The next thing we'd like to talk about is the Royal Proclamation of October 1763. And one of the common questions that we get about Aboriginal people, well, maybe more about Aboriginal issues, and it's a common question that it deals with the post-contact relationship of Aboriginal peoples and people from other nations. And it's this whole idea of conquering. When I first started off delivering these presentations, people would often ask me, a question about Aboriginal rights and Aboriginal title, and they'd say, hey, how is it that this group of people that we've conquered can have any rights other than the rights we give them, because after all, didn't we conquer them?
So we went back and took a look into Canadian history to see how much conquering went on, and what we found was that by October of 1763, that the process of building relations with Aboriginal people had become a very formal process. And in the proclamation, which has a whole number of different segments to it, it says, The one particular paragraph that we like to focus on is this paragraph that refers to them as nations or tribes. It states that it is just and reasonable and essential to our interests that the several nations or tribes of Indians with whom we are connected and live under our protection should not be molested or disturbed in the possession of such parts of our dominions and territories as not having been ceded to or purchased by us or reserved to them or any of them as their hunting grounds.
So that's a very important piece of the relationship between nations. Canada and her Aboriginal peoples because in the paragraph there's a number of things happening. The first thing that's happening is that King George III and his proclamation are recognizing those Aboriginal peoples as we call them today as nations or tribes. So since the very earliest times of the country Aboriginal peoples are used to working with colonial and later federal and provincial governments on a nation to nation basis.
There's no imbalance of power there. It's on a nation basis. on a nation to nation basis.
And it's something that we see happening even today. If we look at the British Columbia treaty process and other processes, We see that those kinds of things are happening on a nation-to-nation basis, those treaty negotiations. And again, that's really what the Royal Proclamation represents as the start of the treaty process. It recognizes them as nations. It also recognizes them as owning the lands that they're using and occupying.
So another important feature said that it needed to be ceded to or purchased by us. And so a very important piece of the puzzle is it recognizes the Aboriginal peoples as nations and it recognizes them as owning the lands that they live on. So there's this requirement for King George's colonial governments operating what will become Canada.
requirement to purchase land from them. The third thing it does is it sets out what are often called special fishing and hunting provisions are reserved to them and or any of them as their hunting grounds is what it says in the proclamation and so it's also setting out out those provisions to fish and hunt. And today, that would be sort of an older treaty.
Today, the modern treaties would not only deal with things like fishing and hunting, but it would deal with governance and healthcare and education and whatever agreements that federal and or provincial governments or even territorial governments will come up with, with respect to Aboriginal peoples. But again, a very important document, recognizing Aboriginal peoples as nations or tribes, recognizing them as on the lands that they live and operate. parade on and recognize that it's having what are often called special fishing and hunting provisions.
It drives a lot of the things that we see happening today. In December of 1997, for example, the Supreme Court of Canada said that Aboriginal title exists and Aboriginal rights exist and here's a test to prove it. So again, the Supreme Court reaching into these old executive orders and legislative provisions to draw out its legal principles for what we see happening at the Supreme Court of Canada.
All of that is to say that there's not much conquering happening and what would become Canada. There's very little, really there is some, but very little to begin with anyways. And certainly after 1763 we see this negotiation of treaties with nations or tribes.
As we work our way westward into the continent with the fur trade, gold rush, agricultural expansion. and coming to the railroad, you'll see that the colonial governments and later federal and provincial governments were out in front of colonization, negotiating treaties with nations or tribes, purchasing land from them, setting out special fishing and hunting provisions. So not a lot of conquering. Different from the American experience, we only have to watch the old John Wayne movies to see what that was and John Wayne would lead the settlers into the savage wilderness.
Whenever they got out there, they would encounter the hostiles. Who were the hostiles? They were also indigenous peoples that felt they owned the lands that people were beginning to settle upon.
But without following the formal process, there's conflict, bloodshed, military campaigns, bounty hunting policies, and imprisonment for guys like Geronimo. And that's definitely an American experience of Indian policy. But when you take a look at what's happening and what will become Canada, we're negotiating treaties with nations or tribes, purchasing land, setting out fishing and hunting provisions. And it's all being done underneath this royal proclamation, following the principles of that royal proclamation.