Trump's approach to politics is a selfish one, with benefits limited to him and his oligarch friends. But economies are built on mutually beneficial relationships, not winner-takes-all competition
U.S. President Donald Trump’s ignorant, bullying behaviour should not come as a surprise to leaders of the federal and provincial governments. His approach to politics, as his approach to business, is a selfish one, with benefits limited to him and his oligarch friends.
He does not acknowledge the fact that economies are built on mutually beneficial relationships, not winner-takes-all competition.
First Nations have always focused on long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships between ourselves and settler societies, governments, industry and business — and with the very land itself. The corn harvested in Ontario originated in Mexico. Copper mined in Ontario was traded all the way to Louisiana.
The trade routes, known as grease trails, by which coastal nations traded eulachan with their inland neighbours, stretched from what is now Yukon to northern California, and well into Alberta and Montana. Many of these trails became modern highways.
First Nations sovereignty has been under threat since the first settlers came to North America. The Canadian state made every effort to eliminate these pre-existing relationships, controlling the movements of First Nations people and limiting our ability to participate in the economy.
But things have been changing for decades now, and First Nations are building new and durable relationships with our non-Indigenous neighbours, in business, and with Crown governments.
There are two important points to keep in mind as we attempt to navigate the chaos erupting south of the border.
First, we cannot allow it to undermine our principles and the accomplishments that we have worked so hard to achieve. Second, First Nations are uniquely positioned to diversify the trade ties in North America and beyond.
On the first point: Trump will be gone in four years, but decisions made today on our lands will last into the future. B.C. sees fast-tracking investment in natural resources in our sovereign territories as part of the solution to this threat.
However, this cannot happen at the expense of First Nations’ decision-making authority over our territories. We fought too hard for decades to get where we are now.
Trump’s threat to Canada’s independence has helped Canadian citizens understand colonialism and the catastrophic consequences of colonization and annexation. This should help non-Indigenous Canadians understand why First Nations consent cannot be fast-tracked.
Securing our consent is a requirement of their own legislation, and built on case law as First Nations have consistently won recognition of our rights at the Supreme Court. It is these changes that allowed for the burgeoning relationship we see between First Nations, Crown governments, and non-Indigenous communities.
We cannot allow the knee-jerk decision-making we see south of the border to infect our decisions here and undo years of work. Doing so would mark a step backward in these relationships and jeopardize the economic certainty that First Nations and all British Columbians have been striving for through treaties, reconciliation agreements, and other constructive measures.
First Nations are a key part of the trade diversification being touted once again in the wake of tariff threats.
The B.C. Assembly of First Nations has worked on this front since well before these threats appeared.
Over the last three years, the assembly has participated in three trade missions to Japan, as well as building relationships with Māori communities and fostering the exchange of nature-based solutions with Indigenous communities in South America.
The linkages found in Indigenous communities globally provide a prosperous and mutually beneficial path forward to diversify First Nations trade into rapidly growing markets in the Indo-Pacific, tackling climate change, promoting Indigenous human rights to self-determination and lifting our communities out of imposed poverty.
The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement — signed by Donald Trump himself and touted by him as “the biggest trade deal in United States history” — included Indigenous trade in section 32.
But Indigenous trade relationships are now being included in many other free trade agreements being negotiated by Canada. First Nations are currently contributing to negotiations on a new free trade agreement with Ecuador, demonstrating the importance of ties between Indigenous peoples for economic growth.
And Native American tribes are innovating with the development of foreign trade zones. These areas allow raw materials to be brought in, value-added manufacturing or processing to occur and then exported again — all without tariffs added.
Given the existing relationships between First Nations and Native American tribes, as well as the fact that many First Nations straddle the Canada-U.S. border, it’s clear that these kinds of initiatives will be an important way to guard against the vagaries of Trump’s trade policy.
The economy is built on relationships.
With First Nations and non-Indigenous governments, businesses, and communities coming to new understandings in the 21st century, we need to put the effort in to maintain our relationships, and to build new ones.
We can do this by ensuring the principles of free prior and informed consent are respected when it comes to industrial activity on First Nations territories here in Canada. And we can use First Nations relationships with other Indigenous communities around the world to guard against the threats of an unpredictable administration to our south.
- Terry Teegee is the regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations.