Vancouver, Musqueam
Archive Quarterly
Latest Issue of AQ: Spring 2026
The Indian Act – not an AI summary.
How have Indigenous Peoples survived 150 years of this? Only to have Canadian courts and politicians and public deny any dignified alternative?
Statement of the 1916 BC Indian Conference
Efforts to assist the Imperial, Colonial, Federal and Provincial governments in upholding their arrangements with Indigenous Peoples and Nations are ongoing since at least 1861. In 1915, all of the nations west of the Rockies converged in the Allied Tribes movement.
In 1916, they published a joint statement from their Vancouver conference.
Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement 2006
Twenty years later, are former students and their families better off?
A review of what the Settlement promised, the problematics, and an open letter from William Blackwater to the Indigenous leadership at the time.
Oregon Treaty 1846
Text of the treaty and a map from the time. This event is relied on by BC and Canada as the date of “effective British sovereignty” west of the Rocky Mountains.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1976
Article 1
- All peoples have the right of self-determination.
By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status
and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
UBCIC 1976 Declaration
“We, the Native people of the tribes of British Columbia, openly and publicly declare and affirm to the people and governments of Canada and British Columbia:
“That the Indian Tribes have held and still hold Native title, Aboriginal rights and ownership to all lands and resources of British Columbia, within our respective tribal territorial boundaries,…”
Reunification of Status and Non-Status Indians
Divided by the Indian Act, people with and without Status, on and off reserve, attempted to form a single representative organization through the BC Association of Non-Status Indians and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, in 1976.
AQ Catalogue
AQ shakes out the archives for primary sources showing how the west wasn't won:
~ key extracts from archival artifacts
~ quotes and interviews on the issues as they were
~ relatable commentary and a few side-notes
~ images, maps, and timelines
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The West Wasn't Won archive project
AQ is the quarterly journal of a larger project.
This journal accompanies research in progress - the history of Indigenous roadblock and reoccupation, west of the Rocky Mountains.
AQ is an intermittent communication, sharing source materials to be read together, with new interviews and supporting information.
AQ is a magnet to the archive building process.
Special Issues
The West Wasn't Won archive project shares a wider landscape of history on significant topics.
TITLE
Clouding nations older than the last Great Flood, the young province of British Columbia has bought time and occupation with bad faith and violence.
Colonial courts rationalize ongoing violations of unsurrendered Indigenous national titles, by hollowing out the judges' own construct: "aboriginal title."
STATUS
Canada's "Indian Act" of 1876, and its creation: the Non-Status Indian.
This April marks 40 years since Bill C-31 and the first reinstatements of Indian Status. The changes were introduced with new prejudice to Indigenous control of citizenship.
SALMON
In 2009, sockeye salmon in the Fraser River returned at numbers below 1% of historical run sizes.
The federal government has presided over this disaster, and AQ offers an overview of key points along the history of how and when Indigenous Peoples were cut off from management values and denied their most basic rights to the life-sustaining fisheries.
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EMP is grateful to the people and organizations who have responded to the chance to endorse the work of Archive Quarterly, donate and become a founding sponsor of The West Wasn't Won.
About AQ
Honouring the indomitable spirit of Indigenous Peoples west of the Rocky Mountains, and the path to an autonomous and self-determining future.
Archive Quarterly is printed in Vancouver, in the heart of Musqueam. AQ relies on information support and contributors from Tahltan to Sinixt; from Nuu-chah-nulth to Secwepemc; from Penelakut to Tsimshean; and the 20 nations in between.
The West Wasn't Won
Archive Quarterly ~ Look inside
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About AQ
Honouring the indomitable spirit of the Peoples west of the Rockies
BC history is lit from one side - showing settler progress to advantage, while rendering the Indigenous reality of that “progress” indiscernible.
Archive Quarterly aims to balance the view. As well as the written records, interviews with Elders reveal circumstances leading up to political movements, court actions and roadblocks, and conditions in their communities at the time.
Excerpts in the journal are also presented in full documents online, where they are accessible to download.
Learn more about AQ on our page for Founding Sponsors.
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The west wasn't won archive project acknowledges that the records and histories presented come from the work of thousands of special people and families who have given everything they have to keep their People's way of life a reality. Kukwstum'ulhkal'ap. Takem in nsnukwnukwa.
thank you very much