Land and Colonization: A Nehinuw (Cree) Perspective

• Main Author: Goulet, Keith Napoleon
• Other Authors: Daschuk, James, Brown, Jennifer, Belisle, Donica, Stevenson, Allyson, Farrell-Racette, Sherry, Innes, Robert
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina 2021
• Subjects: First Nations
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10294/14333; https://ourspace.uregina.ca/bitstream/handle/10294/14333/Goulet-Keith_PhD_HIST_Spring2021.pdf

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History, University of Regina. viii, 395 p. This dissertation is about land, colonization, and Indigenous people. While focusing broadly on Algonquian peoples, special attention is given to the Spruce Island Cree of Cumberland House in northeastern Saskatchewan. The use of the Nehinuw (Cree) language and cultural historical knowledge provides new factual information, and new conceptual understandings on the issue of land and adjoining matters that critique, reaffirm or challenge existing assumptions and misconceptions regarding Indigenous peoples, Algonquian peoples, and the people of Kaminstigominuhigoskak, Spruce Island (Cumberland House). This study begins with a review and critique of twentieth century scholarship on Algonquian land tenure which mainly arose as a consequence of Indigenous land claims. This literature is analysed and critiqued using Cree conceptual knowledge and understanding. Methodological issues surrounding the use of Cree Nehinuw narratives and oral history are analysed. The historical dynamics, developments, and events that have impacted the people and the land will be examined including: the discovery doctrine, Rupert’s Land, the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the fur trade, smallpox, the Metis, the First Nations treaties, and the discriminatory pressures of government policy, law and the influx of European settlers. Examples of cultural exchange stemming from the interaction between Europeans and Indigenous people will be presented, for example, a review on how the view of the land as Mother Earth evolved in English as well as its unique four stage development in the Nehinuw (Cree) language. As a response to the limitations of existing academic research and a re-examination of the history especially as it pertains to Cree and Algonquian lands, the use of Nehinuwehin (Cree language) and Cree understandings provide the evidence and ...