Читать книгу Sisters of the Ice - R. Bruce Macdonald - Страница 10

We did use the ocean summer and winter. We have always had land use and occupancy between here and the mainland. We are on the ocean summer and winter. When ice goes out on polar bears, seals, winter to Holman Island. Go out about forty miles and people lived on Baillie Island. There is no question of sovereignty.

—Joey Carpenter28

There was a legitimate concern over the Americans claiming the area as their own since the mostly American whaling ship crews had been occupying Herschel Island and there was a fear of them perhaps doing the same in the Mackenzie Delta. The insult to Canada was quite brazen, with “the continual presence of the Star Spangled Banner flying from every ship’s masthead, giving the island the appearance of an American community.”²⁹

While protecting the Inuit, the police also began to educate them on the laws of Canada and the punishments that could be expected for those that broke them. This was a new way of doing business for the Inuit. “Inuvialuit justice practices were directly related to their way of life. The harsher the environment, the more it was necessary to cooperate, rely on each other and share in survival pursuits … By resolving or preventing conflicts, the Inuvialuit increased the survival and security of the whole group. Banishment, shaming, ignoring, avoidance, compensation, capital punishment and ridicule, depending on the severity of the offence, were a few practices used to deal with offenders.”³⁰ Prior to 1903, when the North-West Mounted Police established its first detachment at Herschel Island, the Inuit were at the mercy of the whalers, who brought in barrels of rum and came ashore looking for women. When the news reached San Francisco that a police detachment had been established on Herschel Island, a local newspaper carried the story and added the hope that the small force of two men was adequate to “cope with the demons of debauchery and cruelty who walk on two legs and call themselves white.”³¹

In reality, though, the police had to rely upon the honesty of the whaling captains to volunteer how much they were trading and how many whales they had harvested. They also relied on the whalers’ generosity to transport them to other islands for patrols, so it was important to remain on friendly terms. To keep the peace, a token amount of duties might be offered, but this was enough to show that the foreigners were in compliance with Canadian law. “The most practical demonstration of Canadian sovereignty in the region was the collection of duties on whales caught and goods traded with the Inuit, but if captains wished to avoid payment, they simply did not call at Herschel Island. The police had no ship of their own and could not patrol the coast to bring the law to ships that avoided their post.”³²

Southern Canada had begun to take a great interest in what was happening in the Canadian Arctic. “The climate of public and government opinion began to harden after 1900, as the dimensions and implications of foreign activity became more widely known, and as it became clear from the disappointing outcome of the Alaskan Boundary Dispute that ‘legal arguments and historic claims to land were a poor substitute for rights established by effective occupation.’”³³ Concern was expressed, not only for remote parts of the Arctic, where there was seldom if ever a Canadian presence, but also for relatively accessible regions where Canada’s title had hitherto been taken for granted. The geologist Joseph Burr Tyrrell expressed a disquieting opinion that, “although by the Treaty of Utrecht, the sovereignty of Hudson Bay was ceded to Great Britain, it is just possible that, through long continued acquiescence, these foreigners (American whalemen) may be establishing rights whilst ours are being allowed to lapse.”³⁴

The Alaskan Boundary Dispute that was settled in 1903 set a dangerous precedent for Canada. When the news arose that foreigners, including Americans, were working and exploring in the eastern Arctic, the Canadian government took steps to protect its territory. Resentment was high in Canada due to the perceived mishandling of the arbitration between the British and US governments, and a desire to protect the rest of Canada was strong.

A country can prove sovereignty over what they claim as their land in several different ways, including by conquest, by the country being ceded to them, and by occupation. But just planting a flag on a piece of land and then sailing away is not recognized. For the flag to stick, there must be occupation and the administration of law.

In northern Canada, sovereignty was effectively proved through the occupation and use of the land by the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), starting in 1670 when King Charles II granted the land to the Company. By having the Company living and trading in this area, the British Crown proved occupation. The HBC in addition to running its own trading posts and exploring farther north for more business ventures, helped the Inuit with medical matters, delivered food and other supplies to them during times of shortage and even delivered the mail. All of these things proved to the rest of the world Canada’s legal ownership of its Arctic through its occupation of the north. The HBC did not have sovereignty over northern Canada but simply a charter. In 1869 the Company surrendered its lands to the Crown and in 1870 the Crown transferred them to Canada. This purchase of what was then called Rupert’s Land set the stage for the negotiation of treaty rights with the Indigenous peoples. Eleven numbered treaties were worked out between 1871 and 1921. The Company continued to trade in Canada and to offer many services until the end of the nineteenth century, including taking census data on behalf of the Canadian government. The provision of these services allowed sovereignty to be shown through administration.

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 stated that land could only be acquired by the Crown through purchase or cession. Lands were held in common and not by individuals, so individuals could not sell parcels of land, and the Crown decreed that the land could only be sold to the Crown, which put an obvious restriction on the Inuit. Studied through modern eyes, this patriarchal approach to the Inuit is obviously distasteful.

The Royal Proclamation of 1763.

England’s belief was that whoever occupied Canada could take ownership of it. There were many Indigenous peoples already living in Canada, of course, and in the north, trading partnerships developed between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Inuit, which, over time, became what has been termed “developmental sovereignty,” where both parties benefited from the relationship. In many areas of the north, treaty discussions are ongoing. In formally asserting its sovereignty, the Canadian government agreed to the protection and well-being of the north’s original inhabitants. This included treaty payments.

Unlike in southern Canada, where in the beginning there were many more European and First Nations interactions, the north had traditionally nomadic Inuit sporadically meeting with explorers, traders and whalers. “These people, Inuit and Dene, were little touched by Canadian sovereignty before 1900. They knew nothing of the government, and the government knew nothing of them.”³⁵ When the handover from the Crown occurred, the contract dealing with the exact land being discussed was kept imprecise since no one knew exactly how many islands or land masses they were speaking of. No one, Inuit included, had ever lived on the far Arctic islands due to the harsh conditions and lack of food sources.

After the initial developmental sovereignty stage, the Canadian government slowly began a phase of administration and took an interest in the well-being of its northern citizens. After 1900, these administrative services were primarily handled by the police.

Another way that Canada showed its sovereignty in the north was through the administration of justice. Complaints of criminal acts were investigated, and in some cases the alleged perpetrators were sent to court in Edmonton for trial. In most cases, however, the police enforced the law and, if a person was found guilty, handed out the sentence. The sentences might not have reflected those given in southern Canada, but the effect of justice and fairness being meted out satisfied the victims of the crime. On the other end of the scale, in perhaps the most famous case in the western Arctic, two men found guilty of murder were hanged at Herschel Island.