This research report was submitted to the Department of Justice and the Department of Natural Resources of the Government of Quebec in 2002. It discusses the way the British government managed the Aboriginal Land Question in Quebec from the conquest of New France to the transfer of responsibility for Indian Affairs to United-Canada in 1860. In particular, the report aims to identify reasons why the British authorities did not conclude treaties with the Aboriginal people of Quebec before taking possession of their lands, as they did, for example, in Ontario and in Western Canada. This report was never filed in court, but as some researchers have recently had access to this document, I have decided to make it available to the entire scholarly community for reflection and debate.

Based on extensive research in the British colonial archives, this report is to date the only one to analyze this issue in detail. Nevertheless, I encourage readers to read this study, written nearly ten years ago, as a first step in understanding the way the British approached the issue of indigenous territorial rights in Quebec. Since the time of writing I have altered my views on a number of points, which means that some of the interpretations advanced in this report are out of date. These changes in my thinking stem from reading new material (and rereading the documents on which this research was based), but they are mainly the result of reflecting on the same research topic in an academic context. For example, one weakness of this report is its attempt to discover a grand scheme behind the legal decisions of the British authorities, while “tinkering” and improvisation were probably more often the rule.

For several months now, I have been working on a book based both on this report and on more recent research conducted in the context of my Canada Research Chair on the Aboriginal Land Question (Department of History, UQAM). This book, whose working title is Le Québec et les terres autochtones: aux origines d’une politique distincte, 1760-1860, is scheduled for release in 2012. I also had the opportunity in recent years to present this ongoing research at several conferences. One of the most recent was a presentation at a Legal History Workshop organized by the Department of History and the School of Law at Stanford University (March 8, 2011). The text of this presentation (“An Equitable Right to Be Compensated”: The Dispossession of the Aboriginal Peoples of Quebec and the Emergence of a New Legal Rationale, 1760-1860") is currently being revised for publication in the Canadian Historical Review.

Thank you for citing this report as follows:

Alain Beaulieu, La question des terres autochtones au Québec, 1760-1860, Rapport de recherche déposé au Ministère de la Justice et au Ministère des Ressources naturelles du Québec, 2002, 569 p.

You may send your comments to the address shown below.

Alain Beaulieu

Département d’histoire

Chaire de recherche du Canada sur la question territoriale autochtone

Université du Québec à Montréal

C. P. 8888 – Succursale Centre-Ville 

Montréal, QC  H3C 3P8

Courriel : beaulieu.alain@uqam.ca

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