Treaty relationships between the Canadian and American governments and First Nation peoples

Land speculators had a keen interest in the purchase of Indian land.2 In 1754, war broke out between the French and English on the frontier as a result of conflicting European claims to the territories still in the possession of the many tribes in the area.3 The tribes by this time were discontented and angry at the continued encroachments to their lands and at the fraudulent practices committed a [...] This policy successfully secured the alliance of the Iroquois and other tribes to British aspirations in defeating the French.4 In the early 1760s, France ceded its colonial claims in the western territories between the Mississippi River and the eastern mountain ranges, and the central areas in what became Canada, to Great Britain. [...] The Royal Proclamation of 17635 proclaimed the area beyond the Appalachian Mountains as off limits to settlement as they were reserved to the tribes of the region.6 One of the main features of the Royal Proclamation is the reservation to the Crown of the exclusive right to negotiate for land title with the Indian inhabitants.7 The ability to negotiate for land under the Royal Proclamation became t [...] In order to open up the North-West for settlement in the late 1800s, the government had to deal with the Indian inhabitants between the Great Lakes and the western mountain regions. [...] Harold Cardinal, the Indian Act was passed with the intention of implementing the terms of the treaties and of establishing the status of Indians.38 The first consolidated Indian Act was enacted in 1876.39 Since 1876, there have been numerous amendments to the Indian Act.40 From a government perspective, the Indian Act has proven its sustainability in the implementation of colonial Indian policy,