Treaty 45 Explained

Treaty 45, referred to variously as the Manitoulin Island treaty, the treaty of Manitowaning, or the Bond Head treaty, is a treaty that, by its terms, converted the whole of Manitoulin Island, then in Upper Canada, into a reserve.^[1]

Treaty 45 was negotiated in August 1836 between 16 leaders of the Odawa and Ojibwe and Francis Bond Head, as a representative of the British Crown.^{[2] [3]} An entry in The Canadian Encyclopedia suggests that as opposed to "negotiation", what happened instead was simply that Bond Head "collected the signatures" of these leaders on the treaty document.^[4] Bond Head had travelled to Manitoulin Island in part for an annual exchange of presents with his Indigenous counterparts; according to historian Robert J. Surtees, he "took more decisive action" in negotiating the treaty once there.

The English-language document memorializing the treaty is in the collection of Library and Archives Canada.

The treaty's conclusion was memorialized on Manitoulin Island in August 2011.^[5]

The term "Manitoulin Island treaty" may also refer to a treaty negotiated in 1862.

Sources

• Buchanan. Ruth. Hewitt. Jeffery G. 7 November 2017. Encountering settler colonialism through legal objects: a painted drum and handwritten treaty from Manitoulin Island. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly. 68. 3. 291–304 . 2514-4936 . 10.53386/nilq.v68i3.41. free.
• Book: Surtees, Robert J.. Treaty research report: Manitoulin Island treaties. Treaties and Historical Research Centre; Indian and Northern Affairs Canada . 1986 . Ottawa . en . 153543517 . R32-268/1986E-PDF.

External links

• Transcription of the text of Treaty 45, dated 9 August 1836, via Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

Notes and References

1. Book: McNab, David T.. Circles of Time: Aboriginal Land Rights and Resistance in Ontario. 1999. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. 978-0-88920-693-9. 122. en.
2. Book: Kevin. Hutchings. Edinburgh Companion to Atlantic Literary Studies. 20 September 2016. Edinburgh University Press. 978-1-4744-0295-8. Eckel. Leslie . 316 . en. 'More Savage than Bears or Wolves': Animals, Colonialism and the Aboriginal Atlantic. 10.3366/j.ctt1g051f1.25.
3. Book: Hutchings, Kevin. Transatlantic Upper Canada: Portraits in Literature Land and British-Indigenous Relations. 20 August 2020. McGill–Queen's University Press. 978-0-2280-0266-6 . 69 . en.
4. Web site: Anderson. Charnel. 29 September 2021 . Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory. 30 September 2021. The Canadian Encyclopedia.
5. Web site: Erskine. Michael. 17 August 2011 . First Nations gather to mark 1836 Manitowaning Treaty. 30 September 2021 . Manitoulin Expositor. en-CA.