A short, conversational YouTube lecture (Missing Facts series, Part 3) by Sandi L Boucher that traces key moments shaping Indigenous–European relations on Turtle Island from roughly the 1500s through the 1800s. Core points: early and sustained contact beginning in the 1500s; Indigenous knowledge was essential to European survival in the 1600s; the two-row wampum and other nation-to-nation agreements emerged as diplomatic practices; missionaries arrived in the early 1600s to convert Indigenous peoples; the Hudson's Bay Company received a royal charter and monopoly in 1670; infectious diseases (tuberculosis, measles, smallpox) devastated Indigenous populations across the 1600–1700s (including documented instances of deliberate infection via blankets); mid-1700s resistance efforts (Pontiac, 1763) and the Royal Proclamation of 1763 reframed Crown claims while acknowledging (in limited ways) nation-to-nation treaty negotiations; later acts such as the Haldimand Proclamation (1784) and west-coast conflicts (late 1700s/around 1791) further shaped land and power dynamics. The speaker frames these facts as "how we got here" for people living within modern Canadian borders and urges viewers to seek the broader context.
Questions this video answers
Around the 1500s (spoken as "around the 15 to 1530s").
1615 (speaker cites 1615).
1670 (speaker cites a royal charter granting monopoly).
Tuberculosis, measles, and (particularly) smallpox (including referenced deliberate infection via blankets).
You Sandy Boucher here once again with this week's history lesson. You didn't think I was gonna forget, did you?
But get this.
Yes, I got two handy dandy index cards today. But we, I, I, we together, I am going to lead you from the 1500s all the way to the 1800s in one short video. Remember, we're trying to understand how we, we people living within Canadian borders got here. And for that we got to look at history. And there's so many missing pieces and misinformation out there that I wanted to highlight these things. So let's talk about.
Hi, everybody. My name is Andy Boucher. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the Loon clan, a proud member of Seine River First Nation in Treaty 3 territory in Northern Ontario. And this is the third time I'm shooting this video. I was having some technology difficulties, but I'm here for you. And today we're doing the third video in the Missing Facts series. If you didn't see the other two, I'll put the links in the show notes. Today I'm taking you from the 1500s all the way to the 1800s in one short video. Because people ask me all the time, how did we get here? This is how we got here. These facts are how we got here. So let's start out. And by the way, I've done this three times. I have these facts embedded in my brain now. So let's start with the 1500s. From the 1500s, in around the 15 to 1530s, that's when we see contact between Indigenous peoples on Turtle Island, North America. It's not Canada yet. And the Europeans that are coming over for the fur trade or the explorers, we see constant contact between them now. It's ongoing. The Europeans seem to be here in, in for different lengths of times, different people, but the contact is there. Now, the next point, if there was ever a point that is left out of discussions, is not known or is minimized, it is the fact that in the 1600s, it becomes obvious to anyone who cares to look at the facts that the Europeans are here, that are here only survive because of Indigenous knowledge and technology. So the Indigenous people can teach the Europeans how to build shelter with the trees that are present, how to survive a Canadian winter, what plants you can eat, which ones you should stay away from, what medicines to use if you're sick, what diseases are common and which ones aren't, how to hunt, how to fish, how to trap, how to survive. So those people that love to think that the Europeans saved us. Well, we were the ones doing the saving in the beginning because they would not have survived their first winter here in the 16 thirteens. But this contacts, contact is constant. So now we're going to try to figure this out. In the 16 thirteens, the two row wampum, which is the first of many agreements that make up the government chain. Covenant chain. That's what I meant. Not government covenant chain is created. And these are a series of agreements between the Haudenosaunee, the Iroquois, and the Europeans that were here at that time. So trying to get along. Not everyone agrees, but trying. And then we get to 1615. Now remember, we're looking at these things not just to recite history, but try to use them as hints and tips and tricks and clues as to how we got to modern day in 1615. 1615, that long ago, the first missionaries arrived to convert the indigenous. They were not just coming to visit. They were not here out of curiosity. They had a mission. And that mission was to convert the indigenous. I leave that with you. In 1670, you may remember this one from history class, the Hudson Bay Company was formed. What you may not remember or may not have realized was the Hudson Bay company was created through a royal declaration, a royal proclamation, a royal charter, and it was given monopoly. So monopolies in modern day are just as dangerous as they were back then. If the indigenous people are selling their furs and they don't like the price that they're getting from the Hudson Bay Company, there is no other choice. So picture it worth 1670, and already indigenous people are being forced and coerced into changing their. Their religious beliefs, their spiritual beliefs, and they're having to take whatever the settlers, the Europeans want to give them. This is not the basis of a respectful, equal relationship, and it never has been. Next. Now, the 1600s into the 1700s, tuberculosis, measles, in small part, smallpox starts decimating indigenous populations. Now, sometimes it was spread and there was no ill intent, but there were well documented cases that that was the intent. When Hudson Bay blankets infected with small plot smallpox. Why can't I pronounce that? Third time in? You'd think I'd have it. Hudson Bay blankets infected with smallpox were passed out to first nation communities because the reality is converting them or moving us out of the way. That would have taken a lot of work if we're just not here. Okay. 1763. Yes, I have handy dandy index cards. Two of them, in fact. 1763, under the leadership of Ottawa chief, anwan Diag or Pontiac in English, an Indigenous alliance. He tries to resist the European contact. He doesn't want the settlers in the Great Lakes area, so he sets out to rid that area of European settlers or soldiers. I'll leave you to figure out what that meant. You know what that means. 1763. Now this, I swear to God. Look up in the dictionary. Look up the word ego. This is it. King George III declares dominion over North America anything east of the Appalachian Mountains, no matter the people that are living there, no matter the communities. Now, he gives very limited recognition of the inherent rights that we talked about in the earlier video, the title that Indigenous communities would have over their lands. But he does include guidance for negotiating treaties. Are you ready for it on a nation to nation basis, recognizing the Indigenous peoples on Turtle island as a nation now, maybe mistakenly, one nation. That's going to change the more and more people they meet. But a nation nevertheless, that's going to come back to bite them. 1784. I always mispronounce this one. The Haldemand Proclamation gave it my best shot, this one. So Joseph Brandt negotiated a parcel of land and the land was given back to the Haudenosaunee to thank them for fighting alongside the British during the American Revolution. Traditional Indigenous lands were given back to Indigenous peoples. We're seeing that happening today and then in 1791 because as I said, not everyone was down for this new way of being. We're talking west coast now. There's exploration going on out there and they're looking to see what the fur trade would look like out there. And the Haida are having nothing of it. So the attack strike start on the Europeans that are found in the area. That brings us from the 1500s. Now think about it. We started BCE before the common Area era, before Christ. I brought you up to the point zero. Now I brought you all the way from the 1500s to the 1800s. I will put the links for the previous two videos in the show notes. But now your weekend's about to start. So ponder what I've shared with you.
Watch.
When you're consuming news or listening to someone tell you what's going on, you know where this comes from or you're starting to get an idea of it. And we will continue until you have all the relevant facts. Until next week. I love you. Take care. Bye bye.
