This thesis explores the history of Mounted Police and Cree relations on two Saskatchewan Reserves: Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in the north-east of the province, and Poundmaker Cree Nation in the central south-western portion of Saskatchewan.<p> Sources include oral interviews of elders from each reserve as well as a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police records.<p> One of the main goals of this thesis is to present a Cree perspective on contact and interaction with the Mounted Police. Although police policies were supposedly the same towards all Indians, specific elements of the Mounted Police dealings were altered according to a variety of external influences. For example, different environmental features from one region to the other prohibited the adoption of agriculture in the north. Diverse patterns of Euro-Canadian settlement, concentrated in the north but widespread in the south, also influenced relations. In addition, differences in the two Cree groups forced the Mounted Police to realize that not all Indians were the same.<p> This thesis supplies a brief history of the two Cree groups to provide insight on the existing methods of Cree law enforcement long-established prior to the arrival of the Mounted Police, and the complexities encountered in adapting to the laws of the Canadian government. Consideration is given to the difficulties in creating a law enforcement group to police the newly acquired North West Territories, as well as the initial phases of Cree and police contact for each region.<p> Each region experienced its own history, which contributed to the relationship between the Cree and the Mounted Police. For example, in the Battleford region the 1885 Rebellion played a key role in denigrating the image of the Poundmaker Cree, whereas the Peter Ballantyne Cree experienced no such event which created such a negative image. Poverty, starvation, and disease among both Cree groups were unfortunate elements which resulted from police enforcement of certain detrimental government policies. All the same, the Cree perceived the police as "protectors", yet were fully aware that they were also forced to carry out the orders of the Canadian government. It is this delicate balance between duty and humanity that had the greatest impact on relations between the Cree and the Mounted Police in Saskatchewan.

This thesis explores the history of Mounted Police and Cree relations on two Saskatchewan Reserves: Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in the north-east of the province, and Poundmaker Cree Nation in the central south-western portion of Saskatchewan.<p> Sources include oral interviews of elders from each reserve as well as a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police records.<p> One of the main goals of this thesis is to present a Cree perspective on contact and interaction with the Mounted Police. Although police policies were supposedly the same towards all Indians, specific elements of the Mounted Police dealings were altered according to a variety of external influences. For example, different environmental features from one region to the other prohibited the adoption of agriculture in the north. Diverse patterns of Euro-Canadian settlement, concentrated in the north but widespread in the south, also influenced relations. In addition, differences in the two Cree groups forced the Mounted Police to realize that not all Indians were the same.<p> This thesis supplies a brief history of the two Cree groups to provide insight on the existing methods of Cree law enforcement long-established prior to the arrival of the Mounted Police, and the complexities encountered in adapting to the laws of the Canadian government. Consideration is given to the difficulties in creating a law enforcement group to police the newly acquired North West Territories, as well as the initial phases of Cree and police contact for each region.<p> Each region experienced its own history, which contributed to the relationship between the Cree and the Mounted Police. For example, in the Battleford region the 1885 Rebellion played a key role in denigrating the image of the Poundmaker Cree, whereas the Peter Ballantyne Cree experienced no such event which created such a negative image. Poverty, starvation, and disease among both Cree groups were unfortunate elements which resulted from police enforcement of certain detrimental government policies. All the same, the Cree perceived the police as "protectors", yet were fully aware that they were also forced to carry out the orders of the Canadian government. It is this delicate balance between duty and humanity that had the greatest impact on relations between the Cree and the Mounted Police in Saskatchewan.

This doctoral thesis explores the uniqueness of Cree spirituality and law, based in part on oral histories and on Euro-Canadian literal evidence, specifically the multi-volumes of the Jesuit Relations and the thousands of Hudson’s Bay Company manuscripts that re-enforce insights into this Aboriginal governing system. Taken together, the oral and literal primary evidences will define how spirituality and law pre-existed colonisation and are manifested within self-governing institutions currently pursued by First Nations. The purpose is to understand better Cree spirituality and law as captured in Cree self-government models. This Aboriginal legal history contains and studies a plan of action for future self-governance based on inherent Aboriginal legal traditions and jurisprudence.

I set out on this research concerned with human relations to the ecological world, and the role of law in these relationships. As one theory of nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) law and constitutionalism enables strong kinship relations between the nêhiyawak and non-human beings and things, I explore how nêhiyaw law can be revitalized to reconcile our land relationships. Wâhkôtowin, or the overarching principle that governs our relations, ensures that wellness and good living –miyo pimâtisiwin – is not only a human objective, but shared intersocietally with non-human relations and entities. This dissertation examines the constitutive role that four areas of Plains Cree livelihood – nêhiyaw âcimowina (narrative processes), nêhiyaw âskiy (Plains Cree territory and territoriality), nêhiyawewin (Plains Cree language) and nêhiyaw mamâhtâwiwina (Plains Cree ceremony) – play in ensuring such good living. Taking a ‘law as weaving’ approach’, these areas and institutions form a web to support kind relations to our environments and ecologies. Treaties provide an integral avenue to revitalize the uses of nêhiyaw law in our land relations. Canadian constitutionalism’s primary focus on human-to-human relations, without constitutional consideration of the agency of the ecological world, has had harmful effects on the wellness of non-human beings and things. When we apply the legal and constitutive principles within Plains Cree law and constitutionalism to Treaty 6, they obligate both the Crown and peoples within Canada in the same manner. / Graduate / 2021-07-27