Quote:
Originally Posted by TheIronMaiden
There was and is a robust legal framework that justifies the displacement of of Indigenous nations from their land in North America.
Because this is a Calgary based forum, I will start with Treaty 7, which is still used to define land ownership and the land based rights of Indigenous peoples. It was signed in 1877 and allowed for a peaceable construction of a trans-continental railway, and peaceable settlement. While the agreement enriched settler society it further impoverished the Blackfoot confederacy and Stoney nation, and all but ignored Metis Land rights.
In fact in Alberta, all land ownerships rights have been transferred to the Crown it was the first province to do so. finalizing their agreement in 1905.
It is Legally sound document, but morally wrong, and allowed for several on going abuses of Indigenous peoples.
Now, if you were from British Columbia, or the Provinces east of Ontario, the legal agreements of land transfer do not exist. This is why they call it unceded land. In the Maritimes they suggest that they're land ownership was won through conquest. Being that most Indigenous nations were killed ( and diseased) to near extinction there nearly 500 years ago ( see the beothuk or Huron) the legal and moral balance is more complicated.
However, In BC, it is a cluster #### because just over 100 years ago, they Britain stole the land and the legal ramifications of such have only been allowed to make it to court in any successful manner in the 1980s. Previous to then it was seen as legally sound ( but morally wrong) to consider the hereditary land rights of Nations in BC as non existent. That said. The current supreme court has a very favorable interpretation of the hereditary rights of Indigenous peoples, and the political will of Settler Society at large is less hostile than it has ever been. In the next 50 years we will see some big decisions come in that province.
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Seriously?
Do you think those treaties were negotiated fairly? Do you justify indigenous people being pushed onto reserves that make up a fraction of a percent of the land because of these treaties? Did the indigenous people negotiate residential schools?
How do you even sign away indigenous rights like that? One person makes a decision and then the indigenous rights for all of the people and their descendants are gone forever?