Treaty Law

"A well-known member of the circle of Confederation poets, Duncan Campbell Scott is generally considered a kind-hearted and sympathetic portrayer of the nobility of the Canadian Indian. But his real belief about the conditions and future of Canada's Native people is revealed in his official writings during his long tenure as Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs.

"In February 1992, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples issued a commentary entitled The Right of Aboriginal Self-Government and the Constitution. The aim of that commentary was to discuss the then current proposals for constitutional reform as those bore upon the right of Aboriginal peoples to govern themselves. In the commentary we set out a number of criteria to be satisfied by any constitutional provision dealing with the Aboriginal right of self-government; we also reviewed a variety of ways to accommodate that right explicitly in the Constitution.

"Under the editorial direction of Jack Woodward, this work continues to bring together a timely consolidation of the significant statutes, regulations and treaties that have an impact on the area of native law. Additionally, this text contains helpful finding tools, including a detailed master table of contents, a table of contents for each statute and a comprehensive key word index, which simplify research." - Provided by publisher

"In past treaties, the Aboriginal people of Canada surrendered title to their lands in return for guarantees that their traditional ways of life would be protected. Since the 1950s, governments have reneged on these commitments in order to acquire more land and water for hydroelectric development.

"This volume addresses a wide range of topics related to Aboriginal resource use, ranging from the pre-contact period to the present. The papers were originally presented at a conference held in 1988 at the University of Winnipeg. Co-editor Kerry Abel has written an introduction that outlines the main themes of the book. She points out that it is difficult to know what the enshrinement of Aboriginal rights in the Canadian Constitution means without knowing exactly what constituted the Aboriginal interest in the land past and present.

"On the making of our modern Indian treaties. An emotional and personal approach to the outcomes of the modern treaty process in Canada. Profiles on First Nations blend with input from resource developers and governments as the program weaves our tale of land ownership and forecasts our economic future.

"The Nisga'a agreement -in-principle, B.C.'s first modern-day treaty, is good for all Canadians, says Chief Joseph Gosnell.

Negotiators for the Nisga'a Tribal Council, Canada,and British Columbia signed the agreement-in-principle (AIP) on February 15, 1996, in Vancouver. Once the AIP is ratified it will form the basis for negotiations of a final agreement and implementation of the treaty.

"In conventional histories of the Canadian prairies, Native people disappear from view after the Riel Rebellions. In this groundbreaking study, Frank Tough examines the role of Native peoples, both Indian and Métis, in the economy of northern Manitoba from Treaty 1 to the Depression. He argues that they did not become economically obsolete but rather played an important role in the transitional era between the mercantile fur trade and the emerging industrial economy of the mid-twentieth century.

An independent assessment of the expected range of financial and economic impacts associated with the settlement of treaties and subsequent self-government by First Nations in B.C.

"A monolingual Cree speaker from Onion Lake, Saskatchewan, Kâ-pimwêwêhahk / Jim Jim Kâ-Nîpitêhtêw was a highly respected orator; in later years he served as senior member of the Council of Elders at the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College in Saskatoon. His discourses have great force an authority, and no speeches of similar scope of depth have ever been published in their original form. In these eight speeches, Kâ-pimwêwêhahk speaks of his concerns for young people, the proper performance of rituals, and also gives an account of the signing of Treaty Six.