Reconciliation Sentiment? Text-Analysis of Indigenous-Settler Treaties from Pre-Confederation to the Modern Treaty Era in Canada

• In Event: Justice and Representation

Abstract

This paper introduces “reconciliation sentiment” as a novel analytical concept to assess the evolving dynamics of treaty relationships between the Crown (and later the Canadian government) and Indigenous nations from pre-Confederation to post-Confederation into the modern treaty era. Following the Calder decision in 1973, this landmark ruling acknowledges Indigenous rights, leading to James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1978, which was the first in a series of modern treaties. In comparing the “harshness” of treaties by employing unsupervised machine learning techniques, this paper adapts Spirling’s text-scaling approach to systemically analyze digitized treaty texts. This study evaluates changes in the political authority and “fiduciary responsibility” involved in Indigenous-settler relationships, and analyzes whether there has been a recent increase in positive reconciliation sentiment within modern treaties akin to those sentiments observed in the initial treaties prior to Confederation, or if reconciliation sentiment has created a new distinct form of negotiations.

Authors

• Chris Greenaway, University of Toronto

• Michael Cowan, University of Toronto