LITERATURE REVIEW

Aboriginal people had established on the land of Canada for several years and managed to live in peace and accordance. The happy and harmonic stage did not last for long and resulted in tremendous conditions. With the European contact, the aspects of the Aboriginal life changed: fur trade, the spread of diseases, and colonisation. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review on two different interpretations of the treaty process. I will fist analyse Daschuk’s work, then focus on Harring’s work and finally compare both of their works. According to James Daschuk, the acquisition of the western plains by Dominion of Canada resulted in colossal repercussions on Aboriginals. He tries to identify and explain the provenance …show more content…
In fact, he argues that the extermination of the bison is partly the consequence of tuberculosis, which is characterised by “insufficient nourishment, resulting from the subsisting upon poor food, or too exclusively a vegetable diet, with little or no animal food” (Daschuk, 101). In order to prove his point, he cites several reports made on the conditions of indigenous. He continues his article by referring to the political situation of this period. Daschuk asserts that the government refused to “help on the basis of the treaty assistance in crisis” as a strategy for accomplishing their own benefits such as the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The government used starvation and diseases as a tool for the control, assimilation, and elimination of Aboriginals: “[...] while the Indians were starving, in many cases to death, the authorities withheld food that was available” (113). Daschuk proves once again that the spread of European disease and the loss of traditional food contributed not only to the death of the Aboriginals but also to the governmental control and abuse for the purposes of economic and political interests of