Enacting a Reciprocal Ethic of Care: (Finally) Fulfilling Treaty Obligations
By Elder Larry McDermott and Robin Roth
June 21, 2021
This blog is taken from a chapter to be included in the book Transforming the Wild, published by University of Toronto Press edited by Andrea Olive, Karen Beazley and Chance Finnegan.
There are two authors of this abridged chapter - the first is Algonquin Elder Larry McDermott who brings his decades of teachings, oral history and vast experience in the Indigenous conservation world to the collaboration. The second is Dr. Robin Roth, who brings years of learning from Indigenous Peoples in Canada and abroad and her training in synthesizing the written record to this work. We most frequently use the collective pronoun to indicate the collaborative nature of the work is but, where appropriate, name ourselves individually as the source of a particular statement or observation.
Replica of Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt. (Photo Credit: Leddy Library, University of Windsor)
Introduction:
National Indigenous History Month is an opportunity for Canadians to learn about, honour, recognize and amplify the voices, contributions and achievements of Indigenous Peoples. To heal our relationships and connections with each other and nature, we must first come to know our truths. This blog is based on a chapter we wrote for Transforming the Wild, in which we explore what we see to be the biggest barrier to successful wildlife management – the unfulfilled and improperly implemented Treaties between settler states and Indigenous Nations.
Indigenous relationships with the web of life, of which we are part, are based on Natural Law and the active expressions of gratitude and reciprocity leading to abundance. We refer to this approach as a ‘reciprocal ethic of care’. This is significantly different than the western approach to wildlife management where populations are managed to avoid depletion or even extinction. As we face a biodiversity and climate crisis in Canada and around the world, it is becoming clear that conventional science response to the crisis is not adequate.
The tradition of Treaty-making amongst Indigenous nations, and later, between Indigenous Nations and settler states, is a tradition that recognizes natural law and upholds our collective responsibilities towards our plant and animal friends. Fulfilling Treaty obligations would thus mark a turn in how relationships to wildlife are approached.
Pre-European Treaties: Natural Law
What is in a Treaty? More, we think, than most Canadians realize. Indigenous Elders and scholars have argued that Treaties between Indigenous Nations and the Crown are rooted in peoples’ relationships to the Great Spirit embodied in all of creation, the land, the water and both human and non-human beings.
Early Treaties were not between European leaders and Indigenous Nations, but between Indigenous Peoples and some of, or all of, the rest of nature, or between Indigenous Nations about the rest of nature. Such Treaties had always been used to recognize relations with the Sky, the Earth, the Great Spirit and all beings while ensuring peaceful co-existence of sovereign nations. They are rooted in Natural Law and are a legal expression of our responsibilities.
While Natural Law and the obligations of humanity towards the rest of the natural world are expressed in Treaties, Indigenous Teachings, such as the Seven Grandmother/Grandfather Teachings, remind us of our responsibilities and relationships to the web of life. These teachings are varied according to specific cultures and traditions but contain common themes, including:
Being one species among many;
The interconnectedness of life;
The importance of reciprocal relationships;
The expression of gratitude; and
Our collective responsibility to maintain balance, well-being and the continuation of Life.
These philosophies and cultural practices contain principles and values that informed early Treaty-making with European settlers. They can also serve to guide our understanding of the early Peace and Friendship Treaties, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the diplomatic proceedings at Fort Niagara in 1764.
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Treaty of Niagara:
The Royal Proclamation was issued by King George III on October 7, 1763, following the victory of Britain over France in the Seven Year’s War. It is sometimes referred to as the “Indian Magna Carta” because of its importance in recognizing Indigenous rights and title.
It “explicitly states that Aboriginal title has existed and continues to exist, and that all land would be considered Aboriginal land until ceded by treaty” (Source). It set a foundation for inclusion of both British and Indigenous Peoples ways of knowing, cultural protocols and legal systems (Source).
The Royal Proclamation set in motion the subsequent process for the Treaty of Niagara or Treaty of 1764, where two thousand or more Indigenous representatives from across Turtle Island (North America), travelled to Niagara join with British representatives of the Crown.
The British and Indigenous representatives communicated in both the written word and through oral knowledge sharing. Both parties produced wampum belts and exchanged them as a means of recording what was agreed to at the Treaty of Niagara. The wampum belts serve as a mnemonic device that connected to the oral tradition and the spiritual commitment expressed by both parties as part of the Treaty process. Wampum also contributed to the recorded written process.
The Covenant Chain Wampum presented by Sir William Johnson at the conclusion of the Council of Niagara. This replica was commissioned by Nathan Tidridge and created by Ken Maracle of the Seneca Nation. (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Creative Commons)
Oral teachings that first author Larry McDermott has received confirm that the two thousand or so Indigenous Peoples present at the Treaty of Niagara communicated the collective responsibility to care for the earth and all its inhabitants to the Crown, who accepted that responsibility in Ceremony.
