GO rD hIllto Detroit for six months. Unable to expand the insurgency or draw in
promised French assistance, Pontiac eventually negotiated an end to the
conflict in 1766.
Added to this period of warfare was the continuing spread of disease
epidemics. In 1746 in Nova Scotia alone, 4,000 Micmacs had died of dis-
ease. With the defeat of France, the British had acquired vast regions of
formerly French territory, unbeknownst to the many First Nations who
lived on those lands, and with whom the French never negotiated any
land treaties nor recognized any form of Native title.
At this time,
...the British government seized the opportunity to consolidate
its imperial position by structuring formal, constitutional rela-
tions with...natives. In the Proclamation of 1763, it announced its
intention of conciliating those disgruntled tribes by recognizing
their land rights, by securing to them control of unceded land,
and by entering into a nation-to-nation relationship.^14
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 provided for a separate ‘Indian Territory’
west of the Appalachians and the original Thirteen Colonies. Within this
territory there was to be no purchasing of land other than by the crown.
In the colonies now under British control, including Newfoundland, Lab-
rador, Quebec, Nova Scotia, as well as the Thirteen Colonies, settlers oc-
cupying unceded Native lands were to be removed, and private purchases
of lands occupied by or reserved for Natives was prohibited—these lands
could only be purchased by the crown in the presence of the First Nations.
As grand as these statements were, they were routinely violated by
colonialists and rarely enforced. Indeed, one year following the proclama-
tion, Lord Dunmore—the governor of the Virginia colony—had already
breached the demarcation line by granting to veterans of the ‘French and
Indian War’ who had served under him lands which were part of the
Shawnee nation. The Shawnee retaliation was not short in coming, but
Dunmore’s challenge to British control was to precipitate in form and
substance another period of conflict that would see the colonization pro-
cess expand westward. And that period of conflict would underline the
real intent of the Royal Proclamation as a strategic document in the de-
fense of British colonial interests in North America.
- John S. Milloy, “The Early Indian Acts: Developmental Strategy and Constitu-
tional Change”, As Long As The Sun Shines and Water Flows, University of BC
Press, 1983, pg. 56.