D. The World, 1789–1900 · The World, 1789–1900

Indigenous Peoples and Settler Colonialism, 1789–1900

D2 D3 D1 A1.2 A1.3 A2About 75 minutes

Learning goals

I can explain what settler colonialism is and how it differed from colonial rule in places like India.
I can describe the experiences of First Nations and Métis peoples in Canada, including treaties, the Indian Act, and the resistances of 1869–1870 and 1885.
I can compare policies toward Indigenous peoples in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and South America.
I can use oral histories and written documents together to understand treaties.
I can explain how this history connects to reconciliation and current events.

Words to know

settler colonialism
Colonialism in which newcomers come to stay, take land and build new societies, aiming to replace or absorb the Indigenous peoples rather than only rule them.

treaty
A formal agreement between nations. Many First Nations understand treaties as sacred, living agreements about sharing land and relationships.

Indian Act
A Canadian federal law first passed in 1876 that controlled many aspects of First Nations people's lives and aimed at assimilation; it is still in force, much amended.

assimilation
Policies that try to make a people give up their own culture, language and identity and adopt those of the dominant society.

reserve
Land set aside under the Indian Act or treaties for the use of a First Nation.

Métis
A distinct Indigenous people with their own culture, language (Michif) and history, whose nation emerged in the Red River area and across the Northwest.

oral history
Knowledge of the past passed down through spoken accounts, songs and ceremonies; an important source for Indigenous history.

A note on this lesson

This lesson deals with dispossession, broken promises, violence and assimilation. It is written without graphic detail and without a joke block. First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, and Indigenous peoples around the world, are living nations today who continue to govern, practise their cultures and defend their rights. Where possible, this lesson names nations and individuals rather than speaking of "Indigenous people" as one group.

Settler colonialism

In India, a small number of British officials ruled a huge population; most British people did not stay. In settler colonies, such as Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Chile, newcomers came in large numbers to stay. They wanted land above all. Historians call this settler colonialism: a process that seeks to replace Indigenous societies on the land, by treaty, purchase, law, war, disease, and policies of assimilation.

The nineteenth century was when this process accelerated. Railways, steamships, mass migration from Europe and industrial weapons let settler states push across whole continents in a few decades. Indigenous nations responded with diplomacy, treaties, armed resistance, legal challenges, and the determined survival of their languages, governance and cultures.

Similar pressures, different paths. Each event involved many distinct nations; this summary only shows selected events.

Canada: treaties, the Indian Act and resistance

The Métis and Red River (1869–1870). When the Hudson's Bay Company sold Rupert's Land to Canada in 1869, nobody asked the people living there. At Red River, the Métis, led by Louis Riel, formed a provisional government and negotiated terms with Ottawa. The result was the Manitoba Act (1870), which created the province of Manitoba and promised land to the Métis. Many Métis never received that land, and many moved west.

The Numbered Treaties. Between 1871 and 1877, the Crown negotiated Treaties 1 to 7 with First Nations across the Prairies and northwestern Ontario. The government wanted land for settlement and the railway; First Nations leaders, facing the collapse of the bison herds and new epidemics, sought security for their peoples' future. Treaty 6 (1876) included a promise of a "medicine chest" and help in times of famine, terms that Cree negotiators insisted on.

Two understandings. The written treaty texts say First Nations "cede, release, surrender" their land. Many First Nations' oral histories describe the treaties as agreements to share the land and live as relatives under the Crown's protection, not to sell it. Historians and courts now take both kinds of evidence seriously.

The Indian Act (1876) brought earlier laws together. It defined who the government counted as "Indian", controlled reserve land and band governments, and aimed at assimilation. Amendments later banned ceremonies such as the potlatch (from 1885) and the Sun Dance. In the 1880s, the federal government began funding industrial and residential schools that took children from their families to remove their languages and cultures, a system whose harms you may have studied in Grade 10 history.

Famine and the North-West Resistance (1885). As the bison disappeared, many Plains nations faced starvation. Federal officials often withheld promised rations to pressure leaders to move onto reserves. In 1885, Métis and some First Nations took up arms in the North-West Resistance. After the Métis defeat at Batoche, Louis Riel was hanged for treason. Cree leaders Pîhtokahanapiwiyin (Poundmaker) and Mistahimaskwa (Big Bear), who had worked for peace, were imprisoned, and eight Cree and Assiniboine men were hanged at Battleford. After 1885, a pass system without any basis in law tried to keep First Nations people on reserves.

Historians use written texts and oral histories together. Both are evidence of what each side understood.

The United States

The Indian Removal Act (1830) authorized forcing nations east of the Mississippi to move west. The Cherokee Nation fought removal in the courts, and in Worcester v. Georgia (1832) the Supreme Court ruled in its favour, but President Andrew Jackson did not enforce the ruling. In 1838–1839, thousands of Cherokee died on the forced march known as the Trail of Tears.
As settlers and railways pushed west, the US Army fought wars with Plains nations. Lakota and Cheyenne forces defeated the US Army at the Little Bighorn (1876), but the destruction of the bison and military pressure forced nations onto reservations.
The Dawes Act (1887) broke up communal reservation land into individual plots, and "surplus" land was sold to settlers. Boarding schools, such as Carlisle (1879), aimed at assimilation.
At Wounded Knee in 1890, US soldiers killed an estimated 250 to 300 Lakota men, women and children.

