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COPYRIGHT 2006 Ontario Historical Society
Abstract
In the summers of 1905/1906 the Dominion government entered into a treaty with the Cree and Ojibwa of northern Ontario. Known as Treaty Nine it encompassed a vast portion of the province. This treaty could not have been accomplished with the ease that it was without the assistance of the Hudson's Bay Company. Acting in its own self-interest the HBC facilitated the government's attempts to create a treaty. Understanding the HBC's role in the treaty process highlights the continued importance of the Company in northern Canada, and its affect on treaty creation.
Resume: Au cours des etes 1905 et 1906, le Traite No 9 est negocie entre les Cris et Objiwes du nord de l'Ontario et le gouvernement du Dominion du Canada. Ce traite, qui s'appliquait a une vaste portion de la province de l'Ontario, n'aurait pu etre signe aussi rapidement sans l'aide de la Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson. En facilitant les efforts du gouvernment pour arriver a un accord, la Compagnie cherchait en fait surtout a proteger ses propres interets. L'etude des negociations aboutissant a la signature de ce traite montre que la Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson jouait toujours un role important a cette epoque dans le nord du Canada, et cette influence se reflete dans la maniere dont sont etablis les traites.
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The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) played an important role in the creation of Treaty Nine as it sought to secure itself a position in the changing political environment of the north. By the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries the fur trade in northern Ontario was being disrupted by the arrival of railways, prospectors and government surveyors. A treaty offered the Company the chance of securing some protection from a process that could not be stopped. The HBC, through its employees and knowledge of the north, provided Dominion officials with the expertise and assistance they required to complete the negotiation of Treaty Nine. Indeed, without the HBC's assistance Treaty Nine would have been either delayed, or taken far longer to negotiate. In the summers of 1905 and 1906 the Dominion government in Ottawa sent treaty commissioners north of the height of land (the geographical divide that separates rivers and lakes draining into the Great Lakes from those that that drain into Hudson's Bay) to negotiate with the Cree and Ojibwa peoples who resided there. Railways such as the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in the 1880s and the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (T & NO) in 1902 had already brought prospectors and surveyors into this previously remote region, and both the Ontario government and private companies were eager to develop its resource potential. (2)
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While historians have paid attention to both levels of government and First Nations and Metis in relation to Treaty Nine, little consideration has been paid to the HBC. Prior to, during and after the treaty negotiations the HBC played a ubiquitous role. In so doing the Company affected both the process and substance of the treaty in an effort to protect and solidify its position as the pre-eminent fur trading company in the north. In terms of process the Company provided information for Indian Affairs about an Aboriginal population they were generally ignorant of, as well as supplies, transportation, and guides for desk bound civil servants transformed into treaty commissioners. Advice from senior HBC officials determined the treaty commissioners' itinerary as Company posts served as locations where treaty negotiations took place. As regards structure, the HBC indirectly influenced the location of the reserves chosen by the bands. Trading post bands, Aboriginal peoples who developed a close economic and social tie to HBC posts during the nineteenth century, led to almost every reserve being located close to an HBC post. (3) Underlying this aid was the desire of the HBC to benefit both economically and politically from the treaty.
WHY A STUDY OF THE HBC?
Treaty Nine does not lack for historians and writers. (4) The trends in this historiography can be reduced to five themes: Dominion/provincial conflict, the government desire to alienate First Nation land for resource development, the role of resource development companies, the deception of First Nations by the Treaty Commissioners as to the legal ramifications of the treaty, and attempts by the Metis to be included in the treaty. Earlier analysis of Treaty Nine is simplistic in its treatment of First Nations, and the politics that surrounded the treaty's creation. Duncan Campbell Scott's "The Last of the Indian Treaties," is useful only as a source document. Later work such as Charles Bishops' The Northern Ojibwa and the Fur Trade offer little about the treaty. Bishop sees Treaty Nine as no more than a land transaction in which the Ojibwa sought to "release their rights to their land and receive annuity benefits." (5) It is an interpretation that even Scott would have disagreed with as he noted in his short magazine article that First Nations signatories did not really appreciate what they were signing.
Later analysis was a response to such simplistic representations of Treaty Nine (and treaties in general). Zlotkin highlights legal interpretations that have emerged regarding Treaty Nine. Zlotkin's weakness, however, is his lack of attention to history. He states that the treaty was drafted "in its entirety by the federal government." (6) He does not ignore the Ontario government's role in reserve selection; however, his focus on court decisions leads him to ignore historical realities. Zlotkin cites the case of R. v. Batisse (1978). Justice Bernstein quashed a wildlife conservation charge against a Matachewan First Nation hunter because Ontario was not a party to Treaty Nine, and could not therefore enforce its conservation laws on Treaty Nine members. While true in a legal sense, historical research shows that Ontario impacted the treaty's creation and structure. Both James Morrison and John Long highlight the conflicts that emerged between the Ontario and Dominion governments regarding the treaty. Long argues that the terms of the treaty were pre-set by the Ontario and Dominion governments, and First Nations room to negotiate was incredibly restricted. Titley offers similar insight in A Narrow Vision. As a biography, however, Titley's narrative and analysis revolves around Duncan Campbell Scott often to the exclusion of other considerations. His study is complemented by Stan Dragland's Floating Voice. Bryan Cummins' analysis focuses on the treaty's affect on Cree concepts of land tenure. More recently historians have turned their attention to third party influence on Treaty Nine. Both Macklem and Manore concentrate on resource companies and the desire of the Ontario government to have hydro, mineral and timber resources exploited. In this sense their work is a fusion of First Nations' studies and earlier work such as H.V. Nelles and Christopher Armstrong. Rhonda Telford's doctoral dissertation offers a useful analysis of mining in relation to Aboriginal rights in Treaty Nine and First Nations' knowledge of natural resources.
In all of these studies the HBC role in the treaty is overlooked. Arthur Ray's The Fur Trade in the Industrial Age is an exception. Ray examines the HBC's changing operations in the twentieth century, and provides some explanation of the Company's policy towards post-Confederation Indian treaties. However, Ray overlooks the broader politics of Treaty Nine and the long term policy goals of the HBC. He downplays the impact of Ontario's wildlife conservation laws on HBC operations in northern Ontario, and the Company's desire to minimize that impact. Ray is concerned more with economics and the HBC's desire to benefit from treaty annuity payments. While this was certainly an element of the Company's thinking, there was more at work in their policies.
COMPANY MOTIVATION IN AIDING THE DOMINION GOVERNMENT
Company motivation is not explicitly laid out in any existing documents, but altruism was not a consideration for several reasons. First, treaties meant annuity money for post managers concerned with turning a profit in...
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