Period of time

Significance of the period

Years

Event/Report

Period 1

Pre-Settlement

(… – 1671)

The sovereignty of Indigenous nations was unquestioned. E.g., the Mi’kmaw nation was sovereign, self-organizing, political, whole systems of knowledge. Traces of the past are evident in stories, place names, the language of Mi’kmaw’ki/L’nu.

RCAP (1996) Referred to the period before 1500 as separate worlds.

1372 (?)

Oral Histories

1493

Roman Catholic Papal Bulls

Doctrine of Discovery

1497

John Cabot contact Mi’kmaw

Period 2

Early Period of European Settlement and Treaty Making

(1671 – 1866)

Treaties were formed with settlers representing the crown, the church, the state. E.g., in Mi’maw’ki Chain of treaty agreements that spanned 1725-1779 (Marshall and Battiste, 2016).

(Brown et al, 2016, p.292)

Stage 2: Nation-to-Nation Relations

Encounters between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people began to increase in number and complexity in the 1500s.

1672

Est. Hudson’s Bay Company

1716-63

Peace and Friendship Treaties

1725-1779

1763 Royal Proclamation

1776 Est. North West Comp.

1812

Selkirk Settlers Reach Winnipeg

War of 1812

1850-54

Robinson Treaties

Period 3

Treaty Making and DenialEstablishment of Legal Foundations of Canada

(1867 – 1968)

Indian Act 1867 – “The Indian Act facilitated a strategy of assimilation through incarceration (McMillan, 2018, p.85)”, multiple gradual amendments, increased the power of Indian Agents, and diminished the relative power of Indians to resist enfranchisement.

Stage 3: Respect Gives Way to Domination

In the 1800s, the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people began to tilt on its foundation of rough equality. The number of settlers was swelling, and so was their power. As they dominated the land, so they came to dominate its original inhabitants.

1867

BNA Act a.k.a Constitution Act (1867)

Indian Act

Act of gradual enfranchisement 1869

1870

1870 Manitoba Act

1871

1871- 1929 Numbered Treaties #1-11

1912

Exchequer Court removes Membertou

1928

King v. Sylliboy

1967

The Hawthorn Report A Survey of the Contemporary Indians of Canada

The National Indian Brotherhood forms

Period 4 a

Organized National Political Resistance

(1969 – 1989)

From the 1960s onwards, many people within churches began to re-evaluate both the broader history of the relation between churches and Aboriginal people, and the specific history of residential schools.

Multiple Aboriginal advocacy organizations were established Regionally and Nationally (e.g., NWAC, Urban Friendship Centres, Indian Brotherhood, Union of NS Indians).

Stage 4: Renewal and Renegotiation

Resistance to assimilation grew weak, but it never died away. In the fourth stage of the relationship, it caught fire and began to grow into a political movement. One stimulus was the federal government’s White Paper on Indian policy, issued in 1969.

1969

The white paper policy

Harold Cardinal’s Red Paper (ref. Manuel, 2017, p. 95)

1970

The National Indian Brotherhood forms

1972

National Association of Friendship Centres https://nafc.ca/about-the-nafc/our-history

1973

Calder Decision (1973)

1974

Native Womens Association of Canada Established

1975

World Council on Indigenous Peoples, 1975

1977

Berger Report 1977

Lysysk Report 1977

1982

Constitution Act, 1982 (was BNA Act, 1867)

First Assembly of First Nations held

1983

Canada, House of Commons, Report of the Special Committee, Indian Self-Government in Canada (Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services Canada, 1983).

1983 Marshall decision

1985

Report of the Task Force to Review Comprehensive Claims Policy, Living Treaties: Lasting

Agreements (Ottawa: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 1985);

1986

apologies issued by United Church of Canada in 1986 –1986 Royal Commission of the Donald Marshall Jr. Prosecution 1986 (Hickman, Poitras, and Evans, 1989).

Period 4 b

United Political Resistance/resurgence

Legal affirmations of Indigenous rights

(1990 – 2005)

Political resistance and resurgence. Increasingly legal decisions were being made in favor of Indigenous rights.

Formal dialogues developed around political reconciliation of Aboriginal rights and Indian Residential Schools.

1990

Nunavut Land Claim

Sparrow

Oka

CANDO

1991

Launch of Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples

1992

BC Treaty Commission (1992)

1996

Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples release Report (1996)

1997

Delgamuukw Court Case

Jan. 7, 1998

Statement of Reconciliation

Gathering strength: Canada’s Aboriginal Action Plan

1998 – 1999

Principles developed by the Working Group on Truth and Reconciliation and of the Exploratory Dialogues

1999

Aboriginal Finance Officers Association of Canada (AFOA) Formed

Alternative Dispute Resolution Program (2004)

2001

Multiple lawsuits filed by Oct. 2001

2004

2004, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled Cloud v. Canada (Attorney General) 2004 CanLII 45444 (ON CA).

Period 4 c

Truth and Reconciliation

(2006 – 2015)

2006

Mandate Statement (2006)

Federal Apology (2006)

2007

Statements of Resignation

Public Media Reports

2008

TRC Launches

2012

They Came for the Children (2012)

TRC Interim Report (2012)

2015

TRC Final Report(s)

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