Colonization
When Europeans first arrived in northern North America they saw it as a terra nullius - empty land - but in reality it was a complex environment containing many cultures and communities. On the west coast the peoples had built societies of wealth and sophistication with plentiful resources from the sea and forest; in the prairies and northern tundra, the aborigines lived off the vast herds of buffalo and caribou; in central Canada the forests were home to peoples who harvested wild rice from the marshes and grew corn, squash and beans by the rivers, supplementing their harvest with fishing and hunting; on the east coast and in the far north, the sea and land supplied their needs, and with incredible ingenuity enabled the inhabitants to survive harsh conditions. Encounters between aboriginal and nonaboriginal people began to increase in number and complexity in the 1500s. There was an increased exchange of goods, trade deals, friendships and intermarriage as well as military and trade alliances. For at least two hundred years, the newcomers would not have been able to survive the rigours of the climate, succeed in their businesses (fishing, whaling, fur trading), or dodge each other's bullets, without aboriginal help. Meanwhile diseases (typhoid, influenza, diptheria, plague, measles, tuberculosis, venereal disease and scarlet fever) killed tens of thousands - it is estimated that within a 200-year period aboriginal populations were reduced by as much as 95 percent. As the fur trade intensified, the animal populations were wiped out in certain areas. This not only removed the traditional hunting practices but sparked off inter-tribal wars , all the more bloody now firearms were involved. During this period, the French and British were few in number, the land seemed inhospitable and they feared attack from the aboriginal nations surrounding them. They were also fighting wars for trade and dominance - they needed alliances with Indian nations, so many treaties were consequently negotiated. The treaties seemed to recognize the nationhood of aboriginal peoples and their equality but also demanded the authority of the monarch and, increasingly, the ceding of large tracts of land (particularly to British control for settlement and protection from seizure by the French and Americans). Usually what was agreed orally differed from what actually appeared in the treaties. The aborigines did accept the monarch, but only as a kind of kin figure, a distant "protector" who could be called on to safeguard their interests and enforce treaty agreements. They had no notion of giving up their land, a concept foreign to aboriginal cultures: In my language, there is no word for "surrender". There is no word. I cannot describe "surrender" to you in my language, so how do you expect my people to [have] put their X on "surrender"?
- Chief Francois Paulette. In 1763, the Royal Proclamation was a defining document in the relationship between the natives and the newcomers. Issued in the name of the king, it summarized the rules and regulations that were to govern British dealings with the aboriginal peoples - especially in relation to the question of land. It stated that aboriginal people were not to be "molested or disturbed" on their lands. Transactions involving aboriginal land were to be negotiated properly between the Crown and "assemblies of Indians". Aboriginal lands were to be acquired only by fair dealing: treaty, or purchase by the Crown. The aboriginal nations were portrayed as autonomous political entities, with their own internal political authority. Allowing for British settlement, it still safeguarded the rights of the aborigines. By the 1800s, the relationship between aboriginal and nonaboriginal people began to tilt on its foundation of rough equality. Through immigration the number of settlers was swelling, while disease and poverty continued to diminish aboriginal populations - by 1812, whites outnumbered indigenous people in Upper Canada by ten to one. The fur trade, which was established on a solid economic partnership between traders and trappers, was a declining industry. The new economy was based on timber, mining and agriculture and it needed land from the natives, who began to be seen as "impediments to progress". Colonial governments in Upper and Lower Canada no longer needed military allies, the British were victors in Canada, and the USA had won its independence. There was also a new attitude of European superiority over all other peoples and policies of domination and assimilation slowly replaced those of partnership. Ironically, the transformation from respectful coexistence to domination by nonaboriginal laws and institutions began with the main instruments of the partnership: the treaties and the Royal Proclamation of 1763. These documents offered aboriginal people not only peace and friendship, respect and approximate equality, but also "protection". Protection was the leading edge of domination. At first, it meant preservation of aboriginal lands and cultural integrity from encroachment by settlers. Later, it meant "assistance", a code word implying an encouragement to stop being a part of aboriginal society and merge into the settler society. Protection took the form of compulsory education, economic adjustment programmes, social and political control by federal agents, and much more. These policies, combined with missionary efforts to civilize and convert, tore wide holes in aboriginal cultures, autonomy and identity
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