Tonight on TVO: A Desert Between Us & Them: Raiders, Traitors, and Refugees in the War of 1812

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RetreatA story that has been two hundred years in the making will have its broadcast debut tonight at 9:00 P.M. on TVO. Narrated by R.H. Thomson, A Desert Between Us & Them: Raiders, Traitors, and Refugees in the War of 1812 is a 120 minute cinematic documentary that explores those stories that make the War of 1812 a “modern war” by stepping back in time to experience the conflict through the eyes of the people of Southwestern Ontario, who spent several years living in a War Zone.

For much of the war, the area know today as Southwestern Ontario was a no-mans land, controlled sometimes by the British, sometimes by the Americans, and sometimes by nobody in particular. There were insurgents and bands of vigilante groups loyal to both sides. There were refugee camps and rampant plundering and theft. The vast majority of the population were recent immigrants from the United States, who had to decide if they were going to fight for the British, “turncoat” and fight for the Americans, or do what most people did and simply try to stay out of the conflict by whatever means possible.

Today, the 200th anniversary of the Battle of the Thames, is a fitting date for the broadcast. One of the featured topics explored in the film is the fate of the Moravian Delaware from Fairfield (now the Moraviantown Delaware First Nation) whose dramatic experiences leading up to and following the Battle of the Thames are brought to life in vivid detail thanks to diaries kept by the Moravian Missionaries.

Director Zach Melnick notes that the stories in the film come from throughout Southwestern Ontario – running the gamut from Windsor to Burlington. “When we began our research, we knew that we wanted to cut through the veneer of romanticism that often surrounds the War of 1812,” says Melnick. “Our film imagines what it would’ve been like for you or I during the War of 1812, which was a truly brutal conflict for residents and soldiers in Upper Canada. But it’s worth remembering so that we can gain a greater understanding of our own history, as well as perhaps to better empathize with people today who are living in War Zones all over the world. In many ways, not much has changed in the last 200 years.” Continue reading →

The Royal Proclamation and Colonial Hocus-Pocus: a learned treatise

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By Victoria Freeman

We do further declare it to be our Royal Will and Pleasure, for the present, as aforesaid, to reserve under Our Sovereignty, Protection and Domain, for the use of said Indians, all lands and territories not within the limits of …etc., etc..

DON’T GET ME STARTED

Someone should write a PhD thesis on the number of Indigenous lifetimes wasted on litigation because of these words.  Someone should quantify exactly how much money lawyers (and historians) have made from them since 1763, or perhaps real estate developers, past and present.  Someone else should write a dissertation on Stephen Harper and the concept of “protection.”  I could go on…

I tried to write something balanced and thoughtful about the Royal Proclamation for this collection of essays.  But the truth is that it just makes me mad.  It is embarrassing, but my contribution to this discussion of the historical legacy of the Royal Proclamation is a rant.  Oh dear, there goes my career… Continue reading →

The Spirit of 1763: The Royal Proclamation in National and Global Perspective

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By Ken Coates

It is an auspicious moment for Canadians to revisit one of the founding documents in Canada’s legal and political history.  After a century of near neglect from politicians, bureaucrats and lawyers, the last forty-to-fifty years have seen this document brought to new life and vigor.  The renewal of interest in the Proclamation, however, was not solely a domestic event.  The Royal Proclamation re-emerged in First Nations and Canadian legal cultures at a time when Indigenous Rights became increasingly important around the globe.  Though not anchored in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 per se, countries around the world grappled with similar histories of promises and neglect.  As we look forward, beyond this 250th anniversary, it seems prudent to situate this document in the broader context, asking the question: “What does the Royal Proclamation mean for Canadians today?” Continue reading →

The life and times of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 in British Columbia

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By Neil Vallance and Hamar Foster

[The Royal Proclamation’s] force as a statute is analogous to the status of Magna Carta which has always been considered to be the law throughout the Empire.  It was a law which followed the flag as England assumed jurisdiction over newly-discovered or acquired lands or territories.  It follows, therefore, that the Colonial Laws Validity Act applied to make the Proclamation the law of British Columbia.  (Per Hall, J. S.C.C., in R. v. Calder, 1973)

The above extract from the dissenting decision of Justice Emmett Hall in R. v. Calder represents the high point of a long struggle by First Nations for recognition of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 (the “Proclamation”) as part of “the law of British Columbia.”  For over one hundred years the Proclamation has played an important, though hotly contested, role in what was known until recently as the “British Columbia Indian Land Question.” Continue reading →

