Treaties and settler colonialism: Joshua Manitowabi, Manitoulin Island Treaties: Anishinaabe Diplomacy, Agency, and Persistence, PhD dissertation, Brock University, 2024 | settler colonial studies blog

Treaties and settler colonialism: Joshua Manitowabi, Manitoulin Island Treaties: Anishinaabe Diplomacy, Agency, and Persistence, PhD dissertation, Brock University, 2024

01Oct24

Abstract: Treaties have been characterized by students of settler colonialism as tools of the empire. Treaties were rarely written for the benefit of Indigenous people but served as legal means to dispossess them of land and natural resources and deprive them of their traditional hunting and fishing rights. Efforts to bring land claims and resolve resource extraction disputes were often unsuccessful, in part because the interpretations of the treaties were based only on written documents that did not contain Indigenous perspectives on what the treaties should achieve. Efforts in recent years have been made to achieve a more equitable, balanced interpretation of historic treaties by accepting as evidence elements of traditional Indigenous culture such as oral histories that could clarify and support the Anishinaabe understanding of the intent of the treaty at the time of the signing. This study seeks to develop an Indigenous narrative of the Odawa, Ojibwa and Potawatomi nations of Manitoulin Island at the time of the land cession treaties of 1836 and 1862. Ethnohistory, cultural geography, research paradigms, and Indigenous research methodology provided evidence that supported the thesis that the Odawa possessed the knowledge and skills to negotiate treaties that would protect their people, land and way of life derived from a long history of successful diplomacy and treaty negotiations in the northern Great Lakes region. This study also looks to develop a more complete portrayal of the agency and resilience of the Odawa in adapting to the changes and conflicts brought by European settlers until the mid-19th century. An analysis of the historical events that preceded the 1862 treaty provides the context in which the Anishinaabe were forced to cede all of Manitoulin Island, except the eastern peninsula.

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