Kaa-tipeyimishoyaahk - ‘We are those who own ourselves’: A Political History of Métis Self-Determination in the North-West, 1830-1870 by Adam James Patrick Gaudry Master of Arts, Queen’s University, 2009 Bachelor of Arts, Queen’s University, 2007 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Indigenous Governance Adam James Patrick Gaudry, 2014 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee Kaa-tipeyimishoyaahk - ‘We are those who own ourselves’: A Political History of Métis Self-Determination in the North-West, 1830-1870 by Adam James Patrick Gaudry Master of Arts, Queen’s University, 2009 Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Queen’s University, 2007 Supervisory Committee Dr. Jeff Corntassel, Indigenous Governance Program Supervisor Dr. Taiaiake Alfred, Indigenous Governance Program Departmental Member Dr. Christine O’Bonsawin, Indigenous Studies and History Outside Member Victoria Pruden, Métis Nation of Greater Victoria Additional Member iii Abstract Supervisory Committee Dr. Jeff Corntassel, Indigenous Governance Program Supervisor Dr. Taiaiake Alfred, Indigenous Governance Program Departmental Member Dr. Christine O’Bonsawin, Indigenous Studies and History Outside Member Victoria Pruden, Metis Nation of Greater Victoria Additional Member This dissertation offers an analysis of the history of Métis political thought in the nineteenth century and its role in the anti-colonial resistances to Canada’s and Hudson’s Bay Company governance. Utilizing the Michif concepts of kaa-tipeyimishoyaahk and wahkohtowin to shed light on Métis political practices, this work argues that the Métis people had established themselves as an independent Indigenous people in the nineteenth century North West. By use of a common language of prairie diplomacy, Métis had situated themselves as a close “relation” of the Hudson’s Bay Company, but still politically independent of it. Nineteenth century Métis had repeatedly demonstrated their independence from British institutions of justice and politics, and were equally insistent that Canadian institutions had no authority over them. When they did choose to form a diplomatic relationship with Canada, it was decidedly on Métis terms. In 1869-1870, after repelling a Canadian official who was intended to establish Canadian authority over the North-West, the Métis formed a provisional government with their Halfbreed cousins to enter into negotiations with Canada to establish a confederal treaty relationship. The Provisional Government of Assiniboia then sent delegates to Ottawa to negotiate “the Manitoba Treaty,” a bilateral constitutional document that created a new province of Manitoba, that would contain a Métis/Halfbreed majority, as well as very specific territorial, political, social, cultural, and economic protections that would safeguard the Métis and Halfbreed controlled future of Manitoba. This agreement was embodied only partially in the oft-cited Manitoba Act, as several key elements of the agreement were oral negotiations that were later to be institutionalized by the Canadian cabinet, although were only ever partially implemented. These protections included restrictions on the sale of the 1.4 million acre Métis/Halfbreed land reserve, a commitment to establish a iv Métis/Halfbreed controlled upper-house in the new Manitoba legislature, a temporary limitation of the franchise to current residents of the North West, and restrictions on Canadian immigration to the new province until Métis lands were properly distributed. While these key components of the Manitoba Treaty were not included in the Manitoba Act, they remain a binding part of the agreement, and thus, an unfulfilled obligation borne by the contemporary government of Canada. Without adhering to Canada’s treaty with the Métis people, its presence on Métis lands, and jurisdiction over Métis people is highly suspect. Only by returning to the original agreement embodied by the Manitoba Act can Canada claim any legitimacy on Métis territories or any functional political relationship with the Métis people. v Table of Contents Supervisory Committee ...................................................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ v Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1 – Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 Conceptualizing Métis Political Authority and Métis Diplomatic Relations ................. 4 A History of Métis Political Authority and Colonial Fantasies of Ownership ............. 10 The Métis People, the New Nation ............................................................................... 15 Organization of Chapters .............................................................................................. 18 Some Notes on Terminology ........................................................................................ 24 Chapter 2 – “the enlightened rule of Her Most Gracious Majesty our Queen”: The Fantasy of British and Canadian Sovereignty over the Métis People in the Nineteenth Century North-West .......................................................................................................... 25 The Doctrine of Discovery and the Charter of the Hudson’s Bay Company ............... 29 ‘By annual present of Quitrent’: The Selkirk Treaty of 1817 ....................................... 41 Canadian Claims of Discovery at the 1857 Select Committee on the Hudson’s Bay Company ....................................................................................................................... 51 “Taken from under their feet”: Negotiations for the Purchase of the North-West, 1865- 1869 ............................................................................................................................... 64 A Different Narrative of Political Authority in the North-West ................................... 70 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 72 Chapter 3 – ‘Enjoying our own government based on true conceptions of freedom’: Buffalo Hunt Governance and Expression of Political Authority .................................... 75 Kaa-tipeyimishoyaahk and Wahkohtowin: Balancing Métis Governance .................... 78 The Buffalo Hunt: The Constitutional Foundation of Métis Governance .................... 93 Situational Authority and the Limits of Kaa-tipeyimishoyaahk ................................. 104 Wahkohtowin and Familial Self-Ownership during the Hunt .................................... 113 The Un-Ending Hunt: Métis Governance in the Settlement ....................................... 117 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 126 Chapter 4 – ‘peace and friendship, which has so long knit our hearts together’: The Métis Diplomatic Tradition and the Indigenous Political System in the North-West .............. 128 A Systemic Approach to Indigenous Diplomacy ........................................................ 136 Wahkohtowin and the Diplomatic Tradition of the North-West ................................. 142 Diplomacy among Relatives ....................................................................................... 146 Métis Diplomacy with Strangers ................................................................................ 152 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 164 Chapter 5 – ‘That government to which we had subjected ourselves through necessity’: kaa-tipeyimishoyaahk and Hudson’s Bay Company Governance in the Mid-Nineteenth Century North-West ........................................................................................................ 167 Governing at the Pleasure of the Métis ....................................................................... 171 The Laroque Affair ..................................................................................................... 175 The Flogging of St. Denis ........................................................................................... 180 vi ‘Le commerce est libre!’: The Fourteen Questions, Wahkohtowin, and Sayer’s Trial 184 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 204 Chapter 6 –‘transferred to a strange power’: Canada-Métis Relations and the Formation of the Comité National de Métis in 1869 ........................................................................ 207 The Distrust of Canada in Red River .......................................................................... 210 Métis Organizing in the Summer of 1869 ................................................................... 215 Le Comité National de Metis .....................................................................................