The prairies, for centuries, were central to the indigenous people who had links to Bison. Leaving behind Bison arrowheads, drive lanes, and tipi lanes for everyone to see, the prairies were preceded by the Cree, Sioux, and Blackfoot, coming one after another. The American revolutionary wars have always portrayed meaningful alliances. Whitehouse-Strong demonstrated that the treaty was between her most gracious Queen of Ireland and Britain and Honorable James McKay from plain wood Cree and of India and other inhabitants of India. The paper aims to explore the history of the indigenous people of the prairies by comparing various texts.
The natives had been continuously pushed westward with the increasing wars as others, such as the colonialists, occupied their lands. As revolution dawned, Duhame asserts that the Queen agreed with the Indians to pursue their fishing and hunting activities within the areas subject to regulations. On the other hand, Whitehouse-Strong indicated that the 13 states’ declaration had the right to negotiate or be ratified to form global treaties. As stated in the treaties, Canada swiftly adapted to the native populace. The genesis of the treaties was the fledglings between the occupants and the native Canadians. Additionally, having Treaty Six in the gallery makes that point strong.
The black foot is popularly known as the Sikskia tribe and is one of three tribes that makes up the black foot confederacy. According to the Sikskia people, indigenous people’s wisdom is displayed through different thoughts, sights, and knowledge passed through generations.1 Black foot Sikskia takes three distinct journeys of knowledge relating to health and healing. The philosophy behind the above cultures revolves around the essence of the healing process in spirituality. Each aspect has a unique way of nurturing a close discord between the earth, the creator, and humankind sacredly.
The indigenous people of prairies valued knowledge, sight, and the aspects that are passed down orally through generations. Spirituality, health, and wellbeing inform a basis for most tribes, whereby each has a different way of nurturing the Supreme’s relationship. It is a connection, forming the building block of conservation in the most indigenous manner of all tribes in Canada, including the current. Tribal law on a federal basis centered its principles on treaties, under which the federal government acquired its vast territory. Most of the legal and moral obligations were protected strongly by the Canadian government, even though it does not keep its promises.
The Cree Intellectual Tradition refers to an oral culture, which shared its perceptions, practices, wisdom, and caveats via the elders’ voices to the next generations. The Nehiyawak nation used oral narratives for quite a long time and for specific reasons. The oral histories for the prairies focused on the spiritual episodes, which accounted for the shape of the world and interaction with animals. It also touched on how Wîsahêcâhk could change the world. Plains Cree Culture’s importance to various indigenous peoples, especially the prairies, presented the ontological foundations and the cultural value of such intelligent practice and indigenous organization. From the modules, it is clear that the White House and Treaty Six are the most useful in understanding the history of the prairies, while the indigenous wisdom and the Cree of intellectual traditions were the least useful.
Bibliography
Duhame, Roger. Treaty Texts: Treaty No. 6. Ottawa: Queen’s Printer and Controller of Stationery. 1964.
Johnson, Paulina, “The Nêhiyawak Nation through Âcimowina: Experiencing Plains Cree Knowledge through Oral Narratives,” Totem: The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology: 23, no. 1 (2015): 47-62.
Solway, T. “Indigenous Wisdom – Siksika Blackfoot Stories – how one elder came to know.”YouTube. 2016. Web.
Wheeler, Winona. Cree Intellectual Traditions in History. Alberta: Athabasca University Press, 2010.
Whitehouse-Strong, Derek, “Everything Promised Had Been Included in the Writing Indian Reserve Farming and the Spirit and Intent of Treaty Six Reconsidered”. Great Plains Quarterly: 27 (2007): 25-37.
Footnotes
- Duhame, Treaty Texts: Treaty No. 6, 19-22.