Treaty No. 9 and the Question of “Unceded” Land South of the Albany River in Subarctic Ontario, Canada

The James Bay Treaty-Treaty No. 9 was unique among the numbered treaties of Canada in that there was a need for the concurrence of the Province of Ontario. Last-minute negotiations by the Dominion of Canada to gain said concurrence led to an agreement with the Province of Ontario, and this agreement became part of the Treaty No. 9 package at Ontario’s insistence. However, since the agreement was not executed until after the Treaty No. 9 expedition had left for the field, an incomplete Treaty No. 9 package that lacked the agreement was presented to and signed by the First Nation groups in 1905. Furthermore, spaces had been left in the vellum copies of Treaty No. 9 and the agreement to add in the date of the agreement when fully executed. In the spaces that were left for this purpose, the date of the agreement was backdated to 3 July. This act of deception was suggested by the Treasurer of the Government of Ontario, A. Matheson in order to date of the agreement earlier than the date in the Treaty. Thus, the common law legality of the Treaty No. 9 package must be questioned, especially since officials of the Governments of Canada and Ontario left documentation of their deception. Without the agreement being attached as specified in the Treaty No. 9 document that left Ottawa in 1905, consideration of the terms of the agreement by the First Nation signatories of the treaty could not have occurred prior to signing. It follows that there exists a question of whether the land south of the Albany River was ever ceded in Treaty No. 9 from a common law perspective, unless documentation can be presented indicating that the complete Treaty No. 9 package was presented to the First Nation signatories; the written record indicates otherwise. In the end, the courts will have to decide the legality of Treaty No. 9 from a common law perspective.

Writing and Translation with the James Bay Cree of Northern Québec

Introduction

Soil Nutrient Supply in Cultivated Bush Bean–Potato Intercropping Grown in Subarctic Soil Managed with Agroforestry

To address food insecurity in northern Canada, some isolated communities started gardening initiatives to reduce dependencies on expensive foods flown in to communities. From 2012–2014, soils in northern Ontario James Bay lowlands were cultivated with bush beans and potatoes, grown in sole and intercropping configurations, in an open field and an agroforestry system enclosed by willow trees. The objective of this study was to compare the supply rates of 15 plant-available nutrients in these soils using in situ ion exchange membranes. After three years of cultivation, the agroforestry site had significantly greater supply of PO4, Ca, and Zn and these nutrients had positive correlations with yield. By contrast, the open site had significantly greater supply of Mg, SO4, and B; these nutrients, and Al, had negative correlations with yield. Whilst there were no differences between sole and intercropping configurations, significantly greater supply of NO3, Ca, Cu, Fe, and Zn occurred early in the growing season, compared to significantly greater supply of K, SO4, B, and Al later in the season. Significantly greater yields have been harvested in the agroforestry site and it is suspected that the presence of a willow shelterbelt improves the microclimate and plant-available PO4, Ca, and Zn.

Dissecting systemic racism: policies, practices and epistemologies creating racialized systems of care for Indigenous peoples

In this paper we explore some of the ways systemic racism operates and is maintained within our health and social services. We look at a very specific context, that of Nunavik Quebec, land and home to 13,000 Nunavimmiut, citizens of Quebec and Canada, signatories of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. We operationalize some of the ways in which policies and practices create and support social hierarchies of knowledges, also called epistemic racism, and how it impacts our ability to offer quality care that Indigenous peoples can trust and use.

Vein topology, structures, and distribution during the prograde formation of an Archean gold stockwork

