A Line of Blood and Dirt: Creating the Canada–United States Border across Indigenous Lands

Abstract

In this thorough analysis, Benjamin Hoy joins a small but growing number of historians who have accepted the challenge of writing comparative studies of U.S. and Canadian issues. He has expanded the difficulty such efforts encounter by adding a third component: the Indigenous people in each country. In doing so he strides boldly into the intimidating linguistic swamp scholars must traverse when they study Indigenous topics. Questions such as what terms should be used for group names, whether bands, tribes, nations, or another term, must be addressed. Hoy explains his choices carefully. His central theme is that the creation of the Canada-U.S. border was difficult, messy, and mostly unplanned. Unlike international boundaries drawn after wars, or other territorial cessions, this line grew in fits and starts from the 1783 Treaty of Paris granting the United States independence to the 1846 Oregon treaty extending the line west along the 49th parallel. The analysis examines border making in five regions, the Atlantic Northeast, the St. Lawrence River valley, the Great Lakes area, the plains and prairies region, and the Pacific Northwest—giving most attention to the last three areas. Throughout the discussion, Hoy shows that while each nation wanted a strong border, neither had the money or the determination to create one effectively.