[MUSIC] The Royal Proclamation of 1763 is one of the first significant legal documents defining the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the British. Following the Seven Years War, the British worked to create a framework for defining their relationship with Indigenous peoples that would reassure the First Peoples of their inherent rights to their land. The British sought to avoid further conflict and loss of life, and so wanted Indigenous groups to believe that they would still have sovereignty over their land, that they would be able to continue to hunt and maintain their way of life, while also participating in economic trade. The British sought to establish a firm relationship with Indigenous allies by protecting their land rights and providing them with annual gifts of guns and ammunition. Remember, previous relationships did exist between Indigenous peoples and Europeans through treaties, trade, and intermarriage. But for newcomers these types of relationships were irrelevant and seemed to give license for anyone to change the unwritten terms of land acquisition in order to serve their own interests. The Proclamation states that all land west or northwest of any river that flowed into the Atlantic Ocean still belonged to Indigenous peoples and could not be appropriated by anyone without their consent. Further, the Proclamation went on to say that the only people who could actually negotiate land transfers on behalf of the British were King George and his officers. So, no private citizen could enter into any kind of agreement for land with an Indigenous group. No one could just make an offer or take over land, and that was made very clear in the Proclamation. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was a significant piece of British legislation that recognized that Indigenous people had inhabited the land for centuries prior to the arrival of the French and British settlers. It set aside a large swath of land for Indigenous peoples in eastern North America. While the governance of Quebec is mentioned, the Proclamation makes no mention of British political influence over Indigenous matters. This suggests that Indigenous peoples retained political independence. The Royal Proclamation further declared that any non-Indigenous person previously settled on land that had not been ceded or sold to the British would be required to leave that land. The Proclamation also acknowledged that it wanted to prevent further frauds and abuses of unceded territory. In terms of the economy, unrestricted trade with Indigenous people was allowed and encouraged, but settlers had to get a license to do so. If the terms of trade were abused, the offender would lose their license. It was the intent of the Proclamation to allow Indigenous peoples to maintain their way of life. Are the rights from the Royal Proclamation relevant today? Section 35 of the 1982 Constitution Act was written to reaffirm the rights of Indigenous peoples. However, the Proclamation is still valid today, as no legislation specifically overrides or repeals it. Canadian courts and Indigenous nations disagree with the interpretation of those rights. The result of this has been repeated court battles and disagreements over who has land rights, subsistence rights claims, and Aboriginal jurisdiction over matters such as fisheries and wildlife management. The concept of civilization emerged in 18th century Europe to describe complex, centralized societies removed and disassociated from the natural environment. For Europeans, a civilized person meant a cultural identity focused around Christianity, technology, and settled lifestyles. Decentralized and tribal societies were often considered primitive, and therefore uncivilized in the eyes of European explorers. Furthermore, a byproduct of the European concept of civilization is a hierarchical ranking of civilizations. These ideologies may be mobilized by knowledge contained in academic disciplines, mythology, common sense, and travellers’ tales. European explorers arriving in Canada encountered a society that operated much differently from theirs. For many Europeans, Indigenous societies were considered uncivilized and even barbaric. Europeans operated within a system that valued money and possessions, Christian faith, obedience to the authority of government, and a punitive system of law. For Europeans, this lifestyle defined true civilization. Anything else was considered a less advanced form of civilization. Europeans tended to believe in the need to save souls. With their humanitarian impulse toward redemption, they viewed Indigenous primitives as perfect subjects worthy of civilization. Often the idea of civilization is very limited. The lack of understanding of different worldviews and perspectives may breed fear, and therefore a need for control and power. In the Western worldview, civilization is commonly defined as an advanced state of human society, which includes high levels of culture, science, industry and government. Indigenous people's world views understand humans to have social and spiritual relationships with all things in the world around them. As such, it is unlikely they would concern themselves with the European interpretation of civilization, given that the term is based on being set apart from nature. In an Indigenous view, the land is a place to be nurtured for future generations. It is not something to be dominated, tamed, or pillaged. For Indigenous people civilization links their ancestors, family, other living entities, the land, and ceremony to the values of harmony, accountability, and responsibility to the community. As for its cultural characteristics, Indigenous civilization would