{"id":35905,"date":"2014-02-20T07:28:27","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T07:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=35905"},"modified":"2014-02-20T07:28:27","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T07:28:27","slug":"kaa-tipeyimishoyaahk-we-are-those-who-own-ourselves-a-political-history-of-metis-self-determination-in-the-north-west-1830-1870","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=35905","title":{"rendered":"Kaa-tipeyimishoyaahk – \u2018We are those who own ourselves\u2019: A Political History of M\u00e9tis Self-Determination in the North-West, 1830-1870"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kaa-tipeyimishoyaahk – \u2018We are those who own ourselves\u2019: A Political History of M\u00e9tis Self-Determination in the North-West, 1830-1870<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

University of Victoria, British Columbia
\n2014
\n394 pages<\/p>\n

Adam James Patrick Gaudry<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Indigenous Governance<\/em><\/p>\n

This dissertation offers an analysis of the history of M\u00e9tis<\/a> political thought in the nineteenth century and its role in the anti-colonial resistances to Canada\u2019s and Hudson\u2019s Bay Company<\/a> governance. Utilizing the Michif<\/a> concepts of kaa-tipeyimishoyaahk<\/em> and wahkohtowin<\/em><\/a> to shed light on M\u00e9tis political practices, this work argues that the M\u00e9tis people had established themselves as an independent Indigenous people in the nineteenth century North West. By use of a common language of prairie diplomacy, M\u00e9tis had situated themselves as a close \u201crelation\u201d of the Hudson\u2019s Bay Company, but still politically independent of it. Nineteenth century M\u00e9tis 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 M\u00e9tis terms. In 1869-1870, after repelling a Canadian official who was intended to establish Canadian authority over the North-West, the M\u00e9tis 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<\/a> then sent delegates to Ottawa<\/a> to negotiate \u201cthe Manitoba Treaty<\/a>,\u201d a bilateral constitutional document that created a new province of Manitoba, that would contain a M\u00e9tis\/Halfbreed majority, as well as very specific territorial, political, social, cultural, and economic protections that would safeguard the M\u00e9tis and Halfbreed controlled future of Manitoba<\/a>. 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 M\u00e9tis\/Halfbreed land reserve, a commitment to establish a M\u00e9tis\/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 M\u00e9tis lands were properly distributed. While these key components of the Manitoba Treaty were not included in the Manitoba Act<\/a>, they remain a binding part of the agreement, and thus, an unfulfilled obligation borne by the contemporary government of Canada. Without adhering to Canada\u2019s treaty with the M\u00e9tis people, its presence on M\u00e9tis lands, and jurisdiction over M\u00e9tis people is highly suspect. Only by returning to the original agreement embodied by the Manitoba Act can Canada claim any legitimacy on M\u00e9tis territories or any functional political relationship with the M\u00e9tis people.<\/p>\n

Read the entire dissertation here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kaa-tipeyimishoyaahk – \u2018We are those who own ourselves\u2019: A Political History of M\u00e9tis Self-Determination in the North-West, 1830-1870 University of Victoria, British Columbia 2014 394 pages Adam James Patrick Gaudry Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Indigenous Governance This dissertation offers an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,838,459,8,3015,26],"tags":[17004,5326],"class_list":["post-35905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canada","category-dissertations","category-history","category-media-archive","category-native-americans","category-politics","tag-adam-james-patrick-gaudry","tag-university-of-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}