As described by Well Living House, The Dish With One Spoon Wampum is a „mutually beneficial agreement“ designed „to create peaceful hunting conditions for nearby nations.“ The Ogimaa Mikana project proclaims the presence of Indigenous peoples in the cities that have emerged on Anishinaabe territory. By placing Anishinaabemowin on billboards and road signs, this artist collective draws attention to an original local language and culture that Canada has sought to eradicate. The Parkdale billboard shown in this photo reminds Toronto residents that they are on Dish With One Spoon territory. The Wampum dish with one spoon Agreement is an Indigenous citizenship law enacted in 1701 between the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe nations (Borrows in Craft 2013, 24) that extends from Montreal to Fort Erie (Maracle, L. 2015). It consists of three basic rules (Hill in Maracle, C. 2015): After the Warrs & Troubles, we met you together in this place where every anger was buried and a fire was lit. Where to meet and deal peacefully; They are now working daily on disruptions and seem to forget about the old &c deal. The tree seems to fall, now let it spread the roots and the leaves thrive as before. You used to say, take this bowl and this meat with this spoon, let`s always kindly eat together the only dish, but you forget and have separated the Indians a lot now, just as they can not get together well to eat this dish, which is very difficult because we, the children here and there, have scattered their land with your means. A dish with a spoon, also known as a dish a spoon, is a law passed by the indigenous peoples of the Americas since at least 1142 AD. is used[1] to describe an agreement on the division of hunting grounds between two or more nations.

People all eat the single dish, that is, everyone hunts on the common territory. A spoon means that all the people who share the territory are supposed to limit the game they take in order to leave enough for others and for the continued abundance and viability of hunting grounds in the future. [2] [3]:37 Sometimes the word of the Native language is rendered in English as a bowl or cauldron rather than as a bowl. [4]:210 The term „spoon court“ is also used to refer to the contract or agreement itself. In particular, a treaty signed in Montreal in 1701 between the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee nations[5]:614-621 as part of the Great Peace of Montreal is generally referred to as the Dish With One Spoon Treaty and the associated Wampum Belt as the Dish With One Spoon Wampum. [4]:217-218 The treaty area covers part of the present-day province of Ontario between the Great Lakes and extends eastward along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River to the border with present-day Quebec. [4]:218 Some claim that it also includes parts of the present-day states of New York and Michigan. [6]:210 Although The Dish with One Spoon was founded long before the settlers arrived, it was expected that anyone who came to the area would abide by its rules and acknowledge the existence, history, and integrity of the agreement. Instead of a common commitment to the land, the settlers conquered and took control of the land and its resources. This is an ongoing housing contract.

– Lorrie Gallant The belt is currently in the Royal Ontario Museum. [3]:41 It consists mainly of white wavy snail shells with a small area of purple quahog mussel shells in the middle of the belt that represents the dish. [25] It will be good for us to do so: we will say, „We promise to have only one judgment among us; there will be a beaver tail in it and there will be no knife. We will have a dish, which means that we will all have equal parts of the game that circulates in the hunting grounds and fields, and then everything will become peaceful among all peoples; and there will be no knife near our yard; which means that if a knife was there, someone could be cut now, which causes a bloodbath, and it`s annoying if it happens this way, and for this reason, there should not be a knife near our bowl. The dish with a spoonful of wampum belt, with the round purple area in the middle that symbolizes the dish. It was kept in the Grand Six Nations River Territory by Skanawati (John Buck) until his death. In 1927, Evelyn H.C. Johnson delivered it to the Royal Ontario Museum, although she did not claim any ownership. Photo courtesy of the Department of Ethnology, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. In 1701, more than sixteen hundred delegates of the First People of the Great Lakes region participated in a council with the support of the French governor, the Chevalier de Callières, as well as a large delegation of the Five Nations Confederacy. There, the previous year, the Iroquois` proposals for a „tree of peace“ and a „spoon court“ had been ratified.

