Ipperwash Crisis Research Paper

Throughout history, the Native people of North America and the Europeans have continually had arguments and disputes over land. To this day there are still issues trying to be resolved. Twenty years ago, the beginning of one of the most violent and intense land disputes in present day Canada occurred. This event is now referred to as the Oka Crisis, named after the town Oka in Quebec. This crisis caused a confrontation involving the Quebec provincial police, the Canadian armed forces and the Mohawk people.1 The stand that the Mohawk people took in the town of Oka became a major revelation for the aboriginal people spreading awareness of aboriginal rights across Canada.

-White settlement affected the Indigenous people in a number of ways”{They} made them (the Aboriginals) outcasts on their own land*” by calling it terra nullius under the English Law, despite knowing the existence of the Aboriginals. Terra nullius is a latin term that means “land that belongs to no one.”They believed it belonged to no one because the Aboriginals didn’t use the land in the same way as the British. The Aboriginals believed that Mother Nature would provide them with what they needed, so they didn’t need to hunt and mark the land. The British completely ignored the deep spiritual connections the Aboriginals had with the land. They cut down trees, put up fences and built towns. They believed they had to own the land. But the Aboriginals were outraged when saw the settlers building farms where they had originally been hunting and gathering at, this was because there wasn’t enough food for them. They killed many white settlers in revenge and a clash of cultures began. Pemulwuy was an Aboriginal warrior that lead raids against the British. He also speared John McIntyre, Governor Phillip's gamekeeper, in December 1790. When the Indigenous people resisted the British, it lead to many conflicts which eventually left a irreversible damage to the lives of Indigenous people.

By signing this treaty, the natives will have to move onto reserves and have a lack of self government control. Today the amount of Indian Reserves only cover 1% of Canada. This amount of land is far too limited for nearly 1 million Natives living in Canada. With that being said, the Aboriginal peoples lost all of their rights to govern themselves if losing land wasn’t enough torture. The shortness of self-government influenced the lives of many Aboriginal peoples in many ways. For example, they didn’t have the right to decide or speak for themselves when it comes to times when they hunt or fish because of government laws of protecting wildlife (Clark, Bruce, and John K. Wallace. Making Connections: Canada's Geography. Second Ed. ed. Toronto, Ontario: Pearson Education, 2006. 562.). As stated in “Making Connections Canada’s Geography Second Edition, Native people earn their their money by trapping muskrat and selling their skin to produce fur products, but soon after they moved to a new location they promptly realized there is a lack of water flow resulting in a limited amount of muskrats, therefore many trappers are no longer able to earn a stable amount of money, their economic base has been ruined due to the lack of resources their new living space has to offer (Clark, Bruce, and John K. Wallace. Making Connections: Canada's

The making of the treaty was a problem and a conflict for several reasons. One is that the Indians didn’t like it. They were very afraid of being moved onto a reservation. They hated being on reservations because they knew that the Americans were going to put them on the same reservation as 40 other tribes. Plus they didn’t want to move onto the same place with an enemy tribe!(Schuster 65) Neither would I. They would probably get into a fight or an all out war actually! Furthermore there were hardly any resources for one tribe, so how were they going to feed several? Especially when there were hundreds in each tribe! (Lambert, 150) Another reason the Indians didn’t like the treaty was because they couldn’t tell if the Americans were telling the truth, America had broken promises and ripped up treaties with other nations and tribes before, why not this one? Then there was the reason about not wanting to cede their land. It was theirs to keep. They had rightfully claimed that land and who were the settlers to take it? They had made that land livable and they were not about to give it up to a nation that was greedy and selfish in their eyes. Another reason why they didn’t like the treaty was that they didn’t want to give up their land. They wanted to be able to hunt and grow plants and fish, use their own herbs, use their own spices without having to beg, buy, and starve.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate whether the Oka Crisis has had a positive or negative effect on First Nations affairs in Canada. There are many opinions that could be explored based on research of the crisis. The side that the crisis had a negative effect on Canada could be taken, because the crisis created tension in relations between the government and the Mohawks and caused many physical and emotional

Resolving conflicts is one of the most appreciated characteristics of a human being. It may afford one to be at peace, either, with themselves or others. Throughout North America history many conflicts arose between settlers and native people leading to a colonization procedure. Unfortunately, Canada continues to struggle with this ongoing process, which almost annihilated more than the First Nations culture. Aboriginals were forced to assimilate other culture while somehow had to find a way to bury their traumas during this terrible endeavour. To remediate this ongoing process, some authors voice this situation using their own experiences aiming for a resolution. Evidently, distinct approaches are

