¹ Kwesi Baffoe is currently a candidate for a doctorate degree in law at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Mr. Baffoe began his professional career as a dentist in The Pas, Manitoba until 1993, when he lost his eyesight. His dentist practice of nearly twenty years included work with Medical Services Canada serving aboriginal communities across Northern Manitoba. Mr. Baffoe returned to scholarly studies in 1994 and earned his B.A. in 1996 from the University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and his LL.B. in 2000 from the University of Manitoba. Mr. Baffoe continued his legal studies after passing the bar in 2001 in the Province of Manitoba, and earned his LL.M. in 2002 from the University of Ottawa where he is continuing his studies towards an LL.D. In the academic year of 2003-2004, Mr. Baffoe received a Fullbright Scholarship and studied at the University of New Mexico School of Law where he took various classes, including Law of Indigenous Peoples where he wrote this paper.

² Joan Ryan was a community development teacher in Lac La Martre around 1957. She taught basic literacy, started the school system and instituted a public health program to stamp out an annually occurring dysentery epidemic. She extended those programs in other Dene communities and into the Eastern Arctic.

³ Ms. Ryan conducted a survey of the Dogrib people. Joan Ryan, Traditional Dene Justice Project (1983) (unpublished) (on file with author). Although the survey was not complete at the time that it was given to me in 1985 by Mr. John Carton, who was the principal of the Lac Brochet Elementary School, I came across a more organized, but still incomplete version in my studies. Course Manual: Studies in Human Rights Aboriginal Law, taught by Mr. Larry Chartrand, University of Ottawa (2001) [hereinafter Chartrand].

⁴ There were too many elders to mention, but the one who stood out the most was John Clipping, who was the Chief in 1964. I lived and fished with him and he visited me in the Pas. Others include former Chiefs Gladys Powderhorn, Moses Powderhorn, David Thorassie and Sarah Cheekie, who was also the administrator of the nursing station where I worked and lived at Tadoule Lake. Ila Bussidor, Steven Thorassie, Fred Duck, Sammy Bussidor, Joe Thorassie, Jimmy Clipping and best of all Betsy Anderson, who at the age of seventy, could well have been the oldest person in the community at the time.

⁵ ILA BUSSIDOR & ŰSTŰN BILGEN-REINHART, NIGHT SPIRITS: THE STORY OF THE RELOCATION OF THE SAYISI DENE (1997).

⁶ Chartrand, supra note 3, at 69.

⁷ BUSSIDOR & BILGEN-REINHART, supra note 5, at 11.

⁸ Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 69.

⁹ BUSSIDOR & BILGEN-REINHART, supra note 5, at xvi.

¹⁰ Id.

¹¹ Email from Eric McGregor, Senior Analyst, First Nations & Northern Statistics Section (Oct. 3, 2003) (on file with author) (hereinafter McGregor email)

¹² Available at http://www.umanitoba.ca/publications/uofmpress/books/night_spirit .html.

¹³ McGregor email, supra note 11.

¹⁴ BUSSIDOR & BILGEN-REINHART, supra note 5, at 49.

¹⁵ Id. at introduction.

¹⁶ DEP’T OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, CENSUS OF INDIANS IN CANADA (2003).

¹⁷ The people of Duck Lake, rather than spending their whole winter at the camps, occasionally came back to Duck Lake to deposit their harvest and replenish their supplies.

¹⁸ Professor Carl Ridd, Lecture in the course Modernity at the University of Winnipeg, Manitoba (1996).

¹⁹ Ron George, The Indigenous Law of Aboriginal People: Restoring the Foundation of Justice (2001) (unpublished thesis, University of Ottawa) (on file with author).

²⁰ Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 90.

²¹ See generally DAVID KINSLEY, ECOLOGY AND RELIGION: ECOLOGICAL SPIRITUALITY IN CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE (1995).

²² Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 90.

²³ Chartrand, supra note 3, at 90.

²⁴ This is very similar to Ryan’s report about the Dogrib. It is also very similar to the life-style of the Cree from Brochet and Lac Brochet.

