The Rise and Fall of the Hudson’s Bay Company: A Trickster’s Reflection

The Rise and Fall of the Hudson’s Bay Company: A Trickster’s Reflection

As I sit in my tipi drinking tea with my friend, the Trickster Coyote, this Sunday afternoon, we are surrounded by muskets, beaver pelts, and well-worn utensils. The fire gives off a warm glow, and we talk of the history of our nation and the workers at the local Hudson’s Bay Company fort, many of whom might soon be losing their jobs. Coyote chuckles, his sharp teeth glinting in the firelight, reminding me of the history of Canada and Indigenous peoples.

The Hudson’s Bay Company arrived in Cree (Nêhiyaw) territory over 350 years ago, bringing change, whether we wanted it or not. At first, they said they only wanted to trade—beaver pelts for metal pots, knives, and muskets. The exchange seemed fair. The land was vast, the animals plentiful, and their numbers were few—just a handful of Scotsmen and Englishmen, eager to make their fortunes. But Coyote laughs because he sees the irony of it all. These men who came as guests soon began to act like landlords, claiming the land beneath our feet as their own. They said the land was called Rupert’s Land, named after a prince of England. We call it Askiy.

At first, their presence was strange, but they were traders, and we were traders, too. We did not think of land ownership in the same way; we moved with the seasons, following the rhythm of the earth. But then, in 1812, they brought refugees from Scotland—families fleeing hardship, seeking a new beginning along the Red River. And the trickle became a flood. We wanted to help them, and we did, as we always have. The land they once said they only wanted to trade upon became land they claimed. What was once shared was now fenced. The buffalo herds that had sustained us dwindled, pushed aside by settlers and their cattle. Eventually, the Hudson’s Bay Company said the land had been sold to Canada. Coyote and I laugh at the thought—the audacity!

So we forced them to sign treaties, not with the government, but with the Crown. The Crown rules by the grace of God, and we, the Cree, are here because of Kitchi Manitou. It is unfortunate, but the treaties we signed with the Crown in good faith were often ignored or manipulated, and Canada even created the Indian Act, as enduring as the Hudson’s Bay Company itself. We said we would share the land as long as the sun shines, the grasses grow, and the rivers flow. But those words, sacred to us, were mere formalities to them.

Now, after centuries of dominance, the once-mighty Hudson’s Bay Company is struggling. The company of empire, which once controlled trade routes and dictated policies, now fights to stay afloat. They prioritized profit above all else, and now, they are victims of their own philosophy. Make money at all costs—that was their way. But now, the cost may be their own existence.

Ironically, an offshoot of their old rival, the North West Company, still thrives. It sells food and supplies in remote Indigenous communities, where prices are exorbitant, but demand never fades. They are often the only game in town. Coyote shakes his head, knowing that as long as there is money to be made, someone will always step in to fill the void.

There is a strange sadness in watching an old adversary and friend disappear. We built this country together in ways that history books rarely acknowledge. We gathered at their forts, traded, laughed, married, and sometimes fought. Their blankets and guns became part of our lives, and our furs and skills became part of their wealth. And though the nation we helped build would later betray us, we were there, side by side, from the very beginning.

Now, the Hudson’s Bay Company is but a shadow of its former self. The empire they once claimed is slipping from their grasp, just as they once took the land from us. Coyote grins, knowing that change is constant, that the land endures, and that we, the people of this land, are still here. Perhaps, in the end, that is the greatest irony of all. We will always be here.

The empire has come, the empire has gone,
The Nêhiyawak still stand strong.
We watch over this land with pride,

 

The Changing Aboriginal Woman’s Role in the Family and the Workforce

This is an independent radio documentary on the changing roles of aboriginal women since colonialization. This documentary was produced for the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba Aboriginal Education course EDUA 1500.Group members include Lana Jorgensen, Kyleigh Hurak and Rachael Smith.

To provide some personal insight we speak to Wanda Wuttunee (Professor in Native Studies at the University of Manitoba). Through the interview we examine aboriginal women's role within the family prior to colonialization and how the woman’s role in the family was well defined, but not restrictive. We examine how the arrival of the settlers brought many changes to the Aboriginal peoples. Primarily through residential schools, the settlers forced their beliefs and values upon the Aboriginal peoples that changed the role of women within the family.

Next Wanda Wuttunee explains how through the workforce aboriginal women have become the strong backbone of modern Aboriginal society. Like modern women they are overcoming adversity to participate in all spheres of the workforce. They use their traditions and traditional values to achieve success in their chosen careers and benefit their communities.

