Manidoo Mazina'igan: An Anishinaabe perspective of Treaty 3

Abstract

This is a legal, historical and personal account of Treaty 3. This paper discusses the Articles of Treaty signed by the Anishinaabeg and the Queens representatives on October 3, 1873. Since then, Canada has ignored the Anishinaabeg perspective of the treaty in the litigation of St. Catherine's Milling and Lumber Co. Ltd., a case that defined "Indian" title for almost a century. The Anishinaabeg perspective on the treaty, Manidoo Mazina'igan (the sacred paper) is important in defining a future for Anishinaabeg laws and social-political institutions within Canada. Utilizing existing academic and historical work and relevant jurisprudence, I attempt to bring clarity to what the treaty is: a sui generis order of "inter-societal" governments and their laws formulated to sacred treaty principles. One fundamental inter-societal institution is the treaty council, which should be the vehicle of treaty renewal for mutual reconciliation under section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.