The Archean Cheechoo stockwork gold deposit is hosted by a felsic intrusion of tonalitic-granodioritic composition and crosscutting pegmatite dikes in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay area of Quebec, Canada (Archean Superior craton). The evolution of the stockwork is characterized herein using field relationships, vein density, and connectivity measurements on drill core and outcrop zones. The statistical distribution of gold is used to highlight mechanisms of stockwork emplacement and gold mineralization and remobilization. Two statistical populations of gold concentration are present. Population A is represented by gold grades below 1 g/t with a lognormal cumulative frequency. It is widespread in the hydrothermally altered (albite and quartz) and mineralized facies of the pluton. It is controlled by the development of quartz-feldspar-diopside veins as shown by the similar lognormal distribution of grades and vein density and by the correspondence of grades with network connectivity. Diopside and actinolite porphyroblasts in deformed veins within sodic and calcsilicate alteration zones are evidence for auriferous vein emplacement prior to the amphibolite facies peak of metamorphism. Population B (>1 g/t) is erratic and exhibits a strong nugget effect. It is present throughout the mineralized portion of the pluton and in pegmatites. This population is interpreted as the result of gold remobilization during prograde metamorphism and pegmatite emplacement following the metamorphic peak. The pegmatites are interpreted to have scavenged gold emplaced prior to peak metamorphism. These results show the isotropic behavior of the investigated stockwork during regional deformation and its development during the early stages of regional prograde metamorphism.

(Re)discovering Pedagogy of the Oppressed

This article chronicles a crisis of alignment regarding Critical Pedagogy due to the top-down power structures of White authority that is pervasive in the theory’s North American academic environment. Contesting the often touted “radical” or “revolutionary” nature of Critical Pedagogy in higher education spaces, the author questions his relationship with Paulo Freire’s work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, ultimately abandoning the content of writing over the way the theory/philosophy is lived in academia. Through the lived experience of engaging with community in the James Bay Cree territories and Malawi, the question is asked as to who owns Freire’s rebellious call to action.

USE OF LANDSAT-8 OLI IMAGERY AND LOCAL INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE FOR EELGRASS MAPPING IN EEYOU ISTCHEE

The eastern coastline of James Bay (Eeyou Istchee) is known to be home to beds of subarctic eelgrass (Zostera marina L.). These eelgrass beds provide valuable habitat and food source for coastal and marine animals and contribute valuable ecosystem services such as stabilization of the shoreline all along the coast. Despite reports from Cree communities that eelgrass bed health has declined, limited research has been performed to assess and map the spatial distribution of eelgrass within the bay. This study aims to address that issue by evaluating the capability of Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) imagery to establish a baseline map of eelgrass distribution in 2019 in the relatively turbid waters of Eeyou Istchee. Three images acquired in September 2019 were merged and classified using Random Forests into the following classes: Eelgrass, Turbid Water, Highly Turbid Water, and Optically Deep Water. The resulting classified image was validated against 108 ground truth data that were obtained from both the eelgrass health and Hydro-Quebec research team. The resulting overall accuracy was 78.7%, indicating the potential of the Random Forests classifier to estimate baseline eelgrass coverage in James Bay using Landsat-8 imagery. This project is part of a Cree driven project, the Coastal Habitat Comprehensive Research Program (CHCRP). The CHCRP aims to combine Cree's traditional knowledge with Western science to better understand environmental changes in the coastal ecosystems and ecosystem services of eastern James Bay. The study is funded by a MITACS grant sponsored by Niskamoon Corporation, an indigenous non-profit organization.

Project George: An Indigenous Land-Based Approach to Resilience for Youth

The research shared in this article seeks an understanding of Indigenous resilience within the context of a culturally responsive land-based initiative, Project George, led by the Moose Cree First Nation, also known as the Omushkego people. The initiative centres core Cree values, community engagement, and land-based skills to ensure the well-being of youth. Their Homeland is located in the waterways and on the western shores of the Hudson and James Bay Lowlands in Ontario, Canada. The methodology involved researcher participation and engagement as part of a 4-month field presence; informal conversations and visiting; as well as formal semistructured interviews with community members over 4 years from 2012 to 2015. The research explores the benefits and challenges of a land-based program by highlighting the experiences and voices of community and program participants who directly engaged with Project George. The findings show that land-based learning initiatives inspired and driven by Indigenous people foster a regenerative approach to wellness based on relation to land, culture, and identity. A return to land-based learning responds to the ongoing colonial complexities affecting the health and wellness of Indigenous youth in Canada and draws strength from the people’s resilient practices.