Culminating #3C: The Inconvenient Indian Thesis
Thesis
In King's, 'Inconvenient Indian', it is apparent that the incorrect use of treaties influenced the post-colonial identity of Indigenous people in North America.
Treaties & Post-Colonial Identity
Before we provide evidence to support the thesis statement, we must first define two major terms in the statement; treaties and post-colonial identity.
Treaties are agreements made between Indigenous people and colonizers primarily created throughout the early centuries during first interactions.
Post-colonial identity is a factor of the post-colonial literary theory that identifies how decolonized people develop an identity based off of different cultural interactions.
Land
“Land. If you understand nothing else about the history of Indians in North America, you need to understand that the question that really matters is the question of land.” (King 218).
In order to support the thesis statement we have to discuss the importance of land to Indigenous and Non-Indigenous people, treaty involvement, and the purpose of reservations. To support these claims, evidence will be taken from Thomas King’s novel and other sources.
Land has always been a source of dispute and the source of multiple treaties, “In North American Indian history, land and treaties are so tightly intertwined that it is hardly possible to separate them.” (King 222).
Land is extremely important to people all across the world, including the Indigenous and Non-Indigenous people of North America. For Indigenous people, land holds a strong connection to culture, “Land has always been a defining element of Aboriginal culture. Land contains the languages, the stories, and the histories of a people.” (King 218). Land to the colonizers or Non-Indigenous people has less of cultural connection as land represents more of currency to them, “The answer is quite simple, and it’s been in plain sight all along. Land. Whites want land.” (King 218).
Treaties have always been a part of the claiming of land- Indian land- in North America, “Treaties, after all, were not vehicles for protecting land or even sharing land. They were vehicles for acquiring land. Almost without fail, throughout the history of North America, every time Indians signed a treaty with Whites, Indians lost land.” (King 224). Currently, its estimated that between the 2267 reserves in Canada, they only own 0.2% of the total area of land in the country.
Reserves are a part of the land claim that happened during colonization as Indigenous people were forced off a majority of their land and forced onto smaller portions of land, to make way for white settlers.
As land claims are beginning to be recognized and settled, Indigenous people are reconnecting with their culture, and traditional land.
Education
Education has been a defining factor for Indigenous people across Canada for many centuries, but the colonial definition of education was brought forth with the opening of residential schools.
In order to support the thesis statement, we have to discuss residential schools and treaty involvement, as well as modern education offered to Indigenous people and how the treaties relate to that.
In 1831 the first residential school opened in Brantford, Ontario, called the ‘Mohawk Institute’. Many residential schools were notorious for being rampant with multiple forms of abuse, teachers harming students, and students harming each other. In the 1870′s residential schools became apart of treaties as the Canadian Government and Plains Nations wanted schooling to be include, though each side had completely different reasons for their want of inclusion.
As mentioned earlier, pushing Indigenous people off their traditional land and onto reserves was a part of treaties. Within that same act, many Indigenous communities were doomed to fail providing proper education to their youth. Many Northern communities struggle to provide proper education to their children as their schools are unsafe and its difficult to provide education equal to the education provided to students in Ottawa, all of this a reflection of their location, as they lack access to the needed resources.
Identity
Identity is apart of culture, what makes you, you. With colonization, many Indigenous people lost connection with their culture through assimilation.
In order to support the thesis statement, we have to discuss the identity of Indigenous people and the involvement of treaties in the topic.
There are more than 50 Indigenous nations and languages, and yet the Government has grouped Indigenous people into three major identities, First Nation, Inuit, and Metis, stripping away the individual cultures of each Nation, “What was needed was a plan to give this snarl of cultures a definitive and manageable form. So, out of ignorance, disregard, frustration, and expediency, North America set about creating a single entity, an entity that would stand for the whole.” (King 82).
In King’s novel, he categorizes Indigenous people into three terms, Dead Indians, Live Indians, and Legal Indians. Dead Indians are the stereotypes of Indigenous people and their culture that North America made out of experience and fear, “They are the stereotypes and clichés that North America has conjured up out of experience and out of its collective imaginings and fears.” (King 53). Live Indians are exactly as they are described, they are the surviving people left over from colonization and assimilation, “Live Indians are fallen Indians, modern, contemporary copies, not authentic Indians at all, Indians by biological association only.” (King 65). Legal Indians are Live Indians, but are identified and classified as Indian by the Government, “Legal Indians are those Indians by the Canadian and U.S. governments. Government Indians, if you like.” (King 68).
Treaties are involved with identity as assimilation came with the treaties, and assimilation is what provoked the loss of culture and language.
Assimilation
Assimilation is the process of absorbing a minority culture into a majority culture.
In order to support the thesis statement, we have to discuss the act of assimilation used against Indigenous people in North America and how the treaties were involved.
Indigenous people were considered a problem, and the colonizers of North America decided it needed to be dealt with. Violence was the first action taken, then came assimilation and education. Indigenous people were stripped of their culture and languages in favor for Christianity.
Treaties, as mentioned before, entailed assimilation, especially considering the loss of sacred land.
Citations
“Residential Schools in Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools#:~:text=When did the first residential,first boarding students in 1831.
Google Image Result for Https://I.cbc.ca/1.3972145.1486569774!/FileImage/HttpImage/Image.jpeg_gen/Derivatives/original_780/Book-Cover-the-Inconvenient-Indian-by-Thomas-King.jpeg, images.app.goo.gl/nJwPrU8BNfr7oJEd8.
Google Image Result for Https://Lizfergusonmontrealgazette.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/after-the-Last-River-Kids-Protest.jpg?w=1024&h=577, images.app.goo.gl/iDgWdbjj96cX48k26.
Google Image Result for Https://Upload.wikimedia.org/Wikipedia/Commons/Thumb/5/5d/Numbered-Treaties-Map.svg/1200px-Numbered-Treaties-Map.svg.png, images.app.goo.gl/P1JvuJr2yKdtXBth6.
Google Image Result for Https://Www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.1162357.1361281334!/HttpImage/Image.jpg_gen/Derivatives/landscape_960/Image.jpg, images.app.goo.gl/3BBnc4j2PVgwcoQK7.
Google Image Result for Https://Www.canada.ca/Content/Canadasite/En/Services/Culture/Canadian-Identity-Society/Indigenous-Peoples-Cultures/Funding/_jcr_content/Par/Mwscolumns-row1/Colpar-2/Adaptiveimage/Image.img.jpg/1505135972456.Jpg, images.app.goo.gl/FHYSnRtZk7ekFdNW9.
Cultural Assimilation - Google Search, g.co/kgs/WuXd6R.
Government of Canada; Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada; Communications Branch. “Indigenous Peoples and Communities.” Government of Canada; Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada; Communications Branch, 4 Dec. 2017, www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100013785/1529102490303.
Government of Canada; Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada; Communications Branch. “Reports - Canada.” Government of Canada; Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada; Communications Branch, 15 Sept. 2010, www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100034846/1100100034847.
Government of Canada; Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada; Communications Branch. “Treaties and Agreements.” Government of Canada; Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada; Communications Branch, 30 July 2020, www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100028574/1529354437231.
KING, THOMAS. INCONVENIENT INDIAN: a Curious Account of Native People in North America. UNIV OF MINNESOTA Press, 2018.
“Postcolonialism.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Nov. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcolonialism#:~:text=Postcolonial theory holds that decolonized,power by the colonial society.








