Yes, but the left only cares about native issues when its politically expedient.
Gotcha. I thought as much but wasn’t sure.
Nope! Actually about half of so-called “Canada” is completely unceded, including “Vancouver”. Meaning that the Canadian state has no jurisdiction over these sovereign nations, and only holds on to control through militaryoccupation. But as we see in the northwest, and elsewhere across the country, many Indigenous nations are starting to liberate their territories of the colonial state.
And of those pre-confederate treaties that where signed, every single one has been broken by the colonizers, which then nullifies them.
Due to losing two groundbreaking court cases, and continually breaking international law (for whatever that’s worth), the colonizers have been actively engaging in a modern day treaty process that:
many grassroots Natives oppose (…) because it’s 1) a fraudulent process negotiated between government funded and imposed band councils and the provincial and federal governments (meaning these are not treaties between sovereign nations), and 2) it is part of the state’s long term strategy of legal, political and economic assimilation through which bands will no longer be under the Indian Act and reserve lands are transformed to fee simple property which can be bought, sold or leased like any other property, and 3) it is part of the overall “self-government” policy which ends with bands self-managing their own oppression. ***
Revolutionaries, whether they identify as anarchists or Indigenous militants, are daily in perpetual conflict with the colonial state. We refuse to ever forget the horrors perpetuated by the colonizers or the life that they attempted to erase to build this mechanized existence we find ourselves in. Indigenous rebels have been involved in countless anarchist projects around here, and vise versa. We live with and fight alongside one another, in autonomous communities and on flaming barricades all across this country. If anything, the odd time we have to deescalate hostilities towards the colonial state, say to go to court or deal with some other theft or oppression, is being “politically expedient”, but never the contrary. There isn’t a moment that goes by where we forget whose land we’re on, the relationships we have, or the histories here. Please feel free to explain otherwise since you felt so willing to make such a heedless comment.
(A rough view of unceded Indigenous territory.)
I live in Treaty 7 lands (Calgary in the red area). The groups here only signed the treaty because the alternative was starvation and being murdered. American raiders would attack constantly and they wanted the Canadian military to protect them. Many had lived in the USA but fled up here because of campaigns to kill them all down south.
Also the Canadian government did not live up to the agreements whatsoever. (Those who negotiated them thought they would be) John A MacDonald intentionally tried to starve the Blackfoot Confederacy to death – after they signed a treaty promising them food, education, etc.
I worked at Heritage Park as a “Mountie” (a historical theme park) and had the treaty on the wall. Also my binder of information included letters mounties sent being like “Where is the food I am supposed to give these people?” and were ignored because the government in Ottawa wanted the natives to die. Documents show John A Macdonald wanted them to starve to death so white settlers could move in.
The Blackfoot had been nomadic hunters. But were placed in “Reservations” (aka concentration camps) and not allowed to leave.
LNG Canada was just approved. Fuck Canada! No pipelines on stolen Indigenous land!
Canada is an evil mess of genocide and exploitation dressed up in a suit of “good maners” and “progressive politics”. Both of which are utterly false and if you spend litteraly 2 minutes researching Canadian history and politics you’ll understand that.
Our main government building is on unceded Algonquin land. They literally say this in Parliament.
And yeah, John A McDonald wanted the Indigenous people gone. It’s why he set up the Residential School system and Indian Act as well. He literally wanted them either gone or culturally dead and absorbed into the white supremacist vision he had for Canada.
Nava 