What does it mean to be a Treaty Person? People often wonder what this means and the answers are always different. People tend to believe that to be a Treaty Person you must be First Nations but this is not that case. You are a Treaty Person if you are born on treaty land. This is not to be mistaken to be with Indian Status which refers to the legal identity of a First Nations person referring to their ethnicity. So by definition most of Canadian people are Treaty People even if they realize it or not.
The first step to understanding you are a Treaty Person is knowing the definition as stated before. When you start to consider yourself as a Treaty Person you begin to have a different idea of what it means. You realize that Treaty People are not all First Nations people but people of many ethnicities all across Canada. You are apart of a much larger community then it may appear at first. Being considered as a settler on Canadian/Treaty land you are a Treaty Person. This community should be viewed as a way to unite many people rather then separating us a part by race. Without unity this opens up problems such as racism because of the lack of acceptance. Peoples ignorance of other cultures and races is a main cause of racism so unifying people as Treaty People is a way to eliminate part of this problem. We as a whole must work together to break down these barriers amongst ourselves.
There is nothing wrong with being a Treaty Person or knowing what it is so you have to be courageous and inquire about it. In Singleton & Hays Guidelines for Courageous Conversation states, “A courageous conversation requires that participants be honest about their thoughts, feelings, and opinions.” Even if you have a hard time dealing with this you have a right to speak your mind and express your thoughts. Accepting the right to call yourself a Treaty Person should be a good thing and not something you should consider a burden or be ashamed of. Because of these reasons is why we should all come to understand that we are all Treaty People
Brody Brown 
Brody,
I really enjoyed reading your blog post. You have a really good understanding of the definition of being a treaty person, as well as why understanding each citizen is a treaty person is so crucial in our nation. My favorite part about your blog post is when you wrote, “we as a whole must work together to break down these barriers amongst ourselves.” I believe this statement is true. Something I would like to see from you, to expand your understanding, is to elaborate on your idea. I, as the reader, would like to read of an experience from you when you, yourself, tried to break down racial barriers. To quote your article, “A courageous conversation requires that participants be honest about their thoughts, feelings, and opinions. Even if you have a hard time dealing with this you have a right to speak your mind and express your thoughts.” I challenge you to put honest personal experiences in your blog posts.
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Broody, i liked your blog “we are all treaty people” and we need to learn. The statement “A courageous conversation requires that participants be honest about their thoughts, feelings, and opinions” is highlighted in your blog and we should proudly call ourselves as treaty person.
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Hi Brody! I definitely agree with you that most people do not understand that they are a treaty person. I’ll admit that I did not know I was a treaty person until this class. Also, I can resonate with your opinion about unity. As an aspiring teacher, it would make me very happy to live in a world where everyone is united and equal. However, there will always be racism and prejudice unfortunately.
I enjoy your discussion about willful ignorance and how this causes barriers to rise within our society. I will unfortunately admit that I have been apart of this willful ignorance for most of my life and I always disengaged myself from learning about Treaties and First Nations culture. Your blog response talked about realizing that we are all treaty people and accepting the unification within our society. This will be one of my goals continuing into the future. My promise to myself is to make an honest effort to educate myself on Treaties, and more importantly, the emotional connection that is present. Hopefully we can all start to see ourselves as Treaty people and this can make a true change within our future society. I will take your advice and keep an open mind as we continue to learn about deconstructing the normative narratives and try to expand my knowledge. Thank you for your engaging discussion on unification and how we all share the commonality of being a Treaty person.
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