include concepts of respect, gratitude, and sharing. For example, the creation of political alliances with other families, camps or tribes over areas of common concern, such as the sharing of a salmon run. Structures have always existed to help manage the flow of activity between mobile hunting groups, settled farming communities, and more urban groups. Every civilization has critical components, among them, education, law, currency, family, and healthcare. As we saw previously, the word civilization evokes a sense of order in societies. It's not just laws that help maintain a civilized state; laws govern behaviour. As well, there are governing mechanisms in place to carry out business, trade, education, and healthcare in relative cooperation and harmony. Organization was about order, not power or control, or ownership of goods and land. It was about ensuring survival of everyone, not each for themselves. It was about respectful coexistence and consumption based on need, not the coveting of resources. The idea that resources and land could or should be owned was not part of most Indigenous worldviews. The concept of individual ownership conflicted with cultural imperatives of sharing and non-competitiveness. The overall health and needs of a community came before individual needs. These imperatives, viewed by Westerners as uncivilized, served to prevent people from becoming all powerful or greedy. Education is another area in which Indigenous customs were viewed as uncivilized by Western standards. Education is valued, but the structure is very different. Children are encouraged to observe and then put what they've learned into practice. For the most part, the instruction is non-verbal. Education is about preparing children for life and to think independently rather than obediently following instructions. Finally, as we learned in a previous chapter, Indigenous practices of law are carried out in a dramatically different manner than Western colonial societies. Indigenous legal systems are based on taking responsibility for one's actions and making restitution to those who have been wronged. These systems were in place for thousands of years prior to the arrival of the Europeans in North America, and as a result, Indigenous peoples thrived. If indeed civilization is the key to a good life, then this outcome suggests that a revision of the term is required to include the above mentioned qualities of Indigenous civilizations. In the history of Native and non-Native interaction, Indigenous civilizations, or ways of life, were vigorously undermined by European settlement, laws, and policy. This led to conflict and mutual distrust. Remember when we talked about the Royal Proclamation of 1763? It all sounded pretty amazing for Indigenous peoples in Canada. They were to have rights to a significant portion of the land they occupied, and they were supposed to be able to continue to live unimpeded as they had for thousands of years. What if I moved into your neighbourhood, used your yard and driveway for my own purposes and then imposed a whole new set of laws, telling you, you are not allowed to drive a car, or go outside and play, or cut your hair, go to church, or even school for that matter. You would almost certainly be angry and afraid of what might be next. Well that's exactly what happened to the Indigenous groups who experienced early colonization. Despite the Proclamation of 1763, the British began to assert themselves forcefully, choosing in many cases to completely ignore that which they themselves declare to be law. The impetus for the British to solidify their geographical position in North America was American independence. When the United States formed, it became important for loyalists to prevent American expansion northward and so it wasn't long before the colonizers laid claim to vast amounts of land from coast to coast that, according to the Proclamation, was not theirs to take. Between 1776 and 1884, a great many new settlers arrived in Nova Scotia and many land disputes arose. Despite the Proclamation, which aimed to protect Indigenous property and lifestyle, the boundaries of traditional territories were made unclear, as land for Indigenous people was not officially surveyed. As a result, settlers continued to station themselves wherever they pleased. Further west in Quebec, Indigenous land was also being claimed by non-Indigenous peoples. This happened often, particularly after the British passed the British North America Act in 1867, allowing Lower Canada to further ignore the guidelines of the Royal Proclamation, thereby securing land for arriving loyalists. The British attempted to create a fur desert across the 49th parallel to keep out the Yankees. This meant that they effectively depleted the fur resources along this border across the Plains to make it less desirable for settlement by the Americans, thus cementing their claim to the land. Even further west roamed bands of white mountain men patrolling Oregon country and the Pacific Northwest to further discourage American advancement. Even as far west as Vancouver Island, development proceeded with the intention to keep out Americans. These efforts to prevent American expansion were evidence of the British desire to exert control over as much land as possible, regardless of previously existing treaties and agreements. But as we'll see in the next lesson, this wasn't the only way that the colonizers secured their place in Canada. To maintain longterm control of the country, it was also crucial for the British to establish power in a social context. This included the promotion of a farming lifestyle, a British system of law, and restrictive land title policies. [MUSIC]
