In 1987, the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples undertook a global study on „treaties, agreements and other constructive agreements between States and indigenous peoples“. The Canadian government attempted to derail the study by arguing that an „international focus on treaties essentially distorts the debate on Indigenous peoples, whose fate today is in most cases not due to contracts or the absence of contracts, but to their systematic exclusion from economic, social life, cultural and political of the countries. in which they live.“ Grotius, however, agreed with Vitoria`s belief that Indians could not be deprived of their property or possessions unless there was a just reason, and that simple paganism was not a just cause. Grotius also agreed that Indians should only be converted by peaceful means and that all Indians who were enslaved under the pretext of conversion should be released. Grotius further reiterated Vitoria`s belief that the emperor had no right to transform the new provinces for his own use, and that any pretext used for such a practice was unjust. The principles proclaimed a century earlier concerning Spain`s affairs in the New World were accepted by Grotius, and he seems to have simply applied them specifically to matters of Dutch interest. By the mid-1830s, treaties covered most of Upper Canada`s arable land. These contracts included an initial distribution of goods and money with the promise of small annual payments. It is only gradually that the principle that agreements should include the allocation of reserves has developed.
The New North-West Mounted Police (NWT) has become an important factor in the negotiation process. After arriving in what is now southwestern Alberta in 1874, the North West POLICE became influential among the Siksika, Piikuni, Kainai, Tsuu T`ina and Stoney-Nakoda. Although their task has been to restrict Indigenous movements on their reservations, thus changing their traditional way of life, the police have managed to establish relatively positive relationships with Indigenous peoples by evicting American whiskey traders. In this police-controlled atmosphere, authorized negotiators and Indigenous leaders have signed various treaties. The definition of terra nullius has been much discussed for some time. Although the term has been generally accepted as „uninhabited“, some decisions have concluded that some tribal areas could fall into the „uninhabited“ domain if the peoples of the region were not willing to exploit the land in a „civilized“ manner. Such decisions, like many European policies towards indigenous peoples, were largely the result of opportunism and ethnocentrism. The current state of international law, as expressed by the International Court of Justice in the case of Western Sahara, prevents a region from being characterized as „uninhabited“ when nomadic or resident tribes with a certain degree of social and political organization are present in the region. In individual cases, the question then arises as to whether a particular Aboriginal group meets the test by having a sufficient degree of internal organization to be recognized as a separate society to effectively occupy the land and administer it as its own.15 The Treaty of 1725 officially ended dummer`s War (1722-25) – a series of conflicts between the British and the Wabanaki Confederacy across the borders between Acadia and New England. In the summer of 1725, both sides wanted to stop the escalation of violence. With British approval, a Penobscot named Sauguaaram (or Saccamakten) launched armistice talks between his people, and in December 1725, the Penobscots and several other allied indigenous gangs in the northeastern United States signed what became known as the Treaty of Boston (or Treaty of Dummer). The first Treaty of Fort Stanwix (another of the same name was signed in 1784) was the first major treaty negotiated under the terms of the Royal Proclamation.
When Pennsylvania`s leading fur trading companies brought claims against the British government for damages suffered during the Seven Years` War and the Pontiac War, Indian ministry officials attempted to compensate them with a large land transfer. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix moved the boundary between Indigenous territory and the Anglo-American colonies significantly westward to the banks of the Ohio River. In keeping with the historic role of the Nisga`a in enforcing the issue of unrecognized Aboriginal title, their treaty sets a precedent. Behind the Nisga`a are more than 50 other British Columbia Indigenous nations negotiating similar agreements through a six-step treaty process with the British Columbia Treaty Commission. Final Agreements for Tsawwassen First Nation and Maa-nulth First Nation (five Nations in total) came into effect in April 2009 and April 2011, respectively. The final Tla`amin agreement entered into force in April 2016. In the Treaty of Ghent in 1815 (after the War of 1812), Britain and the United States promised to restore the rights of Indian nations that existed before the war. .