Australia, New Zealand and South America

Australia: Britain colonized from 1788 without making treaties, treating the land as if no one owned it, a legal assumption later called terra nullius that Australia's High Court rejected in the Mabo decision of 1992. Frontier violence, disease and the loss of land devastated many Aboriginal nations. Later colonial "protection" laws controlled where Aboriginal people could live and work, and allowed children to be removed from their families.
New Zealand / Aotearoa: in 1840, many Māori chiefs and the British Crown signed the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi). The English and Māori texts differ: in the English text, chiefs cede sovereignty; in the Māori text, they grant kāwanatanga (governance) while keeping tino rangatiratanga (full chiefly authority) over their lands and treasures. Wars over land in the 1840s–1870s, and large land confiscations, followed. Māori leaders resisted through war, politics (four Māori seats in Parliament from 1867) and movements such as the Kīngitanga (Māori King Movement).
Argentina and Chile: in the 1860s–1880s, both states sent armies against the Mapuche and other nations of the south (Argentina's so-called "Conquest of the Desert", 1878–1885) to open land for ranching and settlement.
Hawai'i: in 1893, American businessmen, with support from US Marines, overthrew Queen Lili'uokalani; the United States annexed Hawai'i in 1898.

Worked example

Modelled example: Using oral history and documents together

Question: What did Treaty 6 (1876) mean to those who made it? You have three kinds of evidence: the written treaty text; the commissioner's published account of the negotiations; and Cree Elders' oral histories recorded in the twentieth century.

Written text: uses land-surrender language and lists promises (reserves, annuities, tools, a medicine chest, famine relief). It was written in English by the Crown's side.
Commissioner's account: records speeches in which Crown negotiators promised the Queen's care and that the way of life would continue. It shows that verbal promises went beyond the written text.
Oral histories: describe the treaty as a sacred agreement, made with a pipe ceremony, to share the land and live as relatives. They were passed down carefully within communities and recorded later.
Assess credibility: each source has a perspective. The written text was drafted by one party in a language many signatories did not read. Oral histories are recorded later but follow strict traditions of transmission. The commissioner's account was written to show the government's success.
Synthesize: the agreement made at the treaty grounds included spoken promises and shared understandings that the written text alone does not capture.

Conclusion: To understand a treaty, historians (and Canadian courts) consider the written text, the record of negotiations and the oral histories together. No single source tells the whole story.

Hands-on activity

Whose land? Learning about the treaty or territory where you live

You need: a device with internet access (with a grown-up's permission), paper and a pencil. 20 minutes.

Find out which treaty (or unceded territory) and which First Nations, Métis or Inuit communities are connected to the place where you live. Good starting points: your municipality's or school board's land acknowledgement, the Government of Ontario's treaty map, or a local First Nation's own website.
Write down: the names of the nations, the treaty name and year (if there is one), and one thing the nation says about the treaty or its territory in its own words (from its own website or publications).
Find one current news story about that nation or treaty (for example, a land claim, a treaty annuity case, or a language program).
Write two sentences connecting the past (the treaty) to the present (the news story).

Look for: correct names, a source from the nation itself, and a clear past-to-present link. This is how historical knowledge helps you understand current events.

Your turn

What makes settler colonialism different from colonial rule in a place like India?

What did the Métis achieve at Red River in 1869–1870?

Why did First Nations leaders negotiate the Numbered Treaties?

How do many First Nations' understandings of the treaties differ from the written texts?

Name two ways the Indian Act aimed at assimilation.

What happened on the Trail of Tears?

How do the English and Māori texts of the Treaty of Waitangi differ?

More practice: warm-up

In what year was the Indian Act first passed?

Who led the Métis at Red River and in 1885?

Which 1832 Supreme Court case ruled in favour of the Cherokee?

When was the Treaty of Waitangi signed?

Which queen was overthrown in Hawai'i in 1893?

More practice: on your own

Explain how the collapse of the bison affected Plains nations' choices in the 1870s and 1880s.

Why was the Cherokee legal victory in 1832 not enough to stop removal?

Why are oral histories important evidence for treaty history?

Compare the Dawes Act and the Indian Act.

Connect one event from this lesson to a current event in Canada.

Challenge

"The Numbered Treaties were fair agreements between nations." Evaluate this claim.

Compare settler-colonial policies in Canada and the United States in this period. Which was more violent, and why might Canadian memory downplay this?

Assess the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi's two texts for New Zealand's history.

Check your understanding

Quiz

Which best defines settler colonialism?

Which act created the province of Manitoba in 1870 after Métis negotiations?

Treaty 6 (1876) is known for including:

What happened to Louis Riel after the North-West Resistance of 1885?

Why did the Cherokee victory in Worcester v. Georgia fail to prevent removal?

Which statement about the Treaty of Waitangi is accurate?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: This lesson covers Indigenous peoples and settler colonialism under D2 (conflict and resistance), D3 (identity, rights and heritage) and D1 (economic and political pressures). It practises using different kinds of evidence (A1.2), assessing credibility and perspective (A1.3), and applying history to current events (A2).

How to help: Do the activity together: learn whose treaty or territory you live on, using the nation's own sources. Talk about why oral histories are real evidence.

Sensitivity: This history is ongoing for many families. Discuss it respectfully, in the present tense where communities continue today. If your family is First Nations, Métis or Inuit, your family's knowledge is a primary source; share only what you are comfortable sharing.

Common difficulties: Speaking of Indigenous peoples only in the past tense; treating all nations as one group; assuming Canada's history was peaceful compared with the US; dismissing oral history.