Lunch and Learn presentation highlights 150th anniversary of Treaty 4
The importance of being treaty people was highlighted during a presentation at the Swift Current Museum about Treaty 4.
Historian and former museum director Hugh Henry was the speaker at the museum’s monthly Lunch & Learn, April 17.
“This year is going to be the 150th anniversary of the initial signing of Treaty 4,” he said afterwards about his talk. “So I thought it was an opportunity for people to come and learn a bit about what has happened over the years that relate to the treaty.”
His presentation provided the historical context that resulted in treaty negotiations and the eventual signing of Treaty 4 at Fort Qu’Appelle on Sept. 15, 1874. He referred to the terms of the treaty and adhesions to the treaty by Indigenous bands who were not present at the initial signing or only later decided to agree to it.
He spoke about the difficulties experienced by Indigenous people afterwards when treaty implementation was delayed or did not take place as expected, as well as their loss of land through treaty land surrenders.
The Constitution Act of 1982 recognized and affirmed the treaty rights of Indigenous people in Canada. The presentation referred to various legal developments since then to deal with claims settlements, which is an ongoing process for many First Nations who want to address the breaches of the Crown’s legal obligations in relation to treaties.
The Treaty 4 area covers most of southern Saskatchewan, including Swift Current and the southwest corner of the province, as well as small portions of southern Alberta and western Manitoba.
He felt it is important to learn more about Treaty 4 within the broader discussion of ways to take steps towards reconciliation.
“We’ve heard terminology about being all treaty people and we quite often give a land acknowledgement when we’re gathering as a group,” he said. “So just to help people understand why it’s important to do that and the reasons for it. And because of the 150th anniversary, I thought it was a great opportunity to spell it out a bit.”
He consulted a variety of sources and publications in preparation for his talk. He noted that the information is quite easily available through a library and through doing an online search.
“I learned a lot in the whole process,” he said. “You might be on a certain topic like treaty land entitlement and then that’ll sort of lead you into another area that you hadn’t thought of before.”
He referred to the recently published book Cheated, which is co-authored by well-known Canadian historian Bill Waiser, that provides a whole new perspective on the issue of land surrenders.
“I read that and got an idea of the government involvement and the reasons for why First Nations would dispose of some of their reserve land,” Henry said. “So you follow the trail a little bit and go from one book to the other to get specific information.”
His research provided him with a sense of the different ways in which government representatives and First Nations leaders viewed the treaty negotiations.
“The government side of it was very scripted,” he said. “The treaties were written beforehand. So it was all written out and they had a couple of blanks to fill in, depending on numbers. It wasn’t really a negotiation. It was a take it or leave it.”
He therefore felt that discussions in the run-up to the signing of a treaty was merely bargaining about the details and not what can be considered to be real negotiation.
“It was a bit of bargaining about numbers, quantities, locations of reserves, that sort of thing,” he said. “All the First Nations could do is try to define what’s the benefit to them and that’s where the language disparity comes into it. The concept of what do we mean by this and what is understood is going to happen into the future. There was the concept of we’re partners now, but the government never saw it that way. It was about building Canada and the First Nations were not really thought of as being part of that future.”
It was only much later that the process got underway to address those expectations of First Nations in relation to the original treaties.
“From the 1980s onward there’s finally a realization that there’s some wrongs here that need to be righted in terms of going back to the treaties and what was signed for,” he said. “So now the negotiations carry on with these different tribunals and ways of settling claims based on what was initially expected.”
Henry therefore felt that treaties are front and centre in the process of reconciliation and renewed relationships.
“There’s a fairness that has to happen, there are wrongs done in the past and they have to be corrected,” he said. “That’s part of reconciliation but it’s not just dealing with the past. It’s dealing with the future. How do you go hand in hand, be respectful and pay attention to others’ needs. That’s what’s going to make a successful country, if everybody gets together.”
Lunch & Learn at the Swift Current Museum takes place on the third Wednesday of each month at noon. There is a lunch fee, but the talk is free.