D2. Communities, Conflict, and Cooperation
Specific Expectations
D2.1
describe some key developments relating to westward colonial/Canadian territorial expansion during this period, and analyse the impact on First Nations, Métis, and Inuit individuals and communities (e.g., with reference to the establishment of the Red River colony; the issuance of Métis scrip; the increase in Métis political power in Manitoba; railway building; Métis hostilities with the HBC, British settlers, and the Sioux; the creation of the colony of British Columbia; the formation of the North West Mounted Police; assertion of federal control in the West; the European and American expansion of whaling operations in the Northwest; the influx of Chinese labourers in the West)
- What role did First Nations and Métis men, women, and children play in western colonial expansion during this period?
- How did the transfer of Rupert’s Land from the HBC to the Crown affect Indigenous communities in this territory?
D2.2
describe some key Indigenous policies of British colonial and dominion governments during this period, and explain their significance for Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous Canadians (e.g., with reference to the British granting large tracts of land in Labrador to the Moravian Church; bounties for the killing of Beothuks; the Act for the Protection of the Indians in Upper Canada, 1839; the Gradual Civilization Act, 1857; the Constitution Act, 1867, section 91[24]; the Manitoba Act, 1870, sections 31 and 32, and Métis land grants; provisions promised and those actually provided for Plains First Nations)
- Why was the British colonial government unwilling to evict non-Indigenous settlers squatting in First Nations and Métis territories? How do you think government indifference to settler encroachment affected settler and Indigenous beliefs about who had a right to the land?
- What impact did the arrival of Christian missions at Nain have on the Labrador Inuit?
- What were the consequences of government regulation of food supplies for some Plains First Nations?
D2.3
identify key treaties of relevance to Indigenous peoples in Canada during this period, including wampum belts exchanged, and explain their significance for different peoples and communities in Canada (e.g., with reference to the Niagara Treaty and the Covenant Chain wampum of 1764; the British-Inuit Treaty, 1765; the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1784; the Haldimand Tract Grant, 1784; the Treaty of Greenville, 1795; the Jay Treaty, 1794; the Huron Tract, 1827; the Mississaugas of New Credit Land Succession Agreements; the Manitoulin Island Treaties, 1836 and 1862; the Robinson Superior and Robinson Huron treaties, 1850; the numbered treaties dating from this period [Nos. 1–6])
- What was the significance of some international peace treaties, such as the 1783 Treaty of Paris or the 1814 Treaty of Ghent, for Indigenous peoples in colonial Canada?
- What was the purpose of the Longwoods Treaty of 1822? Why is this treaty still relevant to the Chippewa in Ontario today?
- Why might First Nations and non-Indigenous Canadians have different perspectives on the Treaty of Niagara and the exchange of the Covenant Chain belt in 1764?
- What was the significance of the British-Inuit Treaty of 1765? Why did the Inuit and British decide to sign a treaty?
D2.4
analyse historical statistics and other sources to identify changes to populations and settlement patterns in First Nations, Métis, and Inuit traditional territories during this period, and explain the significance of these patterns (e.g., the impact on Cree and/or Métis settlement and migration patterns of the transfer of Rupert’s Land to the Crown; population changes on Vancouver Island before and after the signing of the Vancouver Island treaties; the impact of epidemics on the Blackfoot Confederacy and the Shoshoni; the consequences for Plains First Nations and Métis of the decimation of the buffalo)
- Where did First Nations Loyalists settle after the American Revolution? What was the long-term significance of these settlements?
- What were Métis settlement patterns during the peak of the buffalo hide trade? How did these patterns change after the buffalo had been hunted to near extinction?
D2.5
describe some major instances of conflict involving Indigenous peoples in Canada during this period, and analyse some of their main causes and consequences (e.g., alliances between First Nations and colonists during the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812; involvement of Indigenous peoples in military strategies; conflict at Red River, including the use of federal troops in 1870; conflict arising from Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe, and other eastern nations encroaching on Blackfoot territories)
- How and why were First Nations warriors involved in the War of 1812? Why did the colonial government fail to acknowledge the contributions of First Nations veterans? What were the consequences of that failure?
- In what ways did colonial expansion fuel conflict among Indigenous peoples and between Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous settlers or colonial/dominion governments?
- What were the causes of the Red River Resistance? What were its consequences for the Métis?