Interviews with: Dr. Wanda Wuttunee

Production Team: Rachael Smith, Lana Jorgensen, Kyleigh Hurak

Music: Woman of Red by Tracy Bone, Little Angel by Asani, Buffalo Song by Asani, Niwiciwakan by Asani, Eagle Man/Changing Woman by Buffy Sainte-Marie.

To Learn More (podcast & radio documentary)

https://archive.org/details/Group8Mixdown

https://archive.org/download/Group8Mixdown/group%208%20Mixdown.mp3

Canadian Indian Residential Schools as “Cultural Genocide” (Radio Documentary)

This is a 30 minute independent radio documentary Canadian Indian Residential Schools as “Cultural Genocide.” We will look at how cultural genocide is defined and how various experts in the field would justify using the term genocide to describe the terrible tragedy that is a part of Canadian history. 

Article 2 of the Genocide Convention states that "genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

From these criteria, we see that the Indian Residential School system could easily be classified as a type of cultural genocide. We also explore the intergenerational effects of the Canadian Residential Schools. It is clear that being removed from your family and placed in these institutions could have a negative impact on your life and on the lives of your children. In addition, we provide the views of some everyday people on the issues surrounding Canadian Indian Residential Schools.  Finally, we offer some suggestions for moving forward from here, such as the promotion of aboriginal culture and awareness of past events.

Sources:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/paul-martin-accuses-residential-schools-of-cultural-genocide-1.1335199

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_genocide

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/bernie-farber/canada-genocide-first-nations_b_4122651.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/18/genocide-first-nations-aboriginals-canada-un_n_4123112.html

http://www.wherearethechildren.ca/en/exhibit/impacts.html

http://www.macdonaldlaurier.ca/on-comparing-genocides/

http://caid.ca/

Songs:

Red Revolution by Robert Ouellete as sung by Ila Barker

The Road Before Us by Peter Kater

Inuit Stand Up by Susan Aglukark

Voices of the Wind by Alice Gomez

Pocahontas - World Championship Song 96 by Clayton Chief as performed by Melsin Stone

Produced by: Nicole Buhler, Keirston Smith, Cara Fehr, Sara Pirch

To Learn More (Radio Documentary) 
https://archive.org/details/RadiodocMixdownGroup2 
https://archive.org/download/RadiodocMixdownGroup2/radiodoc_mixdown%20group%202.mp3

Super Savages and Sovereign Traces: Introduction to Indigenous Graphic Novels

Dr Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair a professor at the University of Manitoba is featured in a video by Trevor Greyeyes News. Niigaan talks about the course Super Savages and Sovereign Traces: Introduction to Indigenous Graphic Novels he developed at the University of Manitoba which explores the ideas of the graphic novel from the Indigenous perspective. Obviously there are the portrayals of Indigenous peoples in graphic novels by non-Indigenous peoples and the growing field of the Indigenous artist using the graphic novel to tell their own narrative and story.  The use of Indigenous peoples in graphic novels (comics) was also a means to consume the Indian, to use the image of the Indian to reinforce stereotypes. I wonder though if we can still find pride in those images of the warrior in the comics which allow Indigenous peoples to feel strong and recognize that their culture is so powerful and enduring. When the dominant culture must use anothers image to supplement their own what are they missing? What forces them to do so? Now many Indigenous artists and writers like Dave Robertson (Sugar Falls) are using the graphic novel to tell difficult stories about Indigenous survival. They take the academic and make it real. To Learn More (Video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmqvKNk4XDQ http://www.youtube.com/v/YmqvKNk4XDQ?autohide=1&version=3&attribution_tag=xDp3JMhcUFoCPTv77TSbPw&autoplay=1&showinfo=1&feature=share&autohide=1

Grand Chief Derek Nepinak and (Human) Treaty Rights

On September 18, 2013 the Grand Chief Derek Nepinak of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs came to the University of Manitoba to give his vision for treaty rights and relations between First Nations (or Status Indians - there was a whole debate surrounding this term) and the federal government.  GC Nepinak has been very controversial in the past year having very closely aligned himself with the Idle No More movement and has presented a opposing vision of the relations that should exist between First Nations and the Federal government. While some have accused him of trying to destroy the Assembly of First Nations when you hear CG Nepinak speak you hear someone who is concerned that the current system is not working for First Nations peoples and the current approach in dealing with the federal government is in fact not allowing First nations to be strong and self-reliant peoples, but peoples living in dependence. 

