The Power of Promises: Rethinking Indian Treaties in the Pacific Northwest

374 Pages·2009·1.637 MB·English

by  Alexandra Harmon, John Borrows

the emil and kathleen sick lecture-book series
in western history and biography
the emil and kathleen sick lecture-book series
in western history and biography
Under the provisions of a Fund established by the children of Mr. and Mrs. Emil Sick,
whose deep interest in the history and culture of the American West was inspired by
their own experience in the region, distinguished scholars are brought to the University
of Washington to deliver public lectures based on original research in the fields of
Western history and biography. The terms of the gift also provide for the publication
by the University of Washington Press of the books resulting from the research upon
which the lectures are based.
The Great Columbia Plain: A Historical Geography, 1805 – 1910 by Donald W. Meinig
Mills and Markets: A History of the Pacific Coast Lumber Industry to 1900
by Thomas R. Cox
Radical Heritage: Labor, Socialism, and Reform in Washington and British Columbia,
1885 – 1917 by Carlos A. Schwantes
The Battle for Butte: Mining and Politics on the Northern Frontier, 1864 – 1906
by Michael P. Malone
The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the
Civil Rights Era by Quintard Taylor
Warren G. Magnuson and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century America by Shelby Scates
The Atomic West, edited by Bruce Hevly and John M. Findlay
Power and Place in the North American West, edited by Richard White
and John M. Findlay
Henry M. Jackson: A Life in Politics by Robert G. Kaufman
Parallel Destinies: Canadian-American Relations West of the Rockies
edited by John M. Findlay and Ken S. Coates
Nikkei in the Pacific Northwest: Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians
in the Twentieth Century, edited by Louis Fiset and Gail M. Nomura
Bringing Indians to the Book by Albert Furtwangler
Death of Celilo Falls by Katrine Barber
The Power of Promises: Rethinking Indian Treaties in the Pacific Northwest,
edited by Alexandra Harmon
THE POWER OF PROMISES
rethinking indian treaties
in the pacific northwest
edited by ALEXANDRA HARMON
center for the study of the pacific northwest
in association with
university of washington press seattle and london
© 2008by the University of Washington Press
Printed in the United States of America
Design by Pamela Canell
1211100908 54321
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording,
or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publisher.
Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest University of Washington Press
P.O. Box 353587, Seattle, WA 98195 P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145
www.cspn.washington.edu www.washington.edu/uwpress
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The power of promises : rethinking Indian treaties in the Pacific Northwest /
edited by Alexandra Harmon.
p. cm. — (The Emil and Kathleen Sick lecture-book series in western history
and biography)
Includes index.
isbn 978-0-295-98838-2(hardback : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-295-98839-9(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Indians of North America—Northwest, Pacific—Treaties. 2. Indians of North
America—Northwest, Pacific—Government relations. 3. Indians of North America—
Northwest, Pacific—Foreign relations. I. Harmon, Alexandra, 1945– II. Center for
the Study of the Pacific Northwest.
e78.n77p68 2008 323.11970795—dc22 2008029868
The paper used in this publication is acid-free and 90percent recycled from at least
50percent waste. It meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard
for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi
z39.48-1984. ø
Contents
Foreword by John Borrows vii
Introduction: Pacific Northwest Indian Treaties
in National and International Historical Perspective 3
Alexandra Harmon
part i COLONIAL CONCEITS 33
1 Negotiated Sovereignty: Indian Treaties and the
Acquisition of American and Canadian Territorial
Rights in the Pacific Northwest 35
Kent McNeil
2 Unmaking Native Space: A Genealogy of Indian Policy,
Settler Practice, and the Microtechniques of Dispossession 56
Paige Raibmon
part ii CROSS-BORDER INFLUENCES 87
3 “Trespassers on the Soil”: United States v. Tomand a
New Perspective on the Short History of Treaty Making
in Nineteenth-Century British Columbia 89
Hamar Foster and Alan Grove
4 The Boldt Decision in Canada: Aboriginal Treaty Rights
to Fish on the Pacific 128
Douglas C. Harris
part iii INDIGENOUS INTERPRETATIONS
AND RESPONSES 155
5 Performing Treaties: The Culture and Politics of Treaty
Remembrance and Celebration 157
Chris Friday
6 Reserved for Whom? Defending and Defining Treaty Rights
on the Columbia River, 1880– 1920 186
Andrew H. Fisher
7 Ethnogenesis and Ethnonationalism from Competing
Treaty Claims 215
Russel Lawrence Barsh
8 The Stevens Treaties, Indian Claims Commission Docket 264,
and the Ancient One known as Kennewick Man 244
Bruce Rigsby
part iv POWER RELATIONS IN CONTEMPORARY
FORUMS 277
9 “History Wars” and Treaty Rights in Canada:
A Canadian Case Study 279
Arthur J. Ray
10 History, Democracy, and Treaty Negotiations
in British Columbia 297
Ravi de Costa
11 Treaty Substitutes in the Modern Era 321
Robert T. Anderson
Contributors 339
Index 343
Foreword
John Borrows
In December of 2003, Sasha Harmon contacted me to discuss a pro-
posed conference commemorating the sesquicentennial of the Wash-
ington Territory Indian treaties. I listened carefully to her ideas
because her work has been influential in increasing our understanding of
Native American identity and the definition of tribes around Puget
Sound.1 Her attentiveness to indigenous people’s innovation and
resilience in constructing their own identities, despite others’ imposed
labels, has generated insightful work.
I was enthusiastic about Professor Harmon’s idea to focus on treaties
from a multidisciplinary perspective. I also saw the relevance of the con-
ference for Canada. Treaties on Vancouver Island were formalized
