Treaty Basics
Agreements between the Crown and Indigenous peoples that confirm peaceful coexistence, land/resource sharing, and authority.
What are treaties?
Long before Europeans, Indigenous nations practiced these agreements with each other and with animal nations.
What are inter-nation treaties?
The Crown often treated treaties as this kind of transaction.
What is the purchase of land?
Agreements that establish new relationships between Indigenous peoples and the state.
What are modern treaties?
Land that was never given or signed away, but instead taken.
What is unceded land?
Beaded items that visually record and symbolize agreements.
What are wampum belts?
Elders say you don’t just “sign” one of these — you “make” it.
What is a sacred agreement?
Indigenous nations saw historic treaties as a way to achieve this.
What is sharing land and peace-building?
Beyond dividing land, modern treaties require these with local governments.
What are planning partnerships?
Courts have recognized this about Indigenous peoples’ presence before colonization.
What is prior occupation?
What provides the only legal basis for settlers to live on Indigenous lands.
What is treaty consent?
The reason Indigenous nations didn’t view treaties as selling land — they saw themselves as this.
What is inseparable from the land and waters?
This wampum belt symbolized peace between Indigenous nations and European settlers.
What is the Two Row Wampum?
The first Inuit modern treaty, signed in 1975.
What is the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement?
The fact that Indigenous nations lived on these territories for thousands of years before Canada.
What is continuous habitation?
The foundation of all treaty-making, built through agreements and cooperation.
What is relationship-building?
The ongoing duties that treaties require meaning you get, but also give.
What is reciprocity?
What Indigenous nations were often left with after historic treaties.
What are very limited lands and resources?
The Inuvialuit Final Agreement (1984) was connected to these proposed projects.
What is hydroelectric, oil, and gas projects?
Even in unceded areas, Indigenous nations continue to carry out this role.
What is stewardship of land and resources?
These are three core treaty values which start with the letter "R."
What are reciprocity, renewal, and respect?
These non-written forms of knowledge help us uphold treaty promises today.
What are oral histories?
The Crown’s long-term goal for historic treaties was to colonize while restricting this.
What is Indigenous sovereignty?
Indigenous leaders accepted imperfect modern treaties to secure these two things.
What are incremental change and self-determination?
Ongoing negotiations in British Columbia show this about Canada’s land agreements.
What is that not all of Canada is covered by treaties?