First Nations Elders interpreted treaties as instruments that gave Europeans the right to settle here, share resources, and build a relationship of equality with those who were here before. These elders did not intend the treaties to allow the subjugation and impoverishment of First Nations, or give settler governments the right to legislate every aspect of First Nations activities. In an easy to read narrative, Harold Johnson presents an eloquent view, on behalf of a people, of what treaties represent, including the justice system and reconciliation of laws, resources and taxation, assimilation, leadership and sovereignty, Constitutional rights, youth, and relations between next generations.

Harold Johnson is the author of four novels and one work of non-fiction. After a stint in the Canadian Navy, which began at the age of seventeen, Johnson became a packsack miner and logger across northern and western Canada. In 1991 he quit the mines to pursue a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Saskatchewan and a Master of Law degree from Harvard University. He now works as a Crown Prosecutor in La Ronge, Saskatchewan and lives “off the grid” with his wife Joan at the north end of Montreal Lake where they continue the traditions of trapping and commercial fishing common to Harold’s Cree background.

Harold Johnson's profile page

While initially it may appear to be a strange addition to a law library, this slender text should be required reading for anyone working in aboriginal law or treaty interpretation.

Canadian Law Library Review