University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2015-10-02 D.G. MacMartin's 1905 Diary, Intergovernmental Conflict and Ontario's Treaty 9 Role MacMartin, David MacMartin, D. (2015). D.G. MacMartin's 1905 Diary, Intergovernmental Conflict and Ontario's Treaty 9 Role (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25697 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/2597 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY D.G. MacMartin’s 1905 Diary, Intergovernmental Conflict and Ontario’s Treaty 9 Role by David Lawrence MacMartin A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN HISTORY CALGARY, ALBERTA September, 2015 © David Lawrence MacMartin 2015 Abstract This thesis analyses Ontario’s Treaty 9 role and the significance of the 1905 Treaty 9 diary written by its Commissioner, Daniel George MacMartin. Ontario’s Treaty 9 involvement resulted from its decades-long co-sovereigntist campaign from 1867-1905. The diary is a unique historical document that fuses both oral and written records of the 1905 Treaty 9 negotiations. It confirms that Treaty 9 First Nations were given oral assurances they could continue hunting, fishing and trapping throughout their traditional territory. This is now a constitutionally entrenched treaty right. MacMartin’s appointment as Ontario’s Treaty 9 Commissioner is explained as reflecting a well-established operative dimension of Ontario political culture. It is concluded that George MacMartin brought honour to the Crown in 1905 in recording and preserving his observations about the Treaty 9 negotiation meetings in his diary and established a model for Canada’s governments to now emulate in dealings with Canada’s First Nations. ii Preface Daniel George MacMartin and I share the same last name and heritage as descendants of the MacMartin Scottish Highland Clan that traces back to Roman times: “Martin is a Latin name. It means Martian or soldier. The name of McMartin, or MacMhartainn, means `a son of a soldier’.”1 Evidently a Roman soldier got lost in the Scottish Highlands, found a Scottish bride and established the MacMartin Clan that then merged with the Cameron Clan. D. George MacMartin was the grandson of a soldier, King’s Royal Regiment of New York (KRR NY) officer Malcolm MacMartin, who migrated to America and served the Crown with the Loyalist forces during the American Revolution. George MacMartin also served and brought honour to the Crown as Ontario’s Treaty 9 Commissioner in 1905 and 1906. He comported himself with honour and integrity and recorded the truth of what he observed during the Treaty 9 negotiations in 1905, to the later immense benefit of Canada’s Treaty 9 First Nations. George MacMartin also served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and was the child of an American mother. My father served the Crown as a Sub Lieutenant on H.M.C.S. Oakville, convoying ships across the Atlantic to support Britain during World War II. My late mother, like George’s, was American and then became Canadian. My motivation in embarking on this research project regarding George MacMartin and his 1905 Treaty 9 diary has been to both learn more about my personal family heritage, as well as about the importance of the Crown and the Honour of the Crown as a defining and distinguishing element of Canadian identity. I now understand both of these things better. Perhaps other Canadians will too by reading this thesis. 1The McMartin Clan History. Genealogies Collection, MS 871, microfilm reel 15, Archives of Ontario (AO), 1. See also Charles Ian Fraser, The Clan Cameron: A Patriarchy Beset, Third Edition (Edinburgh and London: Johnston & Bacon Publishers, 1979). iii Acknowledgements The efforts of my thesis supervisor for this project, Dr. Heather Devine, are acknowledged with thanks. A Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada Graduate Scholarships (CGS) Master’s Program Grant provided a basis of funding for my research. I was able to supplement this with other funding sources, including my own, to undertake extensive field research travel in Eastern Canada and the United States. Without the SSHRC funding as a basis to work with, my thesis could not have been completed. Other important research travel funding support provided by the University of Calgary Department of History and Faculty of Graduate Studies is also acknowledged and greatly appreciated. I am also especially appreciative of the opportunity provided to me by the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) to observe the late Dr. Stan Louttit’s address on Treaty 9 made to the NAN First Nations Treaty Conference on March 18, 2014 and to meet him. University of Calgary microform and inter-library loan staff members Ji Zhao, Amy Chu, Lana Wong and Judy Zhao provided professional, efficient and friendly service, obtaining needed research material for me without which this project could not have been completed. Valuable and friendly research support was also provided to me by Irene Spence (Archives Lanark), Deborah Holder (Archives of Ontario), Heather Home (Queen’s University Archives), Sylvia Lassam (Trinity College Archives), Katherine Vollen (National Archives), Paul Leatherdale (Law Society of Upper Canada Archives), Justin White (Oswego County Historian) and Mark Slosek (Town of Oswego Historian). I am very appreciative of the support for my research provided by these professionals. My interaction with them was a pleasure. Finally, the ongoing support of my brothers Paul and Peter and of my cousin Sara MacMartin has been greatly appreciated. MacMartins stand together. iv v Dedication This thesis is dedicated to the memory of the late former Muskegowuk Council Grand Chief, Dr. Stan Louttit. His eloquent advocacy of the treaty rights of Treaty 9 First Nations based on their oral tradition-based account of the “real agreement” of Treaty 9 in the CBC Ideas radio program, “George MacMartin’s Big Canoe Trip” and subsequently was an inspiration for this research. vi Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Preface................................................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Dedication .......................................................................................................................... vi Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. vii List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures and Illustrations ......................................................................................... xi List of Maps ...................................................................................................................... xii Epigraph ........................................................................................................................... xiii Terminology ..................................................................................................................... xiv CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................1 Introduction ................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER TWO: THE ROYAL PROCLAMATION OF 1763, THE “HONOUR OF THE CROWN” AND S. 35 (1) CONSTITUTION ACT, 1982 ..........................................15 Royal Proclamation of 1763 ....................................................................................15 Honour of the Crown and section 35 (1), the Constitution Act, 1982 .....................23 Overview of Treaty 9 and the Numbered Treaties ..................................................30 Treaty 9 Historiography Review ..............................................................................47 2.5 Summary and Conclusion ........................................................................................57 CHAPTER THREE: “STEPPING STONES” - HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF ONTARIO’S TREATY 9 ROLE ..............................................................................59 Introduction and Three Canada-Ontario Agreements ..............................................59 Robinson Superior and Huron Treaties, 1850 .........................................................63 Constitutional and Contractual Context: B.N.A. Act and the Rupert’s Land Transfer68 Trilogy of Events Leading to 1894 Canada-Ontario Agreement .............................81 1891 Enabling Legislation, 1894 Canada-Ontario Agreement, and the 1895 Robinson Treaties Annuities Case .......................................................................................105 Ontario Mining Company