Keewatin v. Minister of Natural Resources

Part 8. Analysis of Historical Evidence as it Relates to the Parties' Interests 100[462] As noted earlier, on November 12, 1870 Archibald had written Howe, opining that theland was stamped with a destiny of "perpetual sterility:"… the wildest imagination can never conceive this to be a country fitted for settlement, or in whichthe population could be a sustained by the produce of the soil. …The only exception to the general desolation of this region is on the Rainy River, where a narrow beltdescribed as of two or three miles in width skirts each side of the river.The river banks indicate a soil much like that of the prairie ground here … But unfortunately thesestrips extend only a few miles, and …on the south side of the river is American territory ...... I should not consider the fee simple of the entire country, for agricultural purposes, worth as muchas 100 acres of the prairie of Red River ...[Emphasis added.][463] Simpson had expressed similar views in a report to Howe in 1870, in which he hadwritten the following:"I took the line of country by the Mattawin and Shebandowan Rivers, so that I might judge for myselfas to its adaptability for settlement, and I am now more fully of opinion than I was before that it isutterly unfit, it being all rock, swamp and lakes; from the end of Thunder Bay road in LakeShebandowan to Fort Frances, Rainy Lake, there is not enough land to make a Township."[Emphasis added.][464] On July 22, 1871, Archibald wrote (Ex. 4, p. 174) to Ottawa highlighting the differencesbetween the quality of the land at the Red River and in the Treaty 3 area:…Nor indeed would it be right, if we look to what we receive, to measure the benefits we derive fromcoming into possession of a magnificent territory we are appropriating here [the Red River lands], bywhat would be fair to allow for the rocks and swamps and muskegs of the Lake country east of thisProvince… [the Treaty 3 lands][465] As mentioned earlier, Lovisek noted in her report (Ex. 28) at p. 128 that Simpson toldTreaty 1 and 2 Ojibway during the Treaty 1 and 2 negotiations that he had advised the Treaty 3Indians in July 1871 that their lands (i.e., the Treaty 3 lands) were "unfit for settlement."2011 ONSC 4801 (CanLII)[466] Grant, who had travelled with Sanford Fleming on his 550 mile trip from Lake Superiorto Red River in 1872, had remarked that the only land in the Treaty 3 area he considered suitablefor agriculture was along Rainy River and perhaps around Lake of the Woods. (Lovisek's report,Ex. 28, at p. 71.)[467] Dawson had limited his rosy descriptions of agricultural potential to the Rainy Riverarea: "…and on Rainy River there are areas where a soil of unsurpassed fertility awaits theagriculturalist." (Lovisek's report, Ex. 28, at p. 49.)[468] In his evidence, Chartrand did not suggest that agriculture was expected throughout theTreaty 3 territory. Rather, he said the Commissioners were likely envisioning that farming andagricultural settlement would happen along the Rainy River Valley, certainly as one prime area.[469] It would have been unrealistic for the Commissioners to encourage most of the Ojibwayto try to completely supplant their traditional resource-based economy with an agricultural one.