GC Nepinak has now set up another national organization of a Treaty Alliance which hopes to bring recogogniztion and respect of the treaties that have been signed by the crown and First Nations. He was introduced by Dr Niiganan Sinclair (UManitoba). He partially addressed the idea that his work is not only so he may challenge for the position of GC of the Assembly of First Nations, but promote greater understanding between Aboriginal peoples and Canadians. He certainly demonstrates that he does not beleive the approach used by current AFM leadership is working. I should note he never actually said he was interested in being CG of the AFN, but there seems to be an undercurrent pushing him to this position.

CG Nepinak is asking for a return to a original understanding of the treaties. It is a very difficult line to walk between building and destruction An Elder said to me it is easier to destroy than to build or we can live in two ways, the path of chaos or the path of the good life. It will certainly be an on going debate for years to come. If the work of GC Nepinak in Manitoba and all treaty territories to change the way First Nation peoples deal in their relations with the federal government and all Canadians starts gaining greater traction, we must remember where it started. 

To Learn More (Video)

http://youtu.be/wUh0pEkp3ek

The incredible moment George VI met Canadian Indians who presented him with their favourite picture of 'Big White Mother' Queen Victoria

In celebration or remembrance of Queen Victoria Day in Canada. I invite you to see this article from the Mail about King George VI who met some First Nations in Canada on his first trip as King to Canada in 1939. The photo is dated May 26. He was shown a picture of Queen Victoria (his Kokoum-grandmother). The two chiefs greeting the King are also wearing treaty medals as well as one is wearing a treaty uniform given to chief who had signed treaty.

There are many things to reflect on this day concerning the history of this day and it importance to the relations between the Aboriginal peoples of Canada and settlers societies.

The Mail from England calls the Indigenous peoples Indians and not First Nations, it is their term not mine. So Happy Victoria Day.

Book Review Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada-Mythic Discourse in the Post-Colonial State

Here is Louis Riel at the Manitoba Legislature facing away towards the Assiniboine River. What is the message? Does he look to the river and the ebb and flow of flow of fortunes of his people of Manitoba? Does the river represent the past or the future or the present? Is symbolic Riel looking to the past. It is certainly magnificent to skate by this statue, but it is a shame so few people get to see from the river.

Book Review published in Aboriginal Policy Studies

Riel a little closer Feb 23 2013

Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada-Mythic Discourse in the Post-Colonial State

Robert-Falcon Ouellette’s interview with the author, Jennifer Reid

142-148

http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/aps/article/view/19011

http://dx.doi.org/10.5663/aps.v2i2.19011  

http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/aps/article/view/19011/pdf 

aboriginal policy studies, Vol. 2, no. 2, 2013

www.ualberta.ca/nativestudies/aps/
ISSN: 1923-3299

Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada—
Mythic Discourse in the Post-Colonial State
Robert-Falcon Ouellette’s interview with the author, Jennifer Reid