Economic imperialism is a central part of the ongoing contemporary colonization of indigenous peoples in Canada. Since the colonial era marked the beginning of imperialism in North America, an intricate web of power and domination have formed leaving Indigenous communities in the grip of its economic philosophy. This has led to the ongoing contribution to the disposition of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Economic imperialism can be defined as the need for countries to expand their territories in order to collect resources from their colonies. This illustrates the inherent unsustainability of colonial settler society. In this essay I will look at how the impacts of economic imperialism has had an effect on the development of the indigenous

No analysis of violence against Indigenous women can be made without first looking at colonization as the antipasto of the conflict (Cooper & Salomons 2010). “It is thus paramount to understand the context of colonisation in Canada in order to begin to understand the structural problems and barriers that lead to serious numbers of missing and murder Indigenous women in Canada.” (Cooper & Salomons 2010, 31). When the Europeans first came to “turtle Island” they were “highly dependent” on the assistance of Indigenous women (Cooper & Salomons 2010). However when the Euro-North American governments were forming, the issue of ownership of land became significant. “As the settler society

The whole point of the meeting was to come to an agreement over disputes of land claims between colonies and Indian nations including the Iroquois. Though, through trickery, the Iroquois had ceded to the colonies land “from sea to sea”.2(p. 187) This meant land from the Ohio Valley all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Needless to say the Indians involved were disappointed and angered.

Conflict between Canada and the First Nations has been going on since the Europeans first arrived. After their arrival the First Nations way of life was hindered severely; The Europeans brought many diseases that the Aboriginal people were unfamiliar with and had no resistance to, or cure for. “By the 16th century about 80% of Canada's Native population had died from the various diseases (Renneboog, 5).” The Europeans also came to Canada with the intentions of taking all of the land for themselves, disregarding the people who occupied the land before them. Over time the Europeans had manipulated the First Nations to their will and the Aboriginals were discriminated for their different complexion, culture, customs, and way of life. But

July 11th 1990, marked the beginning date of the Oka Crisis in Quebec Canada. It lasted until September 26th 1990 resulting in one fatality of a local police officer. The violent clash was triggered by something as simple as a golf course extension and as complicated as native burial traditions. It had drawn world attention, catapulting native land rights into the mix. The Oka Crisis is just one of many conflicts between the Aboriginals and the Canadian government. A major issue that has been of much debate in the 20th century has been Native sovereignty. The demand sounds simple, allow Aboriginals of Canada to govern themselves; however, coexisting with the Canadian government makes this idea extremely complicated. Roger Townshend states

Tensions seem to be running at an all time high as the Ipperwash Crisis took a turn for the worse on Wednesday, September 6th, 1995. Members of the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation gathered in Ontario's Ipperwash Provincial Park to peacefully protest against the federal government's unjust possession of Stoney Point Reserve. Violence and confusion erupted as armed Ontario Provincial Police showed up to the scene, resulting in the death of protester Dudley George. He was shot by Sergeant Ken Deane, who claimed that George was pointing a firearm towards his officers during an altercation between the protesters and the police.

This treaty might have been a promise of a reasonable friendship but a true friendship is not made by rules. Document C it states, ¨ III. That if anything were taken away from any of theirs, he should cause it to be restored; and they should do the like to his.¨ This is telling us that if they steal from each other the must restore what they have stolen and they will get stolen from as well. But in Document E ¨ the English made them drunk and then cheated them in bargains … with land… value.¨ It also states, ¨ He constrained other Indians from wronging the English...¨ These two piece of evidence disprove rule number three of the treaty, ¨ That if anything were taken away from any of theirs, he should cause it to be restored; and they should do the like to his.¨ This is not the case since, the English stole their land in bad bargains and the Indians were not able to wrong them for this. Although this breaks the rules of their friendship they also had an unfair legal

At first glance, many people are not aware of the rich history behind False Creek, or originally, Snauq. The appreciation for the land and environment by the residents that occupy Vancouver today differ from the Indigenous people. A passerby may look out into the waters and gaze at the boats. It is likely that they would not consider the history of Indigenous people due to the lack of recognition and acknowledgement. When I looked out False Creek, I saw the water shoreline and the buildings that loomed overhead, with BC place on the far right (see Appendix). Maracle reminisces about the time when the area was called Snauq. Snauq used to be the home of the Squamish people. Much of the land was not tampered, the Indigenous people internalized

In 1869, the Metis occupied a certain area of St. Rupert’s land, however, they did not have a claim to this land, and therefore giving it up to those whom had signed it as their property. Rather than diplomatically negotiating for legal ownership of this land, Riel quickly