Much ado about nothing: The Royal Proclamation on the edge of empire

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By Robert Englebert

On October 7, 1763, only months after signing the Treaty of Paris and ending the Seven Years’ War, Britain sought to confirm sovereignty over its newly acquired territories in North America through a Royal Proclamation.  ‘The Royal Proclamation’ – as it is now known – was a document designed to address the challenges born of conquest.  The exigencies of an expanded empire necessitated imperial directives to bring new peoples and lands into the British imperial fold.  In short, the Royal Proclamation prescribed a series of changes that attempted to redefine North America. Continue reading →

“the said Lands…shall be purchased only for Us”: The Effect of the Royal Proclamation on Government

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By Brandon Morris and Jay Cassel

The Royal Proclamation is not an ancient document but it has remained in effect for 250 years, even if it is not well known by Canadians. It became the framework for treaty-making in relation to land rights in the decades after 1763 and as such it is a core document in Crown-First Nations relations. The principles that it established underlie a large part of the work of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs (MAA).  Simply put, there would not be any territorial treaties, land claims, or Ministries of Aboriginal Affairs without the Royal Proclamation. Continue reading →

Reflections on 1763 in Far Northern Ontario

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By John S. Long

The tensions in the Royal Proclamation have ebbed and flowed over the past 250 years and, of course, are still with us today. The treaty relationships that unite First Peoples with other Canadians are inherently problematic, due to our differing understandings (or perhaps outright ignorance) of history. Notwithstanding the Proclamation, and the gubernatorial proclamations that reinforced it, many of the early treaties in what is now Ontario were fraught with dissatisfaction on the part of First Peoples, even before 1812. After Confederation, treaty-makers sometimes resorted to almost take-it-or-leave-it bargaining. Following the 1888 St. Catherines Milling decision, outright deception sometimes led to diametrically opposed written and oral versions of the treaty relationship. The respectful principles embodied in the Proclamation languished for decades. Continue reading →

Parchment, Wampum, Letters and Symbols: Expanding the parameters of the Royal Proclamation commemoration

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By Alan Ojiig Corbiere, Bne Doodeman, Mchigiing Njibaa

This year marks the 250th Anniversary of the Royal Proclamation, but for some reason it does not mark the 250th Anniversary of the action taken by Odaawaa Chief Pontiac and others.  A piece of paper signed by King George III receives more attention than the actions of this chief and his colleagues.  Pontiac loses out in public consciousness and exposure to a piece of parchment that does not have any Anishinaabe signatories.

The Royal Proclamation has been called the magna carta of Indian rights and Aboriginal title.  However, it was not made for the Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe, Odaawaa, Potowatomi, Nipissing, Mississauga, Algonquin, Saulteux and Toughkawmiwans) nor the Haudenosaunee, nor any other nations (Menominee, Sauk, Fox, Cree, Sioux, Ho-Chunk), it was made for the settlers and colonial officials.  It is a legal document designed as a foundation on which the British could commence dispossessing Native American nations of their land, to affect their Manifest Destiny. Continue reading →

The Haundenosaunee/Six Nations and the Royal Proclamation of 1763

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By Keith Jamieson

THE COVENANT CHAIN RELATIONSHIP

The Haudenosaunee/Six Nations have a very different understanding of the Royal Proclamation of 1763.  While the document stated the process by which the Crown would engage native people in acquiring lands for settlement, it also asserted the sovereignty of the Crown over all people in North America.  To the Haudenosaunee, this unilateral proclamation would have been considered as not applicable to them.  It was contrary to the long-standing Covenant Chain relationship they had already agreed to with the Crown.

In order to grasp this understanding more fully, one needs to understand the progression of wampum belt agreements over time  – those agreements that preceded the Proclamation and those that followed. Continue reading →

The Royal Proclamation and the Canadiens

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By Donald Fyson

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 holds an ambiguous place in debates over Quebec’s relationship with Canada. In sovereignist discourse, it is regularly evoked as a baleful reminder of British perfidy towards francophone Quebecers. The relatively benign military occupation between 1759/1760 and 1764 raised false hopes in the minds of the Canadiens (the French-descended colonists). The Royal Proclamation dashed these hopes and stamped on Canadien rights. It took away their laws and it imposed the harsh anti-Catholic measures in force in England and its colonies. It was a “chape de plomb” (a leaden weight), as an editorialist for Le Devoir put it earlier this year, or more dramatically, according to another commentator, an “arrêt de mort” (a death sentence). In contrast, in what I call the “jovialist” discourse of those who see the British Conquest of Quebec as unreservedly beneficial, the Proclamation is often barely mentioned at all. The emphasis is put on the Quebec Act, which restored Canadien law and Canadien civil rights. At best, it is suggested that by introducing English public law, the Proclamation also introduced English liberties such as habeas corpus (the right to contest unlawful imprisonment) and trial by jury.

The reality was, of course, more complex. Continue reading →