HIST-1400-A01 – Sept.
13, 2023
British Columbia joining Canada (1871)
Fur traders arrived in the 1780s to the West Coast, with sometimes good trading and
violence
Not many white settlers moved to BC until the 1860s, where the gold rushes began
o Many gold-diggers were American, causing concern within the British
government and local BC government, who wished to absolve the idea of British
Columbian emancipation into the United States during the 1850s and 1860s
The Confederation Debate of 1867 saw to BC’s future, either as a separate colony still
loyal to Britain or to join Canada, which sparked MacDonald’s interest in quickly
convincing BC to join confederation
o His terms were primarily focused on the railways within a 10-year plan after
1871, a transcontinental railway spanning British Columbia to Nova Scotia; this
was far more than originally envisioned a road across the Canadian hearth
British Columbia had plenty of debt for road construction around the gold
mines, where Canada would supply a $100,000 annual grant to help pay
off the loans
British Columbia would be a provincial addition to Canada, unlike the
Prairies, MacDonald would allow BC to control its own lands compared to
the Manitoba Act restrictions
Prince Edward Island joining Canada (1873)
Since 1864, PEI would attend in Quebec City about revisions to the British North America
Act, the nature of Canada, federal powers and provincial responsibilities, and conditions
that would ward PEI away from joining immediately
By 1873, PEI noted its failings compared to other maritime provinces, where MacDonald
negotiated generous terms
o He promised a ferry-link with regular service between New Brunswick, Nova
Scotia, and Prince Edward Island
o PEI had plenty of its own debts, sponsoring its own railroad projects, which
MacDonald would aid in paying off
o Most of the PEI land was owned by British absentee land owners, who charged
tenant farmers from the settlers, which MacDonald would make federal
purchases from these landlords to sell to PEI farmers
Negotiating the Treaties (Treaty 1 to 7) in the west (1871-1877)
The Proclamation of 1763 was pivotal in establishing the tradition of Canadian
negotiation with indigenous land gains
The federal government had various objectives for the Treaties:
o They wished to extinguish the Indian title to the lands, implying and recognizing
that the indigenous had titles prior to white settlement
o This must occur prior to the attraction of Canadian and American white settlers
to settle westward and occupy the Prairies, to also develop the Canadian
economy subsisting on agriculture (excluding the Metis, as they were poor
farmers)
Similarly, MacDonald sought to clear the land for white settlers
o MacDonald wished to negotiate peacefully between the federal government and
natives, dissimilar to the American handling of their indigenous peoples
o Allowance of indigenous peoples’ of certain aspects of their traditional lifestyles
and culture, with economic self-sufficiency in mind, with guarantees to allow
their processes (i.e., hunting, fishing, trapping)
o The federal government wished to lay the foundation of integration and
emancipation of the indigenous folk into the dominant white Anglophonic
culture of Canada, with long-term assimilation
They believed the Indians would either be a dying race or be fully
assimilated to which they no longer presented a problem
First Nations objectives in the Treaty negotiations:
o They wished to maintain peaceful relations with the Canadian government, white
settlers, and fellow indigenous tribes due to territorial war
o Maintain their cultural life and traditions, while also adapting to changing
economic conditions due to high bison population decline and willingness of
Plains Indians to shift to farming culture (by 1885, bison would be a couple
hundred left)
o They wished for the government to promise food rations in the case of famine
within the indigenous peoples
o On the reserves, they wished for some schools from white culture nearby, not as
the residential school system would allow
o Obtain a “medicine chest”, or otherwise health-care by the Canadian
government
Treaty 1 (1871)
o Indigenous folks were already asking for Treaties, initiating the process, and the
Riel business had been settled
o In August, over a thousand indigenous had gathered in Lower Fort Garry, with
representatives from the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), Cree, Assiniboine (Sioux branch),
and Oji Cree (intermarriage between the Anishinaabe and Cree along Lake
Winnipeg)
Their negotiations and speeches were held across several days, with
initiating ceremonies to ensure the agreements had gone well (i.e., Peace
pipe)
Government representative would make speeches during these
negotiations and transcribed for the record