around the same time as those in Washington Territory. Harmon hoped
to engage scholars in a project to analyze broadly the repercussions and
changing meanings of treaties that purportedly defined indigenous / non-
indigenous relations in the Pacific Northwest. I believe she has been suc-
cessful in this objective. The conference, entitled Pacific Northwest
Indian Treaties in National and International Historical Perspective,
took place May 13and 14, 2004. The essays in this book present many
of the issues discussed at that gathering and represent some of the finest
work on treaties currently available in the literature.
Harmon’s training as a lawyer and a historian has been evident
throughout my association with her. This makes her both an excellent
conference convener and an able editor, as is evident in these collected
vii
essays. She has a keen eye for detail yet is acutely aware of broader per-
spectives. Both those scholars invited to the conference and those who
have contributed to The Power of Promises share this trait. The con-
tributors draw on anthropology, ethnography, law, history, Native
American studies, and political science, among other disciplines, in the
pursuit of their research. They follow a variety of research methodolo-
gies in making their arguments and establishing their points. They are
also united by their attention to the specific contexts and wider views of
treaties in the Pacific Northwest. In this foreword I would like to say a
few words about the conference theme, the various authors, and the
essays included here, as an orientation to what follows.
There are many reasons to look at treaties in the Pacific Northwest
from a wider angle, particularly across the Canadian – United States bor-
der. The two countries share common historical roots, languages, and
political heritage. Furthermore, the border introduced to the territory by
the Treaty of Oregon in 1846 cut across extended kinship, trade, and
political relationships of indigenous people. It established distinct con-
stitutional and legal authorities that influenced the development and
judgment of treaties in different ways. However, although borders
divide, they can never completely disassociate the people they ostensibly
separate. This has been true for both indigenous and nonindigenous peo-
ples of the Pacific Northwest.
Living on Vancouver Island, one is keenly aware of the connections
Salish people share across the Strait of Georgia and the Strait of Juan de
Fuca.2 Though regrettably constrained by the United States – Canadian
border, indigenous relationships around those and neighboring saltwa-
ter inlets (known to some as the Salish Sea) continue through such activ-
ities as marriages, trade, travel, education, feasting, and other ceremonial
connections. In fact, the conference from which these essays were drawn
demonstrated the saliency of these contacts. Not only did particular pre-
sentations draw on the continued relevancy of continuing cross-border
Salish relationships, but also a good number of Salish students and lead-
ers were in attendance at the conference. Their questions and informal
presence added immeasurably to the spirit of the conference and helped
us all appreciate the living context of the treaties under discussion. I
believe many of the contributions in this book were enriched through
this important exchange.
Just as cross-border contacts among indigenous people are an impor-
viii Foreword
tant source of inspiration for studies of Pacific Northwest Indian treaties,
so too can profound insights be generated through international non-
indigenous collaboration around this same subject. For example, during
the conference I met my colleague Robert Anderson, who teaches sub-
jects at the University of Washington Law School similar to those that I
teach at the University of Victoria. Because we are not indigenous to the
Pacific Northwest, I place our relationship in the nonindigenous cate-
gory for the purposes of this book, but Professor Anderson and I share
indigenous ancestry and citizenship in the Anishinabek Nation of central
Canada and the United States. It is always good to meet a fellow citizen
of the same First Nation. Though separated by international borders and
living away from our homelands, we have a mutual interest in the impli-
cations of treaties our ancestors signed with the colonial governments
in another region of the country.
Anderson’s essay in this volume on the Alaska Native Claims Settle-
ment Act reminded me of processes currently animating the negotiation
of new treaties in British Columbia. That modern treaties might have an
impact on historical treaties was mentioned at the conference and is con-
sidered in greater detail in this book. Professor Ravi de Costa from York
University, closer to my own indigenous home territory in Ontario, also
takes readers down that road. He discusses important concerns regard-
ing the narrow approach he finds in contemporary British Columbia
treaty negotiations. Readers will find his essay rich with insight.
Examples of nonindigenous connections across borders are also found
in the work of Russel Lawrence Barsh, whose essay in this volume helps
explain how tribes have been internally affected by treaty litigation in the
United States. I have worked with Russel in the past in matters of inter-
national indigenous development. Through our mutual association with
First Peoples Worldwide, I knew Russel had the ability to connect local
concerns with issues of international importance. He does not disappoint
here. His discussion of ethnonationalism among Indian tribes could eas-
ily be connected to changes taking place in the larger world, as nation-
states and even indigenous nations often co-opt individual identities to
serve wider collective goals.
Professor Paige Raibmon takes up a similar theme as she explores
the construction of identity in relation to landownership and individual
acts of dispossession directed at Indians through nonindigenous settle-
ment and intermarriage. Although she does not refer to the processes of
Foreword ix