The following is a conversation that took place on the radio show
At the Edge of Canada: Indigenous Research between the host, Dr. Robert-Falcon Ouellette, and Dr. Jennifer Reid. First broadcast on April 17, 2012, the two talk about Reid’s new book Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada—Mythic Discourse in the Post-Colonial State (published by University of Manitoba Press). This interview was broadcast by the UMFM radio station and the podcast is hosted at www.attheedgeofcanada.blogspot.com. The interview was transcribed by Bryan Tordon.
Robert: Welcome to At the Edge of Canada. I’m your host, Dr. Robert-Falcon Ouellette, and today I have with me Dr. Jennifer Reid from the University of Maine. Dr Reid received her PhD in religious studies from the University of Ottawa; she is the author of Myth, Symbol, and Colonial Encounter; Worse than Beasts: An Anatomy of Melancholy; and The Literature of Travel in 17th and 18th Century England, as well as numerous articles in the history of religions. She has edited the volume Religion and Global Culture: New Terrain in the Study of Religion, and she has just published her new book, called Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada—Mythic Discourse in the Post-Colonial State, published by the University of Manitoba Press: so welcome, Jennifer. Tansai.
Jennifer : Well, thank you Robert.
Robert : I was reading your new book—well, it’s not a new book, in fact it’s an "old" book republished here in Canada for the first time. It’s called Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada—Mythic Discourse in the Post-Colonial State. So why would you reissue a book in 2011 that was published in 2008?
Jennifer : Well, it was published in 2008 by University of New Mexico Press, so I think it probably targeted an American audience. I actually didn’t know it was going to be published again in Canada until I heard from University of Manitoba Press last fall saying that the press had negotiated the Canadian rights and were going to reissue it in Canada which was great. I was really happy.
Robert: Wow, that’s very exciting,
Jennifer: Yes, it’s what I wanted in the first place but I couldn’t get a bite in terms of Canadian publishers, so that’s why I went with the US publisher.
Robert: This book looks at the mythic significance that surrounds Louis Riel and explores the search for Canadian national identity. I was wondering if you could just talk a bit about the premise of the book.
Jennifer: There are a few things going on simultaneously in the book. One of the basic things that I’m interested in is how, in a broader sense, the notion of the nation state doesn’t work very well with post-colonial states. It’s a European construction, and with a nation state you need to have broad geopolitical notions of identity that rest on traditional things like religion, language, or ethnicity. This is what makes a nation, but in post-colonial states we lack those traditional markers for community. We don’t have a single nation in any post-colonial state. That’s the nature of colonialism: it mishmashes everybody together. So I started thinking about how, maybe, identity in this context has to reflect disjunctures and tensions rather than commonalities. Immediately, my long-term interest in Riel just kind of congealed around that. I thought about the constructions of Riel by so many different communities, and the so many different Riels that are out there, and it occurred to me that perhaps he could be one of those linchpins for thinking about identity in terms of disjuncture and tension. So that’s what it came out of.
Robert: Because you also write about the métissage and the creolization of the Canadian state.
Jennifer: Yes, I think that the fundamental thing we have to come to terms with in the modern period is that post-colonial states, the Atlantic world - essentially Africa, North America, South America - these states are incredibly variegated in terms of culture and we already know that we have different ways of talking about that. The US has its melting pot, and we want a mosaic, but we’re all trying to find a way to—of talking about the fact that we don’t have that unity. I like the idea of métissage partly because we get the term from an actual group of people who have lived through these tensions and have created something absolutely new in the New World. And Métis peoples hearken to a process, not of struggling to maintain discreet Old World nationalities, but of creating something very new. I think that’s what we have; we just haven’t created a language to talk about that.

The Making of Colonial Shatter Zones

This is an interview with Dr Robbie Ethridge, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Mississippi. We discussed her research and work when she was visiting the University of Manitoba. Robbie gave two talks about her work on January 24 2013 entitled Global Capital, Violence, and the Making of a Colonial Shatter Zone and  January 25 The Contours of Contact: A Continental North American Perspective. She has written several books such as Creek Country: The Creek Country and Their World, 1796-1816 (2003), and From Chicaza to Chickasaw: The European Invasion and the Transformation of the Mississippian World, 1540-1715 (2010). Her current research is on the rise and fall of the Mississippian world which examines the rise of the world of the prehistoric Mississippian chiefdoms, the 700-year history of this world, and the collapse of this world with European contact. I certainly felt there were strong links to current events and we could learn a great deal by understanding this period of great urbanization and re-creation of traditions within Indigneous communities.
 

To Learn More (interview and Podcast)
http://archive.org/details/RobbieEthridgeGlobalCapitalViolenceAndTheMakingOfColonialShatter

Citations

A Separate Country: Postcoloniality and American Indian Nations with Elizabeth Cook-Lynn

This is the second part of a long conversation with the Crow Creek Sioux academic and writer Elizabeth Cook-Lynn and her political book entitled A Separate Country: Postcoloniality and American Indian Nations. It is  a collection of essays where Elizabeth takes those in the ivory tower to task for espousing the idea that “postcoloniality” is the current norm for Indigenous peoples in the United States. After a long career Liz gathers writes that American Indians remain among the most colonized people in the modern world, mired in poverty and disenfranchised both socially and politically. Despite Native-initiated efforts toward seeking First Nationhood status in the U. S., Cook-Lynn posits, Indian lands remain in the grip of a centuries-old English colonial system—a renewable source of conflict and discrimination. She argues that proportionately in the last century, government-supported development of casinos and tourism—peddled as an answer to poverty—probably cost Indians more treaty-protected land than they lost in the entire nineteenth century. Using land issues and third-world theory to look at the historiography of the American Plains Indian experience, she examines colonization’s continuing assault on Indigenous peoples. We also discuss the idea that Native Studies still has a lot of work to do in creating a more rigorous discipline, the difficulties in producing work while working within academia and the anger of writing about a cultural genocide.

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, a member of the Crow Creek Sioux tribe, was born in Fort Thompson, South Dakota, and raised on the reservation. She is Professor Emerita of English and Native American Studies at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington.

