Treaty Education

 

Teaching students about the significance of the history of the treaties is important because it gives an overview of the relationship between the Canadian Government and the First Nations people of the land. With the creation of the numbered treaties, it proves that there was strong relationship between First Nations people and the Canadian Government. But after the creation of the numbered treaties was when the relationship took a negative turn.

After the numbered treaties were created, the Canadian Government had the mentality that First Nations people belonged on the reserves, and the reserves belonged to the First Nations people. Also the Canadian Government has the mentality that the rest of the land belonged to them. After the Canadian Government had this negative mentality, it created a relationship that was not healthy for either people. With the negative mentality brought the negative enforcements that were set by the Canadian Government (examples: residential schools and pass systems). With these different types of enforcements created a mistrust from the First Nations people towards the Canadian Government, and this mistrust still continues until this day.

Being able to recognize that the treaties were a huge part in creating a negative relationship between the First Nations people and the Canadian Government. If every educator or future educator was able to learn about the treaties and the significance that they hold will help each and every student learn a little bit more about First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people. As future educators, I feel that it is important to learn, or try to learn, as much as we can about the history of the treaties because it will teach us more about the relationship between First Nations people and history of colonialism.