The recent press releases from the Montreal Canadian and the Quebec Liberal Party give a new dimension to this idea that Montreal and its region have usurped an “unceded” territory (territory of the Mohawks, we learn moreover).
Several recalled that this Iroquois group, historically established in the current state of New York, had not permanently occupied the territory of Montreal when the French colonists were established.
This is not the most disturbing fact about this new Canadian vulgate, in my opinion. I believe it is time to think historically and show that this idea of ”unceded territory” is the purest product of British colonialism. Because it is this principle of “cession” of the territory that served to dispossess the Aboriginals, both in the United States and in Canada (and elsewhere in Australia). However, it is obvious that, in the current political context, this old colonial deceit also serves to delegitimize Quebec’s political claims. Very brief return on a historical course apparently (very) little known.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
The Bell Center notice board, before the Canadiens’ game against the Sharks, on October 19
Alliances
It can be said that, in general, English colonization was distinguished from other processes of appropriation by its proprietary logic of purchasing territory. In comparison, from the beginning of the XVIIe century, the French settled on the shores of the St. Lawrence thanks to a logic of commercial and military alliance with a certain number of indigenous peoples.
The works are fairly agreed on this point: no conquest, no purchase of territory, but a cohabitation which is based on the approval of the Native allies of the French.
This alliance is fragile and opposes the powerful nations of the Iroquois League (New York State). But the latter does not claim the territory occupied by the French and rather resents the indigenous allies of the latter, established around lakes Ontario and Erie: the Iroquois even manage, with the help of the Dutch, to destroy this alliance in the middle of the XVIIe century. Despite this hard blow, and with the notable support of certain nations such as the Outaouais, the French are rebuilding an even larger alliance, albeit just as fragile. The Great Peace of Montreal of 1701 brought together more than 30 of these nations, including some representatives of the Iroquois League.
The Canadian Charter of 1982 and the courts did not accept this treaty of alliance. However, he created a vision of the territory where the French settlers rightly occupied the Laurentian valley, which seems to be confirmed by the few enclaves of native residents (the villages of the region of Quebec, Trois-Rivières and Montreal).
Land transfers
On the side of the British colonizer, the cession of territory quickly established itself as one of the most formidable tools of dispossession, facilitating here and there the establishment of settlements. Other forms of negotiations are also used. Treaties of peace and friendship thus punctuate the colonial history of the Thirteen Colonies following Anglo-Native wars (against the Abenakis, in particular).
Then, the British victory over the French (1760) gave the conqueror the opportunity to pacify a good number of native nations established in the interior of the continent, not without difficulty (Pontiac war). It is in this context that the famous royal proclamation of 1763 decrees that this vast interior or peripheral territory is reserved for the Natives, according to the good pleasure of the British. The proclamation is the cornerstone of the new sovereign’s purchasing policy.
Gaining independence in 1783, the United States henceforth became masters of their “Indian” policy. But, by and large, the processes implemented to complete the appropriation of Indigenous land did not differ fundamentally south or north of the new British-American border: land cessions, sometimes accompanied by bloody clashes. , gradually dispossess the indigenous nations of the continent.
Racist politics
Whether it be the negotiations with the Mississaugués of Lake Ontario from the 1780s, those of the 1850s in northern Ontario (Robinson Treaties) or even the “numbered” treaties in Northwestern Canada after 1869, it is almost all of Canada, between Quebec and British Columbia, which is gradually bought by the British and their successor, the Canadian federal government. The iniquitous nature of these “treaties” or “cessions” of territory is well known.
The work has abundantly underlined the ridiculous compensation offered by the colonizer who, despite “the honor of the Crown”, does not seem to care too much about his duplicity (multiple breaches of commitments made to most Aboriginal groups).
Added to this process of dispossession is the new “civilizing” vision of the XIXe century: it is a question of solving the native “problem” by transforming these “barbarians”. Macdonald’s Canada (he is not the only one) took up and systematized this racist policy, the effects of which were akin to a real (cultural) genocide from the end of the 19th century.e century (system of reserves and generalization of boarding schools).
In short, to say that Montreal is unceded Mohawk territory is much more than condoning a generally accepted misreading of history. It is above all appealing to the foul odor of British colonialism and Canadian genocidal policy. But its version 2.0 seems to be based on another objective: this time dispossess Quebec of its political legitimacy on the territory …
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