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| TRC Call to Action #59 |
As Indigenous History Month starts drawing to a close, let's ask ourselves what new thing did I learn about Indigenous history this month?
It's not too late to learn at least one new thing.
Do you know anything about the Catholic Church's role in colonization?
... about the history and legacy of residential schools?
Do you know why apologies to former residential school students, their families, and communities were necessary?
Do you know what a treaty is in Canada?
Do you know that the first formal treaty between the British Crown and Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island (North America) is considered to be the Two Row Wampum, established with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) in present-day upstate New York? This agreement dates back over 400 years.
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| Two Row Wampum. Image credit: https://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum/two-row-wampum-belt-guswenta/ |
Do you know that all of us in Canada, Indigenous First Nations peoples as well as Colonial Settler descendants, are treaty people, and still bound by the subsequent treaties that were made between the British Crown and the First Nations of Turtle Island?