07.2 found 2 records - Research Collections - Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

Abstract: Between 1869 and 1877 the government of Canada negotiated Treaties One through Seven with the Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains. Many historians argue that the negotiations suffered from cultural misunderstandings between the treaty commissioners and Indigenous chiefs, but newly uncovered eyewitness accounts show that the Canadian government had a strategic plan to deceive over the "surrender clause" and land sharing. According to Sheldon Krasowski's research, Canada understood that the Cree, Anishnabeg, Saulteaux, Assiniboine, Siksika, Piikani, Kainaa, Stoney and Tsuu T'ina nations wanted to share the land with newcomers--with conditions--but were misled over governance, reserved lands, and resource sharing. Exposing the government chicanery at the heart of the negotiations, No Surrender demonstrates that the land remains Indigenous. (from U of R Press website)

Contents: The numbered treaties in historical context : "Our dream is that one day our peoples will be clearly recognized as nations" -- Treaties One and Two and the outside promise : "The loyalty which costs nothing is worth nothing" -- Treaty Three : The North-West Angle Treaty : "I take off my glove to give you my hand to sign the treaty" -- Treaties Four and Five : the Fort Qu'Appelle and Lake Winnipeg treaties, 1874 and 1875 : "The Treaties should be Canada's Magna Carta" -- Treaty Six : the Treaty of Forts Carlton and Pitt : "I want to hold the treaty we made with the Queen" -- Treaty Seven : the Blackfoot Crossing treaty : "The great spirit and not the great mother gave us this land" -- As long as the sun shines : "An everlasting grasp of her [the Queen's] hand."

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Abstract: What do local conflicts about land rights tell us about Indigenous-settler relations and the challenges and possibilities of decolonization? In Unsettled Expectations, Eva Mackey draws on ethnographic case studies about land rights conflicts in Canada and the U.S. to argue that critical analysis of present-day disputes over land, belonging and sovereignty will help us understand how colonization is reproduced today and how to challenge it. Employing theoretical approaches from Indigenous and settler colonial studies, and in the context of critical historical and legal analysis, Mackey urges us to rethink the assumptions of settler certainty that underpin current conflicts between settlers and Indigenous peoples and reveals settler privilege to be a doomed fantasy of entitlement. Finally, Mackey draws on case studies of Indigenous-settler alliances to show how embracing difficult uncertainty can be an integral part of undoing settler privilege and a step toward decolonization. (from Fernwood Publishing website)

Contents: Part one. Contact zones and the settler colonial present -- Introduction : settler colonialism and contested homelands -- 1. Genealogies of certainty and uncertainty -- 2. Fantasizing and legitimating possession -- Part two. Ontological uncertainties and resurgent colonialism -- Introduction : unsettled feelings and communities -- 3. Defending expectations -- 4. Settler jurisdictional imaginaries in practice : equality, law, race and multiculturalism -- Part three. Imagining otherwise : embracing settler uncertainty -- Introduction : treaty as a verb -- 5. "Turning the doctrine of discovery on its head" : the Onondoga land rights action -- 6. Creative uncertainty and decolonizing relations -- Epilogue -- References -- Index.

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