COMMEMORATING THE TREATIES

The commemorative events for the anniversaries of Treaties One and Two required flexible planning this year, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Some events were planned locally in First Nations communities, while others were organized jointly among the historic Treaty partner representatives.

On August 3, representatives of the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba and of the Treaty One Nation (which includes all seven First Nations signatories to Treaty One) gathered with Canadian and Manitoba government officials for a commemorative event at Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site (also known as the Stone Fort).

The event began with a pipe ceremony and a drum song, followed by a formal flag-raising ceremony. Each flag was lowered to half-mast in memory of the Indigenous children who died in residential schools. Indigenous horse riders Oyaate Techa conducted an Honour Ride.

“We are not only celebrating the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of Treaty One in 1871, we are also renewing and affirming the Treaty relationship that is a central building block of Confederation,” Grand Chief Arlen Dumas of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said in a speech during the event.

Dennis Meeches, the Chief of Long Plain First Nation, told the CBC: “The Treaty hasn’t always been good to or kind to Indigenous people, as what it should have been intended when our ancestors signed this Treaty. They believed they’d have true partnership, true sovereignty. A sovereign nation within a sovereign state. All that was basically thrown out the door before the ink was even dry.”

Loretta Ross, Treaty Commissioner for the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba, presented new Treaty medals to representatives of each Treaty One First Nation.

Various Treaty Two nations planned commemoration events, each reiterating the sovereign nation-to-nation relationship that resulted in the making of Treaty Two.

Amid the commemorations, questions persist — questions such as: Why is Treaty Two not being commemorated at the same level as Treaty One? Why hasn’t Manitoba House become a historical site of significance? These are legitimate inquiries. Perhaps this article will give context to some of the questions being posed.