Treaty

Treaty was and is ultimately about making relatives of newcomers. Indigenous people will often ask people “where are you from?” This is to see if and how you are related to them. Kinship is important to Indigenous people. Kinship is about making people family, which means you respect them. Indigenous people recognize kinship to people, animals, and the land. If someone or something is your relative, you know how you are to treat them. Treaties are living agreements between two nations of people that agree to respect each other as family.  

Indigenous people on Ministik, what Nehiyawak call North, Central, and South America, made Treaties with one another since the beginning of time. When Europeans came, we had practices to create a Treaty through our ceremonies. For example, often when a Treaty was created with Europeans, everyone would participate in a pipe ceremony because our belief is that when the pipe is smoked that Creator watches over what is happening and what was promised.  

Only nations are eligible to make Treaties, which showed that Indigenous people were recognized as such by Europeans. Europeans had their own legal practices to make a Treaty, which upheld the written text of an agreement. Many of the poems featured in this playlist, such as Billy-Ray Belcourt’s “Treaty 8” and Matthew James Weigel’s “On the Boundaries of Treaty No. 6” play with the tension between the written text and Indigenous understandings of Treaty.  

From the Indigenous side, land was not given up in these agreements. Through Treaty, both sides agreed to share the land and to live in peace together. We know that this was not upheld, as peace has been broken through residential schools, stolen land, and other forms of racism. Marvin Francis’ poems poke fun at the Treaty process, which many Indigenous people view as a scam. “19”  by Brandi Bird, “The Second Time” by Rosanna Deerchild, and “Saskatchewan Indians Were Dancing” by Marie Annharte Baker all show how Treaty has not been followed by non-Indigenous people.  

While you listen to or read these poems, think about how you have kinship with the land and Indigenous people. What do these poems teach you about Indigenous understanding of Treaty? How have they been broken? How can Treaty guide us to living together as a respectful family on Ministik?