ENVB 437 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Innu, Food Security, Nunavut Land Claims Agreement
4 Jun 2018
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Indigenous History in North America
● People could have arrived in North America via Beringian land bridge, or could have taken a coastal route
down the coasts (Kelp Highway hypothesis)
● Indigenous people in Canada include 3 main groups: Inuit, First Nations People (Cree, Ojibwe, Iroquois, etc.),
Metis (of both First Nation and European ancestry)
● Colonization fueled by demand for beaver pelts and salt cod
● Mercantilism: raw products go from colony to mother country for processing, then products returned to be sold
in colonies
● 1497 John Cabot lands in Newfoundland
● 1534 Jacques Cartier first traveled to Gulf of St. Lawrence
● 1608: Champlain founds Quebec City
● 1611: Henry Hudson set adrift in James Bay
● 1670: Hudson Bay Company founded
○ British strategy: let indigenous come to us for trade
○ French strategy: voyageurs travel into indigenous territory to trap on their own
● 1701: Great Peace of Montreal ends the beaver wars, and French begin to cooperate with indigenous people
● 1713: Treaty of Utrecht signed, France ceded Acadia and Hudson’s Bay to Britain
● 1763: Treaty of Paris signed, ending Seven Year’s War, France loses French Canada
● 1763: Royal Proclamation guarantees sovereignty to First Nations west of Appalachians
○ Upsets American colonies, this guarantee gets lost after Revolutionary War
● 1783: Treaty of Paris gives US independence, starts Manifest Destiny (idea North America is for American
colonization)
● 1867: Canada becomes confederated, NL and BC join later
● 1871-1921: The Number Treaties signed, ceding land and eliminating rights in exchange for reserve lands and
other compensation– traditional lifestyle often a key feature
● 1876: Battle of Little Bighorn in USA
● 1876: Indian Act creates federal definition of “status”, outlines “reserves”, later Residential Schools added
○ This is Canadian government’s formal response to The Number Treaties
○ “Status” gives definitions of what an indigenous person is
● 1869: Red River Rebellion leads to creation of Manitoba
○ Métis were upset after confederation because they mostly spoke French or native language
● 1953: High Arctic Inuit Resettlement
○ Partly in response to fears about Russian aggression in Cold War
○ Indigenous people moved to far north (e.g. Resolute, Eureka)
● 1975: James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement set out first modern land claims agreement
○ Land claims: more sharing of rights, responsibilities, etc. than contained in treaties
○ In response to desire to build hydropower dams in N. QC
● 1982: Canada patriates its constitutions
○ Makes all agreements made to date constitutional – e.g. to modify legislation like the Indian Act
requires constitutional change– highly protected, but highly inflexible
● 1993: Nunavut Land Claims Agreement signed, Territory created in 1999
● 1996: Last residential school closes
● 2002: “New Agreement” in Quebec replaces James Bay Northern Quebec Agreement
○ Signed by James Bay Cree and Inuit
Compensation in EIA
● Substitutability: can a benefit of a project substitute for an impact
○ E.g. can energy from Tar Sands substitute for the loss of a place to go canoeing
● Commensurability: is compensation an “equal trade” for what is lost
○ E.g. is giving money to buy meat from store an equal trade for loss of caribou hunting
Document Summary
People could have arrived in north america via beringian land bridge, or could have taken a coastal route down the coasts (kelp highway hypothesis) Indigenous people in canada include 3 main groups: inuit, first nations people (cree, ojibwe, iroquois, etc. Metis (of both first nation and european ancestry) Colonization fueled by demand for beaver pelts and salt cod. Mercantilism: raw products go from colony to mother country for processing, then products returned to be sold in colonies. 1534 jacques cartier first traveled to gulf of st. lawrence. 1611: henry hudson set adrift in james bay. British strategy: let indigenous come to us for trade. French strategy: voyageurs travel into indigenous territory to trap on their own. 1701: great peace of montreal ends the beaver wars, and french begin to cooperate with indigenous people. 1713: treaty of utrecht signed, france ceded acadia and hudson"s bay to britain. 1763: treaty of paris signed, ending seven year"s war, france loses french canada.
