Oldal 270 [270]
DENISA KRASNA
or extent,? existed in North America prior to the European arrival, never¬
theless, most pre-colonial boundaries were not meant to be final, exclusive,
and irretrievably fixed in space and time. On the contrary, boundaries that
separated tribes, nations and even clans or sacred places were fluid, natural, and
established by those who were directly divided and affected by them." European
colonizers imported a diametrically different conception of borders that
rendered them permanent and impassable. Ihis paper will show that borders
gradually became a tool of further colonization and oppression of Indigenous
peoples. While pre-colonial boundaries served mainly a practical organi¬
zational purpose and were rarely enforced, European borders have always acted
as a barrier marking difference that is often emphasized and consolidated by an
actual physical barrier — be it a fence, a wall, or a patrol agency.
In 1783, Great Britain and the newly formed United States signed the Treaty
of Paris that established what is now the US-Canadian border. As neither
party consulted any of the Indigenous nations whose lands were cut in half,
Indigenous peoples raised their voices to protest this “infringement on their
sovereign rights.”° In response, the Jay Treaty of 1794 guaranteed the right
of free passage Indigenous peoples of the US and Canada and this right was
later reaffirmed by the Treaty of Ghent in 1815. To survey the new border,
the Jay Treaty also authorized a special Boundary Commission, whose task
was complicated and eventually made impossible by the natural terrain,
leading to a compromise in 1818 that set the unexplored western part of the
boundary along the 49" parallel. Yet again, another historical decision was
made remotely without the knowledge of the peoples inhabiting the artificial
borderlands. Similarly, the 1500-mile border between Alaska and Canada
was negotiated without the consent of Indigenous nations whose territories
straddle directly across the boundary.
While the free cross-border passage rights granted by the Jay Treaty were
respected at first, intensified border security and discriminatory policies
of the last two centuries have made their assertion substantially harder for
Indigenous peoples of both countries. Moreover, US and Canada vary in
their respective interpretations of these treaties and by misconstruing their
contents further perpetuate systemic racism against Indigenous peoples who
are often subjected to border discrimination involving heavy scrutiny, physical
searches by disrespectful border patrol agents, desanctification of religious
regalia, and other interventions. Passport requirement also further breaches
Indigenous treaty rights, contradicts fundamental Indigenous cultural beliefs,
3 “Boundary,” Merriam Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/
boundary (accessed 4 April 2020).
Starks — McCormack — Cornell, Native Nations, 19.
5 Greg Boos — Greg McLawsen — Heather Fathali, Canadian Indians, Inuit, Metis, and Metis: An
Exploration of the Unparalleled Rights Enjoyed by American Indians Born in Canada to Freely
Access the United States, Seattle Journal of Environmental Law, Vol. 4, No. 1 (2014), 346.
4
+ 268 *