Making Treaty Road - Episode 6

During the production of the first season of TREATY ROAD, hosts Erin Goodpipe and Saxon de Cocq kept these journals of their experiences and thoughts on Treaty and their personal journey that touches on the production, history and family legacy. Here are their thoughts while shooting the sixth episode about Treaty No. 6.

Erin’s Journal

Saxon and I are in Treaty 6 and there is a lot of ground to cover here, or at least, I always think of the powerhouses advocates and special placement of the land that is Treaty 6. It’s an interesting territory because it includes some of the north and south and has major cities in it. I also know that we are coming up to the last interactions that James McKay had on the treaty negotiations and signings. I am thinking about the complexity of who he is and how Saxon is relating to this journey exploring his lineage. What does this mean to him?

 On our journey, we cannot speak with every single advocate or knowledge carrier and the vastness of Treaty is simply too much to try to capture in our time together. It’s a hard reality because treaty is so important to the fabric of this land and to the special relationship we have with one another as those who are supposed to share it. I try to make peace that we simply cannot sit with everyone but know that we will speak with the people who we are meant to speak with while here.

Today we visited Dr. Winona Wheeler on her acreage in Duck Lake. Working in academic areas, I have read and heard of her work so I feel very honoured that she would invite us into her home.  You can tell that she has wealth of connections and is rich in her experiences in community even by the art in her home. It’s comforting and makes me think of respected people in my community. Over tea, she shares profound insight into the treaties, about women’s roles, the impact of the treaties and their broken promises, the indian act. She is a gifted teacher. You can tell that through the way she speaks with heart and can explain big concepts in a way that is easy to understand. I appreciate this visit deeply because it reminds me that the best way of learning is sometimes (and usually) in the simplest of ways.

We are making our way to Onion Lake First Nation to speak with Chief Henry Lewis and Karla Bird. I can tell that they are rooted in their traditional knowledge and stand firm in their sovereignty as rights holders and protectors of their territories. This is evident in the way that they speak about treaty and the protocols they follow. Chief Lewis speaks with reverence and Karla respects his role as leader. Karla is so eloquent, intelligent and speaks with great authority around what Canada is trying to do to eradicate Indigenous inherent and Treaty rights. Truthfully, I feel fired up listening to them both speak, thinking about the great importance of this work. Not only are we looking at lineage and listening to knowledge, but it is a call to action in our daily lives that honour the obligations and responsibilities we have as people who share this land. I feel this call stir in me and feel grateful for advocates with strong voices like Karla. It’s a question I want to ask Saxon more: how is what we are learning going to change our lives for the betterment of our communities, for generations to come?

It makes perfect sense that buffalo are where our path intersects with James McKay. The buffalo meant so much to my people, spiritually and for our survival in the means of medicine, food, clothing and shelter. For thousands of years my people maintained a special relationship to them, so it feels fitting to be here at Elk Island, where herds of buffalo were attempted to be preserved by James McKay. My relatives and Saxon’s. As we gaze at the buffalo, I am reminded of how our relatives advocated for an ethical way of sharing the  land - with respect, reciprocity and mutual responsibility in mind. We have come so far and I hope that our last stop in Treaty 6 will help us reflect on what this journey means to us…

Saxon’s Journal

Today I got to ride in a dog sled. It was only for a short distance, but it was super comfortable and I would definitely enjoy travelling like this for long distances. The dogs have so much energy and just want to run. They don’t like it when we keep stopping to set things up for the camera.

Today we met with Carla Bird and Henry Lewis. It took this long, but it was in this conversation with Carla that it became so clear to me that it was never the intention of the First Nations to give up their land, to cede their land in any way. They agreed to share the land. Share the land. That of course was not enough for the colonizers. It’s not enough for the insatiable appetite of what was considered a righteous and civilized system. There is no sharing, there is only taking. And that taking continues today, as we amass wealth at the depletion and sacrifice of the everything else. It became clear to me today that our “civilized” system is nothing more than the snake eating its own tail.

It was fitting that we ended our journey at the Edmonton House Fort in Edmonton, Alberta, the place where James McKay was born. The way I view James has changed. However, I don’t see him as a horrible person, despite his self-promoting, ambitious ways. I see him as someone who saw the writing on the wall and knew that he better get onside with the new regime or get runover by it. I see him as a person who had an understanding of the way this new world would work and saw himself benefiting from it. What James McKay represented was colonization itself. And had it not been for his death only a couple of years after the signing of Treaty 6, I’m sure James McKay would have continued to prosper and rise up the social ladder as far as his mixed blood would have allowed.