²⁵ Personal Interview with John Clipping, supra note 4 [hereinafter Clipping].

²⁶ Personal Interviews with Tribal Elders, supra note 4 [hereinafter Tribal Elders].

²⁷ Clipping, supra note 4.

²⁸ Id.

²⁹ Id.

³⁰ This could not be confirmed by the elders, but all agreed that a dead animal should be left for a while.

³¹ Clipping, supra note 4; Tribal Elders, supra note 4.

³² This appeared to be common among the Cree and the Dene of Northern Canada, as well. However, this practice is no longer observed.

³³ BUSSIDOR & BILGEN-REINHART, supra note 5, at 33; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 95.

³⁴ Tribal Elders, supra note 4.

³⁵ My studies indicate that this belief is nearly universal among hunting and trapping tribes.

³⁶ Tribal Elders, supra note 4. Some of the elders believed that the blood had medicinal purposes, so it was reserved for those that needed it the most.

³⁷ This seems unlikely in any event, since women were isolated during menstruation.

³⁸ Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 95. While the elders confirmed Ryan’s observation, the younger generation thought in terms of “contamination.”

³⁹ Chartrand, supra note 3, at 94.

⁴⁰ This includes both barter and trade, and is therefore likely to be a post-contact phenomenon.

⁴¹ Tribal Elders, supra note 4.

⁴² Chartrand, supra note 3, at 96. This practice may also have been influenced by the need for the beaver pelts to use as clothes and later, for the fur trade.

⁴³ Tribal Elders, supra note 4. Some elders claimed that the fish scales and guts had to be buried. If that was true, the practice had been abandoned by 1980.

⁴⁴ Tribal Elders, supra note 4.

⁴⁵ Personal Interview with Betsy Anderson, supra note 4 [hereinafter Anderson].

⁴⁶ Id. See also Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 96.

⁴⁷ Although it was Ryan who made this observation, the elders were more protective of their land than Ryan suggests.

⁴⁸ John W. Ragsdale, Jr., Anasazi Jurisprudence, 22 AM. INDIAN L. REV. 393, 402 (1998).

⁴⁹ See generally KINSLEY, supra note 21.

⁵⁰ BUSSIDOR & BILGEN-REINHART, supra note 5, at 29.

⁵¹ Id.

⁵² Id.

⁵³ Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 109. However, some offences, such as the raping of wives were not considered a crime since women were expected to give into their husbands’ sexual demands. Furthermore, incidents such as “shaken baby syndrome” were considered accidents.

⁵⁴ Ryan, supra note 3.

⁵⁵ Clipping, supra note 4.

⁵⁶ Personal Interview with Sara Cheekie, supra note 4 [hereinafter Cheekie]; See also Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 98. Although Ryan describes one method of pinning the food on the child’s clothes, the Sayisi did not use this method.

⁵⁷ Clipping, supra note 4; But see Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 98. There seems to be no elements of public humiliation among the Dogrib.

⁵⁸ Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 103. This seems to be universal among the Cree, the Dene and the Inuit.

⁵⁹ Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 103.

⁶⁰ Tribal Elders, supra note 4. Although the elders confirmed this, none of them could remember anyone ever being banished.

⁶¹ BUSSIDOR & BILGEN-REINHART, supra note 5, at 34.

⁶² This is a more modern practice. Usually the child is spoken for at birth and unless the spouse dies, it is unlikely that teenagers would not be engaged.

⁶³ Anderson, supra note 45.

⁶⁴ Id.

⁶⁵ Id.

⁶⁶ This rule seems to exist cross-culturally as it existed in African cultures as well.

⁶⁷ Cheekie, supra note 4.

⁶⁸ Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 104. None of the elders recalled such an occurrence, but what was common was that if two young men were living with the father, the one who worked the hardest got the daughter born to the head of the camp.

⁶⁹ Tribal Elders, supra note 4.

⁷⁰ Anderson, supra note 45.

⁷¹ Tribal Elders, supra note 4. Although the elders did not seem to remember any separations or divorce, some admitted that the parents would always send the wife back to the husband.

