These are examples of oral history in the form of memories and stories passed down by our peoples who witnessed or heard of the Treaty process as the Treaty Commissioners traveled throughout our villages. My point is that our people have memories, an oral history that has been passed down about the treaty signing and the verbal promises that were made, and what the government had said to our people.

In the end, our peoples decided to sign the treaty and according to the government, gave up a vast territory of approximately 130,000 square miles of land. We also promised to be peaceful, law abiding citizens with other First Peoples and if we encountered strangers in our land, to leave them untouched. Our peoples signed Treaty No. Nine, also known as the James Bay Treaty in 1905.

Treaty No. Nine, the James Bay Treaty

I am sorry to have written so much about our peoples and the Treaty. But I wanted to make sure you had enough background information for a very good understanding, in plain language, of the history, the peoples and the governments, leading up to 1905.

As well, I wanted you to know that our Elders in 1905 did the best they could for us living today. Our Elders secured our education, protected our hunting, fishing and trapping rights, and ensured health care. Do you think they did a good job? I think they did an amazing job by maintaining our traditional lifestyle in the Treaty and today the governments are learning that, on behalf of our Elders, we’re holding them to this.

Today, because of the discovery of the Treaty Commissioners’ diaries and their written admissions about how they reassured our people that they weren’t giving up the land, we know now they deceived our people and we now know the written Treaty did not represent our understanding.  

We believe the governments of the time are responsible for the manner in which the Treaty was poorly negotiated, improperly explained, and written without our input or consent. We are now telling the present governments that we believe our peoples never agreed to give away vast tracts of our land as well as the resources. From the Elders oral history we see that they talked about sharing the land and resources and they expected the newcomers to do the same. Remember, I said earlier that sharing and reciprocity was our land-based philosophy and tradition during the fur trade with the Hudson’ Bay Company and we expected the government to follow in this tradition.

We know our Elders always believed, and negotiated with each other on oral terms, commitments and promises. This was always the Cree and Ojbway style of inter-personal relations with each other and with other First peoples.  We know that giving or taking up of land was never explained to them.  Therefore, we also see in the Treaty diaries how the commissioners failed to see our Elders intelligence and concluded that a full explanation of what our people were agreeing to could not or was decided not to be explained.  Duncan Campbell Scott:  “They were to make certain promise and we were to make certain promises.  But our purpose and our reasons were alike unknowable. What could they grasp of the pronouncement of Indian tenure which had been given by the law lords of the Crown.” (p58).  This meant the government held back the idea of taking the land whenever it suited their needs.

I hope now that you have a good understanding of the Treaty and our peoples so that you will be able to enjoy and play the role-playing games with ease.