By Jode Kechego Re the Royal Proclamation- It was a surrender document because a War Chief named Obwandiyag (aka Pontiac) picked up the hatchet and declared war against the British Empire in July of 1763. On October 7, 1763, after nine of eleven British Forts from Fort Michilimackinac (near present day Sault Ste Marie) to Fort Pitt (present day city of Pittsburgh) were either, abandoned, surrendered or were utterly destroyed- thats when the British Generals emerged from Fort Detroit with a surrender document and several hundred blankets as a plea for peace. Pontiac and his allies accepted the British terms of surrender but in his ignorance, Pontiac failed to see the level of cowardice that politicians could stoop to. The gifts of blankets were shipped from England and infested with smallpox. The surrender document was written in British legal jargon and was titled The Royal Proclamation- a proclamation that did indeed acknowledge Indian lands, but it also developed a mechanism on how Indian lands could be acquired without losing a single British soldier to war. Hence, the beginning of a treaty relationship between the British empire and the First Nations of North America. Two hundred and fifty years, two constitutions, a century and a half of kidnapping children during the residential school era and countless meaningless treaties later- here we are, yelling at an immoral government demanding a moral obligation. Today I will acknowledge Obwandiyag and those who fought with him. I will pay my respects in my own way and I will listen. Justice cannot be found in a justice system that is predicated on an illegal constitution proclaiming supremacy without any acts of supremacy. I will not demand anything from this government. Their fate has already been sewn and their principles have been proven. There is nothing they can give me and nothing they can do for me that will make my life more fulfilling. My answers do not come from them. Instead, I will find a place to pay my respects to those who lived and died so that I could be here today. All my relations. Yawko, Miigwech.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 16:33:58 +0000
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