The Indigenous perspective on what was agreed upon at the time and reflected in oral traditions has emerged with remarkable consistency in historical documents over the past three hundred years. A spoon dish was a concept that allowed indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region and northeastern North America to negotiate peace agreements and try to live sustainably. However, this concept has led to many misunderstandings on the part of indigenous peoples when they signed treaties with European powers and settler communities in the past. While Europeans and settlers believed that these treaties gave them permanent control over the land, Indigenous peoples believed that they would divide the land (see Property Rights and Religion and Spirituality of Indigenous Peoples in Canada). Until recently, a dish with a spoon was little known outside of indigenous communities. Since the 2010s, more and more Canadians have become aware of this. Perhaps this knowledge will help foster a spirit of reconciliation, as gaining knowledge about Indigenous history, culture and philosophy is the first step in this process. After the defeat of the French in 1760, the British soon remembered themselves as possible arbiters in hunting zone conflicts between nations that had been allied with France. The Algonquins and Nipissings complained that the Mohawks were entering their hunting grounds in the Ottawa Valley, which they (the Algonquins and Nipissings) had harvested gradually and intentionally. Officials of the British Indian Department initially replied that the Royal Proclamation of 1763 reserved the areas west of the Quebec border for all The Amerindian nations together, so that there were no more hunting grounds that could be claimed exclusively by individual nations. The same kind of conflict arose when the Haudenosaunee generally began to hunt northward into the territory claimed by Kahnawake.

The principles of the court with a spoon began to mix with the terms of later treaties – between indigenous nations and communities, with the French and with the British. However, these disputes generally concerned commercial traps or hunting. The basic principle that the country is a source of food for all has never been questioned. In addition to environmental sustainability, another important idea inherent in a dish with a spoon is the relationship between different Indigenous nations. Leanne Simpson, an Expert on the Anishinaabeg, argued that a court with a spoon allows First Nations to recognize each other`s independence and identity. According to the philosophy of the court with a spoon, all parties to a contract would share the land. However, they would retain their sovereignty. In other words, a dish with a spoon recognized the diversity of Indigenous nations and cultures. By the end of the seventeenth century, the Iroquois, like their enemies, had been weakened by disease and casualties in battle. In the winter of 1672-73 Jesuit missionaries watched Iroquois and Mississauga warriors hunt together in the Hudson Bay area, but elsewhere in Ontario Iroquois warriors were attacked by other French allied Indians known as „distant Indians.“ In 1687, a spokesman for Cayuga pointed out that the current war with „distant nations“ had made „our hunt for Bever unfree and dangerous.“ In 1690, the Five Nations sent eight wampum belts to the First Nations, who gathered for trade at Michilimackinac.

The belts were made of shells or pearls, and the symbolic images they represented could be „read“ as documents. According to French historian Bacqueville de la Potherie, one of the Iroquois Wampum Belts proposed a peace treaty by suggesting that the parties to the dispute „should have their own bowl so that they have only one dish to eat and drink,“ a metaphor for sharing disputed hunting grounds. The offer appears to have been rejected. In 1699, Iroquois hunters from Wfty-Wve were killed near Detroit while hunting beaver, apparently at the hands of Ottawa warriors. After the Treaty of Ryswick between England and France in 1697, King Louis XIV agreed to join the English monarch in calling on their respective Indian allies to cease „all acts of hostility“ in the lands north of Lake Ontario. Each king sent a cable to his governor in North America asking him to cooperate and act with the other to „join forces.“ in the commitment of these Indians to remain at peace. for His Majesty does not doubt it, but it will bring peace to the whole country. The French king also noted that some of his First Nations allies hoped that a general peace would allow them to cross the otherwise hostile Iroquois homelands, thus gaining access to the lucrative fur markets of Albany, New York. He wrote of the „desire of certain French [Indian] allies“ to have this access „and to share hunting grounds so that they could move freely through Iroquois territory on the north coast instead of continuing the war.“ The „dish“, or sometimes called „bowl“, represents the current southern Ontario (from the Great Lakes in Quebec and Lake Simcoe in the United States). .