3.2.1. The Treaties

My treaty journey started several years ago, when the Saskatchewan Treaty Commissioner created an education package for Saskatchewan residents based on the understanding that "We are all Treaty People." This is true for all people living where treaties exist (which covers most of Canada with numbered treaties, B.C. with several modern treaties, and the North). For me, this phrase reconfirmed the part I play as a descendent of white European settlers in continuing the knowledge, traditions, respect, and relations of the treaties. However, my knowledge and understanding of the treaties changed over time by deep listening to Indigenous peoples' knowledge and understanding of the treaties.

While completing my Master's in Constitutional Law, I learned about treaties and about the special relation of Indigenous peoples within Canada because of the Royal Proclamation of 1763. However, my learning was overshadowed by my other learning of law and the power of the written word and rules of contract law (laws of agreement between people). Even after law school, my legal training and work as a lawyer required that my legal 'opinions' be grounded in the written word and analysis including our Constitution, governments' statutes, and written court decisions of judges. My legal advice and personal thinking of any legal issue continuously existed within the logic of how a court of law would resolve the legal issue. In this realm, the written word and its plain meaning reigned supreme. As an example, the provision of a 'medicine bundle' in a treaty would be literally interpreted in Eurocentric law as a medicine bundle (perhaps a first aid kit) and not the Indigenous interpretation of access to the State health care system.

After leaving the practice of law, I learned that from an Indigenous perspective, a treaty evolves through continuous discussion, a process of verbal clarification, until a common understanding is arrived at [28]. Oral traditions of the spoken word and oral history is as important and binding as the written word [28]. The recollection of a treaty is a collective memory, not an 'individual' one [29]. All of these practices and traditions are different from the legal rules learned in law school. However, when considering the treaty's relation and historical agreement they cannot be dismissed.

Where I was born, in the lands of Treaty Six, the treaty document is in standard legalese, but the discussions centered on the elimination of the Buffalo, the starvation, disease, and poverty of Indigenous peoples, peace between nations, and the increasing numbers of

white people arriving [29]. There is no mention of land surrender in the recorded speeches at the time of treaty making and there are no words in Cree for the English terms of cede, surrender, or release [28]. In fact, Pound Maker is recorded as stating that the land could not be cut off and taken [30]. This statement is consistent with Indigenous perspectives on kinship and land use (not ownership) [31].
