These are heated issues – and for good reason: any issue that deals with territory deals with collective identity and what makes a people, a nation
To understand the issue, first we need to sort it out. Who owns the land and the territory? Wasn’t this question settled a long time ago? As we will see from a look at treaties, Québec, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories differ from the rest of Canada. Prior to the signing of the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement in 1975, no land treaty
In Canada, there are two types of treaties with Indigenous peoples: peace and friendship treaties, and land treaties, i.e., those specifically dealing with land and land titles.
The government’s objective with land treaties was to remove obstacles to colonization and to encourage First Nations members to abandon their lands and lifestyles and assimilate.
There are 11 Aboriginal nations recognized in Québec: Abenaki (Waban-Aki), Algonquin (Anishinabeg), Atikamekw Nehirowisiwok, Cree (Eeyou), Huron-Wendat, Inuit, Maliseet (Wolastoqiyik), Mi’gmaq (Micmac), Mohawk (Kanien’kehá:ka), Innu (Montagnais) and Naskapi. Across Canada, there are nearly sixty Aboriginal nations.
Photo credit: Rencontre Québécois-Autochtones, Pierre Lepage
In the second part of this chapter, we will endeavour to explain why existing land claims cover such vast territories. We will see that land claim negotiations must be approached from the perspective of sharing rather than taking. In short, we will see that recognizing Aboriginal communities’ right to exist does not mean that Quebecers must sacrifice something of themselves. In fact, the opposite is true, and that is reassuring. But let’s start from the beginning.