⁷² The men were blamed for sexual misconduct, so if an extra-marital relationship was between a married woman and a man, it was the man who was banished.

⁷³ This appears to be universal among indigenous peoples.

⁷⁴ Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 107. Ryan made the same observations about the Dogrib, as I did of the Cree of Lac Brochet.

⁷⁵ Ryan, supra note 3.

⁷⁶ Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 102.

⁷⁷ BUSSIDOR & BILGEN-REINHART, supra note 5, at 27.

⁷⁸ Anderson, supra note 45.

⁷⁹ Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 102-3.

⁸⁰ Id.

⁸¹ During my visit, just the term “clown” was used.

⁸² Ryan, supra note 3.

⁸³ Tribal Elders, supra note 4; But see Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 124 (reporting that it was not the fur traders, but rather the missionaries who were the first outsiders to arrive).

⁸⁴ A comparison of Catholicism and Dene culture is instructive.
The following are examples of similarities between Catholicism and Dene culture:
both believe in The Almighty, but with different names;
both believe that there is a spiritual life after death;
both believe in the communion of spirits;
both believe in miracles or mysteries; and
both believe that God/gods can work through humans.
Differences include:
the belief in multiple gods by primitive cultures;
sacrifice to appease gods;
the Trinity, even among Christians;
the Eucharist, even among Christians [hereinafter comparison].

⁸⁵ This is how the elders at Lac Brochet referred to the priests.

⁸⁶ BUSSIDOR & BILGEN-REINHART, supra note 5, at 31.

⁸⁷ See comparison, supra note 84.

⁸⁸ Ryan, supra note 3; Chartrand, supra note 3, at 125.

⁸⁹ BUSSIDOR & BILGEN-REINHART, supra note 5, at 35.

⁹⁰ An Act to Amend and Consolidate the Laws Respecting Indians, S.C. 1876 Chapter 18.

⁹¹ Tribal Elders, supra note 4.

⁹² Indian Act of 1985, R.S., c.1-6, s.74.

⁹³ BUSSIDOR & BILGEN-REINHART, supra note 5, at 25-26.

⁹⁴ K. McNeil, Aboriginal Title and Section 88 of the Indian Act, 34 U.B.C.L. REV. 159 (2000).

⁹⁵ The Constitution Act of 1867, 30 & 31 Viet. (U.K.).

⁹⁶ Id.

⁹⁷ See generally KING GEORGE R., THE ROYAL PROCLAMATION OF OCTOBER 7, 1763, reprinted in DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF CANADA, 1759-1791, at 163 (Arthur G. Dougherty & Duncan A. McArthur eds., C.H. Parmelee 1914) (1907) (discussing the federal government’s dominion over Indian land and enjoining individuals from taking possession of Indian lands).

⁹⁸ Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Act (“DIAND Act”), R.S., c.1-7, s.1.

⁹⁹ Indian Act of 1985, supra note 92.

¹⁰⁰ Id.

¹⁰¹ R.v. Baby [1855] 12 U.C.B.Q. 346.

¹⁰² The Queen v. Nan-E-Quis-A-Ka [1889] 1 Terr. L.R. 211 at 212-13.

¹⁰³ In re Noah Estate, [1961] D.L.R. 185.

¹⁰⁴ Id. at 195.

¹⁰⁵ Indian Act of 1985, supra note 92.

¹⁰⁶ Calder v. British Columbia, [1973] 34 D.L.R. 3d 145.

¹⁰⁷ Simon v. R., [1985] D.L.R. 4th 390, 408.

¹⁰⁸ All of the small Canadian bands channel their grievances through the Assembly of First Nations in Ottawa. Each band, no matter how large or small, has one vote in the election of the Grand Chief.

¹⁰⁹ BUSSIDOR & BILGEN-REINHART, supra note 5, at 139.

¹¹⁰ For a comparison, see the United States’ Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-608, 92 Stat. 3069 (codified as amended in 25 U.S.C. § 1901) and what led to its enactment.

¹¹¹ Community Holistic Healing, Wanipigow, Manitoba R0E 2E0.

¹¹² Id.