Treaty through a Planting Lens: A Study of Manoomin Harvesting Rights in Anishinaabe-Aki, 1873–Present

Abstract

Abstract: In 1873, the Crown and Anishinaabeg entered Treaty No. 3. This agreement would shape Canadian settlement in what is currently known as northwestern Ontario and southeastern Manitoba. For generations, Anishinaabeg have maintained that manoomin harvesting rights are protected by Treaty No. 3. Colonial officials, by contrast, have narrowly interpreted the archival record and associated references to "gardens" with vegetable cultivation for household use and "farming" with the large-scale cultivation of introduced crops like wheat, barley, and oats thus limiting the ability of First Nations to protect ancestral fields from provincial encroachment. In this article, Anishinaabe ecological knowledge around plant life cycles and needs (i.e., botanical gikendaasowin) is applied to the archival record, revealing how Anishinaabe leaders protected ancestral fields while negotiating access to introduced seeds to diversify food production. Federal activity in the immediate aftermath of 1873 further suggests that the Crown recognized the treaty right to harvest manoomin. Canada's historic attempts to curtail the manoomin harvest after 1876, as well as Ontario's attempts to manage ancestral fields after 1960, constitute violations of Treaty No. 3 when viewed through an Anishinaabe planting lens.