In Treaty Elders of Saskatchewan, Cardinal and Hildebrandt write that the purpose of the Treaties was to secure “the Crown’s guarantee that the Crown would respect the integrity of the First Nations relationship with the Creator.” They further argue that the Treaties were intended to protect First Nations connections to land.
We would go a step further and argue that the Crown was agreeing to share the responsibility to ensure the connection and inherent responsibilities of all Indigenous Nations to the land and its inhabitants (human and more than human). Non-Indigenous Canadians frequently understand Nation-to-Nation Treaties as agreements to give and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples. More progressive understandings suggest the Treaties were about sharing the land. However, early Treaties contained instructions on how to share the responsibility for the land.
The failure to accept this instruction is the root cause of environmental destruction, race-based violence and other injustices that can be healed by pursuing true reconciliation; meaning reconciliation with each other and with the land.
What Does This Have to Do With Wildlife Management?
The objective of Indigenous approaches to wildlife conservation is to cultivate and maintain good relations and connections between all species. This is consistent with natural law and the intent behind Treaty. Whereas the objective of mainstream conservation and wildlife management is to protect a valued species from humans, who are understood as separate from nature.
The western paradigm that underpins mainstream conservation and wildlife management has its roots in the Papal Bull of 1493 ‘Doctrine of Discovery’. This decree advanced a belief that some humans were more human than others due to their perceived separation from nature (Source).
Settlers, following the Doctrine of Discovery, judged Indigenous people as less human because they were not Christian and had governance traditions that emphasized their connection to nature, rather than their superiority to it (Source). After a period of early settlement, driven in large part by a desire to extract and profit from the continent's natural resources, came a period of concern for dwindling resources.
Early interventions were created to keep market hunting in check and conserve game for the personal enjoyment of a (non-Indigenous) settler public, who wished to hunt for sport and recreation. This orientation toward hunting had dire consequences for Indigenous Peoples and others who hunted for sustenance.
The common set of regulatory tools employed by the state to manage wildlife in Canada have come to be known as the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation (NAM). NAM has deep roots in the settler-colonial imagination. For instance, it repeatedly refers to ‘wildlife’ as a ‘resource’. Both words, especially in relation to one another, make little sense from an Indigenous worldview. It ignores the values, needs and interests of Indigenous Peoples and advances a relationship to animals that is purely about recreation (Source).
NAM not only marginalizes Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge and governance of wildlife but, through its assumptions, serves to sever Indigenous Peoples’ relationships to species in their territories. This severely undermines their ability to practice a reciprocal ethic of care. Mainstream wildlife management in Canada has travelled far from the intent in those original agreements and Treaties between settler states and Indigenous Peoples – all at the expense and degradation of wildlife species.
The Opportunity
Canada’s continued willingness to ignore the intent behind the early and current Treaties with Indigenous Nations and the instructions held within them has led to a nature deficit. The ongoing undermining of these Treaties has also led to a lack of trust and dishonourable relationships between the Crown, conservation agencies and organizations and Indigenous Nations.
It represents a lost opportunity to learn governance processes, knowledge systems and worldviews that centre on care, reciprocity and respect. Instead, current approaches are dominated by an attempt to maximize commercial and industrial development opportunities. Conservationists are then left to try and save whatever scarce habitat they can at the continued expense of wildlife, lands and waters.
There is a global awakening of how damaging this economically-driven paradigm is (Source). The opportunity in front of us is to finally take up the responsibilities in the Treaties affirmed by our Ancestors and once again learn from Indigenous worldviews. The mainstream wildlife management toolbox needs to be expanded to include Indigenous knowledge and practices that seek to maintain and enhance the abundance and ecological integrity of all species. And we are starting to see this shift.
Trust and understanding has begun to rebuild through the Pathway to Target 1 process , and is now being acted upon in the following ways:
Changes to how conservation agencies approach and partner with Indigenous Peoples;
The willingness of conservation agencies to develop greater cultural competency amongst their staff;
The generosity of Indigenous thought leaders and Traditional Knowledge Holders in sharing their experiences, teachings and knowledge; and
The support – Canada-wide – for recognizing Indigenous leadership in conservation.
We turn now to the words of the late esteemed Algonquin Elder William Commanda, Keeper of the Seven Fires Prophecy Wampum Belt:
“These Difficult Times We Live In Were Forseen By Spiritual Visionaries Across the World. My Ancestors Warned Us About This Time And The Choices We Would Have To Make, In The Seven Fires Prophecy, Which Was Inscribed in Sacred Wampum Shell In The Late 1400s.
The Prophecy Holds A Vision For The Future Where We:
• Honour Our Relationship To Mother Earth And All Creation
• Celebrate Our Individual Gifts and Diversity, And Still
• Recognize and Respect Our Place Within A Circle Of All Nations.”
The decisions we make today, to practice Two-Eyed Seeing, to honour the original Treaties with Indigenous Nations and to live up to our mutual and collective responsibilities towards the whole web of life, will result in the future of which Elder William Commanda spoke, and our Ancestors envisioned!