D.G. MacMartin's 1905 Diary, Intergovernmental Conflict and Ontario's Treaty 9 Role

Abstract

This thesis analyses Ontario’s Treaty 9 role and the significance of the 1905 Treaty 9 diary written by its Commissioner, Daniel George MacMartin. Ontario’s Treaty 9 involvement resulted from its decades-long co-sovereigntist campaign from 1867-1905. The diary is a unique historical document that fuses both oral and written records of the 1905 Treaty 9 negotiations. It confirms that Treaty 9 First Nations were given oral assurances they could continue hunting, fishing and trapping throughout their traditional territory. This is now a constitutionally entrenched treaty right. MacMartin’s appointment as Ontario’s Treaty 9 Commissioner is explained as reflecting a well-established operative dimension of Ontario political culture. It is concluded that George MacMartin brought honour to the Crown in 1905 in recording and preserving his observations about the Treaty 9 negotiation meetings in his diary and established a model for Canada’s governments to now emulate in dealings with Canada’s First Nations.