On the Land Cession Provisions in Treaty 11

This paper provides evidence that, notwithstanding the written text, Treaty 11 was a peace and friendship treaty rather than one in which the Dene surrendered ownership and jurisdiction of their lands to Canada, thereby indicating clearly that oral understandings better reflect the terms of this Canadian treaty (and by implication others of the times) than written accounts do. It concludes by investigating the substantive implications of the finding that ownership and jurisdiction were not transferred on political relations between the Dene and Canada.