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User:Fhusis/Grand Council Treaty No. 3

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Grand Council Treaty No. 3 is the traditional government of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty No. 3, an aboriginal people of Canada.[1] It is comprised of many councils of the Nation.[2]

History

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The origins of the Grand Council predate written records. Modern research concludes: "Abundant natural resources were the foundation for Anishinaabe government. During the 18th and 19th centuries, large groups gathered during harvest seasons, at maple sugar groves, fishing stations, berry patches, garden sites, and rice fields. The sturgeon during spring spawning season supported the assembly of up to 1,500 people at fishing stations on Rainy River. At Couchiching Falls (present-day Fort Frances), the Anishinaabe national government met each spring, relying upon abundant spawning runs of sturgeon and stored supplies of manomin, maple sugar and Indian corn."[3]

Alexander Morris' records of his dealings with the Grand Council in 1873, collected in his 1880 book, The Treaties of Canada with the Indians, provide insights into the workings of the Council at that time.[4] Morris was one of three Commissioners empowered by the Privy Council to make a treaty that would open up safe passage from Upper Canada via Lake Superior and the Rainy and Winnipeg Rivers to the Prairies, thus securing access to vast areas of land in what was becoming modern Canada. He recounts details of his dealings with "the Indian Council": "The nation had not met for many years, and some of [the Chiefs] had never before been assembled together." He dealt with the Council as the government of a people: "I then told them that I ... wished to treat with them as a nation and not with separate bands, as they would otherwise compel me to do; and therefore urged them to return to their council."[5]

Constitution

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The customary constitution of the Anishinaabe Nation in Treaty No. 3 is uncodified.[6] Treaty 3 fundamentally affected the constitutional laws of the Nation.[7] Significantly, not all the Chiefs were present for the momentous Treaty 3 decision. Others subscribed to it later.[8] These events illustrated a unique and foundational principle of the Nation's constitution: the primacy of its communities.[9] According to this principle, laws of the Nation do not require consent of all its communities, but affect a community only if it consents.

Government

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The government of the Nation derives from and rests upon the consent of the people. "Traditional values featured a distrust of excessive power and an emphasis upon consensual, rather than representative, democracy."[10] The National Assembly of the Nation, comprising leaders sent by each community according to its own determination, including elders, women and other leaders, assembled in the presence of constitutional symbols of the Nation, determines national policy by consensus.[11] The National Assembly selects the Ogichidaa.[12] There is no fixed term; the National Assembly may reconsider its selection at any time. The Ogichidaa/kwe appoints members of an Executive Council and answers to the National Assembly for their performance. The Executive Council exercises the executive authority of the Nation. While its members may be local political figures, in this capacity they have fiduciary duties to the Nation as a whole.

Notes

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  1. ^ The government of Canada recognizes self-government of aboriginal peoples as a continuing right that is recognized and affirmed by the Constitution of Canada; "Aboriginal Self-Government: The Government of Canada's Approach to Implementation of the Inherent Right and the Negotiation of Aboriginal Self-Government"; see http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/pub/sg/plcy_e.html, accessed 10 September 2008.
  2. ^ In the widest use of the term, Grand Council Treaty No. 3 includes national, regional and community councils.
  3. ^ Leo Waisberg & Tim Holzkamm, working paper (2001), "Traditional Anishinaabe Governance of Treaty #3", p. 2, in which other opinions are reviewed; http://www.gct3.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/trad_gov.pdf, accessed 10 September 2008.
  4. ^ Alexander Morris, The Treaties of Canada with the Indians, Belfords, Clarke & Co., Toronto (1880).
  5. ^ Alexander Morris, official dispatch to the Minister of the Interior, October 14, 1873, in Alexander Morris, The Treaties of Canada with the Indians, Belfords , Clarke & Co., Toronto (1880), pp. 47 - 49.
  6. ^ Customary law of aboriginal peoples of Canada forms part of the common law and is enforceable in the courts of Canada; see: Campbell v. British Columbia, 2000 BCSC 1123, paras. 83 - 87; http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/sc/00/11/s00-1123.htm, accessed 9 September 2008.
  7. ^ Most fundamentally, Treaty 3 made it unconstitutional for the Nation to make war upon Canada. While controversy remains about terms of the Treaty, this point was pivotal and both sides clearly understood it.
  8. ^ See: Adhesion of Lac Seul Indians, Alexander Morris, The Treaties of Canada with the Indians, Belfords, Clarke & Co., Toronto (1880), p. 329.
  9. ^ Currently, the Nation has 28 communities, but has not surrendered the power to move communities or establish additional communities within its territory.
  10. ^ Leo Waisberg & Tim Holzkamm, (2001), "Traditional Anishinaabe Governance of Treaty #3", p. 4; http://www.gct3.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/trad_gov.pdf, accessed 10 September 2008.
  11. ^ Constitutional symbols include drums, pipes and other sacred items, treated with due respect.
  12. ^ Selection is made by traditional stand-up vote. When female, as in 2008 for the first time in recorded history, she is "the Ogichidaakwe".
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