As I watched the late news Sunday night, there were protestors in Alberta who were suggesting Alberta should either form its own country or become the 51st state. On the other side of the street were many First Nations people reminding the protestors that much of Alberta was on land that was never ceded by a treaty with the First Nations people that lived there for thousands of years before white settlers came. I then thought back to when Quebec held the last referendum on separating from Canada. We had no idea how many First Nation citizens lived in Quebec until they voted to stay in Canada.
A lot of Canada has never been ceded by the First Nations. Before most church services and public events, we acknowledge that we live on unceded territory of Indigenous peoples. Without thinking, some of my friends will ask, ‘What did the First Nation people ever do for me?’ A few things quickly come to mind.
When the first settlers came to America, many of them would have died the first year with disease or cold if it was not for the ancient medicines that Indigenous people made from tree bark, roots, and other sources still unknown to us. The only diseases they couldn’t cure were the ones brought by the first white settlers. When my mother’s family (the Brownlees) first came from Ireland more than 200 years ago, they lived in a house beside the Rideau River near Burritts Rapids. When the First Nation people came down the river to sell their furs closer to what is now Ottawa, the Brownlees let them camp on the land between the house and the river. The Brownlees also told them to open the cellar door and come into the basement in cold or rainy weather. They became very friendly with the First Nation people and looked forward to their stop-overs. On one stop-over, they noticed no movement in the house. When they went upstairs, they found that the entire Brownlee family was very sick and near death. They stayed several weeks with the family and, with their traditional medicine, nursed them back to health before leaving.
About a hundred years later, Dad was working for a company building power lines (those high, steel towers) from the Gatineau River to where the line crossed the Ottawa near Quyon. When the boat, overloaded with steel supplies, was sinking while crossing the Gatineau River, and Dad was about to drown, the story goes that an Indigenous man jumped overboard and pulled the boat ashore, saving Dad and several other workmates who couldn’t swim. In the 1930s, when Dad was working in New Mexico at a gold mine, one Sunday afternoon, he and an Indigenous man were walking in the nearby desert when he placed his hand on Dad’s shoulder and quietly told him not to move a muscle, as he pulled out his pistol and shot a rattlesnake coiled only a few feet away and about to spring at Dad (saved again!). Some of my very best friends and neighbours are part Metis, and more loyal friends you could not ask for.
During the war of 1812, when the U.S.A. tried to invade Canada and take it from us, again it was the First Nations people who fought with us and once chased the blue coats from Queenston Heights all the way to Ohio. During WWI and WWII, without even being drafted, many of our First Nation neighbours enlisted in the Canadian army, and fought and died for our freedom. It was the Cree language that was used to convey secret messages to our troops, and that language was never cracked by the Nazis.
Yes, during the past several centuries, there have been many nationalities, religions, skin colours, languages, cultures, and political parties that have created and defended the best and most desirable country in the world. As time rolls on, times change and wealth moves from one area of this great country to another. Oil was discovered in Ontario. Now it’s in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland, Quebec and Canada’s north. Mining moves from province to province, wherever the precious metals are.
We must all work together and not let greed and envy divide our country. Our ancestors spent their lives creating Canada. It’s our duty to honour our ancestors and preserve this great country for our next generations.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