Liz says “The final responsibility of a writer like me … is to commit something to paper in the modern world which supports this inexhaustible legacy left by our ancestors...and yes I am angry.”

To Learn More: (Interview Podcast)

http://archive.org/details/ElizabethCook-lynnASeparateCountryPostcolonialityAndAmericanIndian

http://archive.org/download/ElizabethCook-lynnASeparateCountryPostcolonialityAndAmericanIndian/AtTheEdgeOfCanada-SeparateCountryMainMixdown.mp3

Citations

Thomas King & the Stairwell Interview: The Inconvenient Indian

This is an incredible stairwell interview with intellectual Thomas King about his thoughts on those Inconvenient Indians. There are the Indians that are destroying the natural order of things and getting in the way of progress. Civilisation has come the point where it can no ignore the effects of these creatures upon the natural world and its economy. History is full of individuals who have faded from history it is time for something to be done. Thomas King (Cherokee) looks at the history of North America. The book starts as a humorous account while looking at the story of Canada and the United States. As the book progresses you hear the voice of King as it becomes angrier and angrier on the treatment reserved for too many of the Indigenous populations on Turtle Island, it is a true crescendo. For Thomas history is the stories of our past, a past that hold a great power over the present because they exist in the present. History exists today.



Thomas King & Robert Falcon Ouellette
in a dirty old stairwell Nov 2012



The interview was completed during a fire drill at the radio station. We were forced to flee with his wife and his driver Mr Bruce in tow in search of a quiet place to discuss his thoughts and reasons behind his book. We eventually settled on the stairwell of the Pharmacy building. I sat on the floor while Mr King spoke above the din of passing students. It was quite the spectacle and students hushed as they passed realising they should be sending a text message instead of speaking.

To Learn More (podcast & interview)

http://archive.org/download/ThomasKingAndTheStairwellInterviewTheInconvenientIndian/MixdownThomasKingInterviewMain.mp3

Citations

The Law of Discovery and the Maori Experience with Dr Jacinta Ruru

Dr. Jacinta Ruru (Faculty of Law, Otago University) gave a public lecture on "The Constitutional Indigenous Jurisprudence in Aotearoa New Zealand" at the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Law's Distinguished Visitor Lecture Series on Monday, October 22, 2012.

We discuss Dr. Ruru research in the areas of Indigenous peoples' legal rights to own, manage and govern land and water, her work into the Common Law Doctrine of Discovery, Indigenous rights to freshwater and multidisciplinary understandings of landscapes, national parks, power and place, differences between Maori and settler concepts around land, Maori land courts, the alienation of land (selling of land). 

She is co-director of the University of Otago Research Cluster for Natural Resources Law and the recipient of significant research awards including the University of Otago prestigious Rowheath Trust and Carl Smith Medal for outstanding scholarly achievement across all disciplines (2010) and the Fulbright Nga Pae o te Maramatanga Senior Maori Scholar Award (2012).

To Learn More (Interview and Podcast)

http://archive.org/download/JacintaRuruMaroriScholarAndIndigenousLawAndRights/MainMixdownJacintaRuruOtagoUniversityMarori.mp3 


Citations

A Story of Betrayal, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn From the Rivers Edge

This is one of Elizabeth Cook-Lynn finest fiction books From the Rivers Edge. In our discussion we talk about how the characters serve as proxies to the larger debates within society between settler and indigenous cultures. Ideas of love, privacy, honesty, traitors to a people, ageism and concepts of justice are all intertwined in this account which highlights the changes in the 1950-1960s First Nation culture. A culture which was forced to suffer in their dealings with the domineering white society.  It is published by Living Justice Press.

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, a member of the Crow Creek Sioux tribe, was born in Fort Thompson, South Dakota, and raised on the reservation. She is Professor Emerita of English and Native American Studies at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington.

She was one of the founding editors of Wicazo Sa Review: A Journal of Native American Studies (Red Pencil Review). She is also a member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals and the Authors Guild. Since her retirement, Elizabeth has served as a writer-in-residence at universities around the country. She has been a very prolific writer since her retirement having published over a dozen hard analytical books in as many years. Review
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1409208

Liz says “The final responsibility of a writer like me … is to commit something to paper in the modern world which supports this inexhaustible legacy left by our ancestors.”

To Learn More (Interview Podcast)

http://archive.org/download/FromTheRiversEdgeElizabethCook-lynn/AtTheEdgeOfCanada-RiversEdgeMainMixdown.mp3