Aeonian is going to work towards decolonization at the very earliest stages in the exploration process. Through dialogue we can learn from original keepers of the land and learn to thrive together.
What’s decolonization? In it’s simplest form, it is a restorative process that moves towards deconstructing colonial ideologies of the superiority and privilege of Western thought and approaches. Decolonization involves valuing and revitalizing Indigenous knowledge and approaches and weeding out settler biases or assumptions that have impacted Indigenous ways of being.
The Rights of Indigenous people was adopted by the United Nations in 2007. It says:
Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
It lists several important rights in the process of decolonization, including:
- the right to autonomy and self-government, including financing for these autonomous functions
- freedom from forced removal of children
- protection of archaeological and historical sites, and repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains
- the right to provide education in their own language
- state-owned media should reflect Indigenous cultural diversity
- legal recognition of traditional lands, territories and resources.
The provincial government passed the legislation in November 2019 to implement the UN Declaration, which the Truth and Reconciliation Commission confirms as the framework for reconciliation.
To move forwards, we must understand the past, including the enactment of laws and events from early settlers that continue to effect modern First Nations. Other events, such as the ability to vote or the abolishment of residential schools are in living memory and so continue to create an erosion of trust.
Below is a timeline of major events in British Columbian and Canadian history that have a bearing on colonial law, and the influence on reconciliation.
-
Be respectful
-
Engage early
-
Be open and transparent
-
Act with honour
-
Listen
-
Be willing to adapt
Kwakiutl Coal
The Kawkiutl First Nations from near Prince Rupert would dig coal from exposed surface seams and sell it to the Hudsons Bay Company.
This arrangement ended in 1849 when British Miners arrives on the land and created underground workings, excluding the Kwakiutl from their lands and a livelihood. Coal that had been collected by the First Nations was also abandoned in favor of the British workings, and in 1850, the captain of the HMS Driver reported that “no less than 1,200 tons of coal are lying on the beach, collected by Indians”.
In 1850, the Kwakiutl worked out agreements with the Hudsons Bay company (known as the “Douglas Treaties”), which provided access to 930sqkm of Vancouver Island in exchange for cash, clothing and blankets.
Haida Gwaii Gold
In a dispatch to London in 1851, the colonial government described “a very rich specimen of gold ore … brough (the the Hudson Bay Company) by the Indians of Queen Charlotte Islands”. The nugget weighed 27-ounces and was presented by a Haida man in exchange for 1,500 blankets.
The Hudson Bay Company started to mine the vein using men from the vessel “UNa”. The vein was “6.5 inches wide, 80 feet long and contains 25 percent gold”. They would blast the vein to get at the gold, and the indigenous population would rush in to gather up fragments after each blast. Competition with the Hudson Bay crew became intense, and the indigenous peoples are said to have held the legs of the crewmen to prevent them from collecting from the vein.
As tensions rose, the mine was abandoned to avoid bloodshed. America ships then arrived to take advantage of the mine, but were overtaken by the Haida peoples who captured the crews and set the boats on fire. The crews were eventually released after supplies were given to the indigenous peoples.
Gold & Taxes
Governor James Douglas sends a message to the British Parliament stating that gold has been found in “considerable” amounts within the British Territory. The recommendation is made that anyone involved in digging for gold should be taxed as this would be a viable source of revenue. It is agreed that a military presence would be required to levy such a tax.
A Rushed Proclamation
Governor James Douglas issues a proclamation that asserts Crown ownership of all minerals across mainland British Columbia, and establishes the first licensing system for mineral prospectors.
The timing is problematic as the proclamation is before the British parliament formally assumed control of the colony (in 1858) and therefore there was no legal authority to assert such laws.
Indigenous peoples had not surrendered their rights in the Colony or British Columbia, and so today it is still contested that the British Crown has no right to assert control over minerals within the Province.
Fraser River War
The influx of immigrants to the Fraser Valley in search of gold, and the sudden appropriation of indigenous lands was building tension in southern British Columbia. This escalated quickly when a group of French Miners raped a young native girl at Kanaka Bar. The Nlaka’pamux retaliated and killed several of the miners, dumping their bodies in the Fraser, eventually washing up near Yale.
To try and end the tensions, a treaty was made in Lytton with eleven local chiefs present. It forced on them the ultimatum that if peace was not possible, the mining population of the Lower Fraser would return in their thousands and “drive them from the river forever”.
British Assume Control
A new gold rush focused on the Fraser River sees an influx of American miners into the region. This caused the British concern over a possible annexation by the United States. Britain decided to react, and so a new colony on the continental mainland was created. Douglas is granted temporary powers to legislate by proclamation to establish order quickly, and appoints a Legislative Council to advise him, but it had no constitutional basis of authority.
Gold Fields Act Proclaimed
The Gold Fields Act is proclaimed and comes into force. The Act establishes a “free entry” mining system through the creation of the “Free Miners Certificate”.
It cost one pound to apply, and only holders of the FMC could conduct mining activity in the colony, including staking on Crown Lands. The FMC persists today and similarly requires payment to hold, stake and work on ground.
Road Tolls Introduced
Roads continued to expand into the colony and as a way to raise revenue to maintain them, the Road Tolls Act was issued. This imposed a toll on the movement of goods and those using the roads.
As one of the first recognized government incentives to miners, those engaging in mineral activity who were carrying packs of under 30lbs were exempted from the tolls, which is seen as a way to encourage mining and associated revenue.
