{"id":43,"date":"2017-12-29T03:57:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T03:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/indigenizationfoundations\/?post_type=chapter&p=43"},"modified":"2024-08-22T21:20:03","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T21:20:03","slug":"colonization","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/indigenizationfoundations\/chapter\/colonization\/","title":{"raw":"Colonization","rendered":"Colonization"},"content":{"raw":"Before the arrival of European explorers and traders, North America was occupied by Indigenous Peoples living and thriving with their own distinct cultures, languages, and ways of knowing. Today, while many Indigenous people are very successful in business, law, medicine, arts, and sports, Indigenous Peoples as a group are at the negative end of every socio-economic indicator. How did this happen?\r\n\r\nThe short answer is [pb_glossary id=\"878\"]colonization[\/pb_glossary]<\/em><\/strong>.\r\n

What is colonization?<\/h1>\r\nIn Canada, colonization\u00a0occurred when a new group of people migrated to North America, took over and began to control Indigenous Peoples. Colonizers impose their own cultural values, religions, and laws, make policies that do not favour the Indigenous Peoples. They seize land and control the access to resources and trade. As a result, the Indigenous people become dependent on colonizers.\r\n\r\nToday many Indigenous people still struggle, but it is a testament to the strength of their ancestors that Indigenous People are still here and are fighting to right the wrongs of the past.\r\n
Go forth, nor bend to\u00a0greed of white men\u2019s hands,\r\nBy right, by birth we Indians own these lands.\r\n\r\n\u2013 Emily Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake, 1861\u20131913; \u00a0Mohawk\/English poet and performer), from \u201cA Cry from an Indian Wife\".<\/blockquote>\r\nBefore the arrival of European explorers and traders, Indigenous Peoples were organized into complex, self-governing nations throughout what is now called North America. In its early days, the relationship between European traders and Indigenous Peoples was mutually beneficial. Indigenous Peoples were able to help traders adjust to the new land and could share their knowledge and expertise. In return, the traders offered useful materials and goods, such as horses, guns, metal knives, and kettles to the Indigenous Peoples. However, as time went by and more European settlers arrived, the relationship between the two peoples became much more challenging.\r\n

The myth of terra nullius<\/h1>\r\nEuropean map-makers drew unexplored landscapes as blank spaces. Instead of interpreting these blank spaces as areas yet to be mapped, they saw them as empty land waiting to be settled. When settlers arrived in North America, they regarded it as terra nullius, or \u201cnobody\u2019s land.\u201d They simply ignored the fact that Indigenous Peoples had been living on these lands for thousands of years, with their own cultures and civilizations. For the settlers, the land was theirs to colonize. As time went on, more and more settlers took over the traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples.\r\n

Changing names and rewriting history<\/h1>\r\nThe settlers began to give their own names and descriptions to the land they had \u201cdiscovered.\u201d For example, Vancouver and Vancouver Island are named after Captain George Vancouver, who was born in England in 1757, and not after a hereditary Chief of the territory, whose family had lived in the area since the beginning of time. The land, landmarks, bodies of water and mountain ranges already had names, given to them by Indigenous Peoples. Settlers did not learn these names and made their own names for landmarks, mountains, bodies of water and regions instead. This was one of the ways in history was rewritten to excluded Indigenous Peoples contributions and presence.\r\n

Competing priorities and worldviews<\/h1>\r\nInitially, the relationship was mutually beneficial for settlers and Indigenous Peoples, but this relationship did not last. Each group had their competing priorities based on fundamentally different values such as:\r\n