Reflection on Treaty Understandings

Mutual Inquiry and Collective Understanding

it is reflection assignment and format is APA and please do not use any other link or source , use only given link. Mutual inquiry, the seeking of collective understanding, is a core focus of this writing assignment. At one time, the greatest resource of the people was thinking. Searching our own minds, sharing our understandings of what is unfolding around us, listening respectfully to the understandings of others, and then applying this quest towards serving the people. Applying our minds not for personal gain but for collective good. When one uses the mind in a good way, seeking for collective, common good, then we are using our minds in a great way. We are thinking greatly. A primary goal of the course reflection assessment rubric is to guide each of my students towards decolonizing how we think together. In your reflections, my teaching objectives do not require you to seek to critique, debate, argue your position, or prove any “point”. Reflect on course lectures and assigned resources. Share any relevant connections. Explore new knowledge, share insights and new understandings gained from course readings, lectures and material have with other knowledge you have from previous knowledge from elsewhere. Reflect on any related experience and knowledge that facilitates greater understanding of the issues surrounding the topic you choose to reflect on: other sources of knowledge including personal experience and other courses that have contributed to your current understandings. Prompt 2 - Treaty Understandings “For the Elders, the relationships created by treaties were founded upon the doctrines of wahkohtowin and miyo-wicehtowin for they constituted the essential elements of an enduring and lasting relationship…to consist of mutual ongoing caring and sharing arrangements between treaty parties, which included a sharing of the duties and responsibilities for land, shared for livelihood purposes with the newcomers” (Treaty Elders of Saskatchewan, p 15). Throughout this course, we have explored treaty knowledge and its relevance as part of today’s public discourse. A major portion of discussions has been the dual existence of both an oral and written version and how these two widely differing views impact understandings of Aboriginal/Indigenous rights. In the reading, Treaties: Negotiations and Rights, the author Tamara Starblanket (link below), reviews treaty history, the “Land Question”, Indigenous understandings of treaty, the Crown’s understanding, and negotiations and rights. She concludes with: “It is apparent from the discussion that the understandings of Treaty are divergent. It would be difficult to determine what rights were agreed to if one party comes to the negotiations with the Eurocentric assumption that they have control over the negotiations. What about the land? The Crown did not have underlying title or sovereignty despite what their imposed legal systems say about the matter. Indigenous Peoples have existed in what is now the North American continent for thousands of years or since the beginning of time. Indigenous Peoples have not violated the terms of the Treaty but time and time again the Crown abuses the land through their resource development projects and imposes their laws. Pertaining to the question of authority and governance, Indigenous Peoples possess the inherent authority to determine their own laws and customs, despite one party holding the Eurocentric assumption they have supreme law on a continent that they did not discover.” Take time to reflect on Starblanket’s words as well as the words of Rarihokwats- Everything you need to know about treaty. Within the video, many new understandings about the treaty process of the numbered treaties are shared. This topic requires thoughtful reflection on the knowledge you now have on treaties, the spirit and intent of treaty, and the major ahead of us in collectively defining our treaty relationship within this period of reconciliation.