Description: In order to interpret and implement a treaty between the Crown and Canada's First Nations, we must look to its spirit and intent, and consider what was contemplated by the parties at the time the treaty was negotiated, argues Aimée Craft. Using a detailed analysis of Treaty One - today covering what is southern Manitoba - she illustrates how negotiations were defined by Anishinabe laws (inaakonigewin), which included the relationship to the land, the attendance of all jurisdictions' participants, and the rooting of the treaty relationship in kinship. While the focus of this book is on Treaty One, Anishinabe laws (inaakonigewin) defined the settler-Anishinabe relationship well before this, and the principles of interpretation apply equally to all treaties with First Nations.
Brief description:
Aimée Craft is professor in the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, chair of the Manitoba Clean Environment Commission, and holder of the University Research Chair Nibi miinawaa aki inaakonigewin: Indigenous governance in relationship with land and water. Of Anishinaabe-Métis and settler ancestry, she is a lawyer from Treaty One territory and the homeland of the Red River Métis in Manitoba. She is the author of Breathing Life into the Stone Fort Treaty: An Anishnabe Understanding of Treaty One and, with illustrator Luke Swinson, of the children's book Treaty Words: For as Long as the Rivers Flow.