Tsilqot’in War
The Tsilhqot’in peoples has suffered through starvation and a smallpox epidemic that decimated two-thirds of their population between 1862 and 1863.
At the same time, the push to increase road building was furthered when Alfred Waddington lobbied to build a wagon road from the Bute Inlet to Fort Alexandria where it could connect to the Cariboo Road and then onto the gold fields at Barkerville. This was approved and with no consultation with First Nations.
On April 29th, 1864, a ferryman was killed after refusing to give food to a starving local First Nations group. Food stores were subsequently looted and all but three men in the camp was killed. The violence continued and a road foreman and crew were also attacked. In total, 19 men were murdered.
The Chiefs met with Gold Commissioner William Cox under the assumption they were heading for peace talks, but upon arrival were arrested and transported to Alexandria and charged with murder. The were held until trial with Judge Begbie in Quesnel during September 1864 and sentenced to hang. Sentence was carried out on October 26th, 1864 and remains one of the largest public executions in Canadian history.
October 26th is still marked as a Day of Mourning by the Tsilqot’in peoples.
In 2014, them Premier of BC (Christie Clarke) stated the following: “we confirm without reservation that these six Tsilhqot’in chiefs are fully exonerated for any crime and wrongdoing“.
Water Privilege Amended
The Gold Fields Act was amended in 1865, and a system for granting exclusive water privileges was added to the constitution. Under the new rules, the construction of ditches, dykes and flumes were used to indicate exclusive water ownership. This was a significant move away from traditional common law and paid ne heed to the effects downstream. This lack of access likely had significant impacts on the uses of waterways by Indigenous Peoples.
Gold Mining Ordinance Act
The Gold Mining Ordinance Act is introduced, giving the Gold Commissioner the power to settle mining disputes out of court. It also distilled the rights of Free Miners to enter private lands in order to access, mine and profit from their subsurface mineral claims.
Minerals Ordinance Act
The Mineral Ordinance Act is established and issued by government. It allows miners to buy and sell land, but also allows use of all resources on a claim in the pursuit of building a mine, including water, stone and wood. This disregards any traditional uses of the land by indigenous peoples.
BC Joins The Dominion
British Columbia became a member of the Dominion of Canada, joining six other territories. A total of 37 resolutions, or obligations, were required for BC to join, although the existing mineral rights were not changed and updated.
Amid these debates, Indigenous people had little or no say in their political future. Joseph Trutch, the chief commissioner of lands and works, refused to negotiate treaties with First Nations or to recognize Aboriginal title to land. He also cut the size of existing Indigenous reserves. As a result, British Columbia is the only province in Canada to exist on unceded land.
Minerals Act and Placer Act
Separate legal frameworks are introduced, differentiating between lode (hard rock) and placer mining. The Province begins to retain subsurface rights in any Crown Grants made.
Minerals Act Amended
The Mineral Act 1891 is amended to extinguish “extralateral rights”, whereby a claim holder could no longer chase a vein off their property and onto a neighboring claim. This amendment had been driven by expensive litigation, and marks a time in BC mining history where small claim holders were being overtaken by larger companies who were taking mining to an industrial scale.
The Great Coal Strike
During 1912, miners in the coal mines around Cumberland and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island declared a “holiday” to protest the firing of their union organizer, Oscar Mottishaw, following gas explosions that killed hundreds.
In the Nanaimo area, mine owners tried to get First Nation and Chinese workers in to act as strike-breakers. If they refused the dangerous work, they were blacklisted from any future employment, and after 1912 there are no mention of Indian coal handlers in any government reports.
In 1916 it was observed that the Nanaimo Reserve population was hard-pressed and sustained itself by subsistence fishing and casual jobs, therefore becoming thoroughly marginalized for refusing to work in dangerous conditions.
Potlatch Reinstated
The ban on potlatches, the system of indigenous government, was lifted by the Federal Government through the Indian Act.
“The legal suppression of the potlatch became a symbol, in both native and white communities, of the Canadian treatment of British Columbia Indians”
After the ban was lifted, Nations (especially along the coast) began to openly potlatch again, although did not become widely adopted until the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Federal Voting Rights
In 1960, Parliament enacted the Canada Elections Act which granted all “registered Indians” the right to vote.
This was largely brought about by the passage of the Canadian Bill of Rights (1960), the issues seen in the American South with continued denial of rights to African-Americans and part of a theme of the Indian Act which involved a shift from traditional protection and paternalism towards “self government for the Indian people” and a “policy of decolonization”.
Residential Schools Closed in BC
The residential schools were a network of Boarding Schools for Indigenous peoples, funded by the government’s Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. The purpose of these schools were to remove children from the influence of their own culture and assimilate them into the dominant Canadian culture – “to kill the Indian in the child”.
The schools existed from before Confederation, but an amendment in the Indian Act in 1894 made it compulsory for First Nations children to attend day schools, industrial schools or residential schools, but due to the remote nature of many communities, residential schools were the only option.
The harm to children was extreme: it removed them from families, deprived them of ancestral languages and exposed many to physical and sexual abuse. The legacy of this has been linked to an increased prevalence of post -traumatic stress, alcoholism, substance abuse and suicide, all of which persist within Indigenous communities today.
The last residential school was closed in British Columbia in 1984, although the last one in Canada was not closed until 1996. As such many of the people we deal with in communities have some link to these colonial and assimilation practices.