren’t either
• any FN person who got a degree, joined the clergy or the military had to give up their status
• government controlled most financial matters on reserves and their children were required to attend residential schools
• some traditional FN ceremonies were banned as well

Question 36

How do you think the system of elections and band councils changed FN traditions and ways of life? What traditional aspects continued?

Answer 36

gender equality did not continue, FN did not previously hold elections and leaders were chose by a numver of factors such as their skills, experience, and hereditary stauts.
Same: elections process allowed leaders to still be chose because of those things, but they were chosen by elections instead

Question 37

In what ways do you think the pass system affected the lives of FN people? What long-term consequences miht the pass system have had?

Answer 37

they had previously been allowed to roam freely throughout the entirety of the nation, not be restricted to a certain area and forced to stay there. Long term consequences would be them losing their traditional hunting and land use traditions and the loss of their connection with the land as well s the build up of animosity betwen FN and the gov’t.

Question 38

Descrive and explain how the reserve system resulted in long-term consequences for the FN people?

Answer 38

the lands they were allocated were not always suited for agriculture so theycouldn’t produce. The property was owned by British Crown (RPC) so they couldn’t sell or mortage it to make money. Residential schools completely pressured many children to disregard their traditional culture and stole them away from their families. So amny of their ceremonies were banned and their culture was completely ignored. They lost their traditional lands and hunting rituals because of reserves. They were discouraged from obtaining a university degree because they would then lose their status as an Indian (dependent on terms of their specific treaty).

Question 39

Three examples of Eurocentric attituded or behavior. In what ways was the Indian Act a continuation of these attitudes? What made the act a change from prior policies?

Answer 39

1) the missionaries (Jesuits and Recollettes).
2) Enfranchisement Act.
3) The Red River and North West Revellion.
The Indian act was a continuation of these attitudes because they were still trying to convert Indians to Christianity, to make them European. In these situations, as well as in the Indian Act, the goal was always assimilation because the Europeans felt as if they were superior to the FN and Metis peoples. TThe Indian Act is a change from former policies because even though it still aims to strip them of the Indian culture, it does benefit the FN in some ways, ilike allowing them to negotiate a bit, free education, medicine chests, and protecting them from some of the more disgusting parts of European culture, like the consumption of alcohol, so that their traditional values could, once again, fourish.