Treaties, Cooperation and Conflict

Making promises between nations

Have you ever made an agreement with a friend? Maybe: "You can use my bike if I can use your skates." You both make promises, and you both have to keep them.

A treaty is a very important agreement between nations. Many treaties were made between First Nations and the Crown (the British government). These treaties are still in effect today. They are part of the laws of Canada!

The Two Row Wampum

The Haudenosaunee record important agreements in wampum belts, woven from shell beads. One famous belt is the Two Row Wampum, from an agreement with Dutch traders that Haudenosaunee history dates to 1613.

The belt has two rows of purple beads on a background of white beads:

• One purple row is a canoe, carrying the Haudenosaunee people, their laws and their ways.
• The other purple row is a ship, carrying the Europeans, their laws and their ways.
• The two boats travel side by side down the river of life, in peace, friendship and respect. Neither one tries to steer the other's boat.

The Haudenosaunee later shared this belt's message with the British. It shows how they understood treaties: two peoples living side by side, respecting each other.

Treaties in this period

As more settlers came, the Crown wanted more land. It made many treaties with First Nations, often called land purchases. Here are a few:

Two different understandings

When a treaty was made, the two sides often understood it differently:

• Many First Nations saw a treaty as an agreement to share the land and to build a lasting relationship of respect, like the Two Row Wampum. They kept the agreement in wampum belts and oral history.
• The Crown often wrote down that First Nations had given up ("surrendered") the land forever. The papers were in English, a language many First Nations leaders did not read, and translations were not always good.

Also, many promises were broken. This is why many treaty issues are still being talked about, and fixed, today.

In Ontario, the first week of November is Treaties Recognition Week. Many people say: "We are all treaty people." That means everyone who lives here, not just First Nations, is part of the treaty relationship and has a responsibility to respect it.

Cooperation

Communities in this period often worked together:

• The fur trade: First Nations and Métis trappers, guides and traders worked with European traders. Europeans depended on First Nations knowledge: canoes, snowshoes, routes, foods and plant medicines.
• Families: many European traders married First Nations women. Their families helped form the Métis Nation.
• The War of 1812: when the United States invaded Upper Canada, many First Nations were allies of Britain. The Shawnee leader Tecumseh fought beside the British. Haudenosaunee warriors fought at the Battle of Queenston Heights, and First Nations warriors, most of them Mohawk from Kahnawake, won the Battle of Beaver Dams in 1813, after Laura Secord walked a long way to warn the British. Black soldiers of the Coloured Corps helped defend Upper Canada too.
• Helping neighbours: the Six Nations shared land with the Mississaugas of the Credit in 1847. People on the Underground Railroad helped freedom seekers.

Conflict

There was also conflict:

• Settlers moved onto First Nations land, sometimes even without a treaty, and promises were broken.
• In 1849, Anishinaabe and Métis people at Mica Bay, on Lake Superior, took over a mine that had been built on their land without permission. This protest helped lead to the Robinson Treaties in 1850.
• The War of 1812 was a war between Britain and the United States. Many people on all sides died. After the war, Britain no longer needed First Nations as military allies, and even more of their land was taken for settlers.
• Black settlers faced racism from some white neighbours.
• In 1837 and 1838, some settlers in Upper and Lower Canada rebelled against the government, because they felt it was unfair and controlled by a few powerful people.