An Exploration of the Selkirk Treaty

Abstract

In 1817, the fifth Earl of Selkirk and certain Saulteaux chiefs negotiated the Selkirk Treaty to secure the existence of a fragile Euro-Canadian settlement near the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. Selkirk died soon after, and his agents and successors disputed the content of the treaty with the Indigenous negotiating parties. The historiography of the Selkirk Treaty has not reached a consensus on these disputes, in part due to the number of ostensibly contradictory sources it draws upon. This thesis argues that these disputes can be best answered, and these ostensibly contradictory sources best reconciled, by situating them and the Selkirk Treaty within the context of the Indigenous and Imperial land frameworks that operated in Red River in 1817.

This thesis first identifies unresolved questions in the historiography of the Selkirk Treaty. Using primary sources cited in the historiography, it then outlines the ideas acting within the Indigenous and Imperial land frameworks operative over Red River. It argues these ideas and frameworks remained intact during the negotiation of the Selkirk Treaty. On the basis of these frameworks, this thesis further argues that neither Lord Selkirk nor the Saulteaux negotiators intended the Selkirk Treaty to consist of a permanent alienation of Indigenous land. However, after Selkirk’s death, his agents and successors came to trust the Indenture of the Selkirk Treaty, a written and signed record of the treaty, as the only trustworthy record of the agreement. Selkirk’s agents and successors then read the Indenture as a permanent alienation of land, but this thesis argues that, on the basis of the borders specified in the Indenture, that document alone is inadequate to interpret the Selkirk Treaty.

The primary purpose of this thesis is to provide a point of departure for future research into the Selkirk Treaty. At the same time, it is intended as a corrective against assuming the ideas of either Indigenous or Euro-Canadian actors about land rights in colonization zones. It is also meant to act as a caution against relying any more heavily on the Indenture of the Selkirk Treaty than scholars do on the written records of other treaties. It is further hoped that this thesis contributes to a better understanding of Red River’s Métis population in these early years by situating them within the framework of the broader Iron Alliance.