Railroads, land cessions and Indigenous nations: Evidence from Canada
研究加拿大铁路建设与原住民土地割让的关系，发现铁路并未加速条约签署或扩大割让面积，但政府提前签约以保障铁路线路，与美国情况不同。
Abstract We examine the role that the railroad played in the dispossession and cession of Indigenous lands within the borders of present‐day Canada. Using georeferenced data on the construction of the railroad network and on the timing, content and extent of treaties signed between the Crown and Indigenous nations, we find that the expansion of the railway network does not appear to hasten the signing of treaties or increase the area ceded. However, we find evidence consistent with the Crown engaging in treaty‐signing well in advance of railroad construction to secure the path for the transcontinental railway. We find some weak evidence that US westward expansion, as measured by nearby US population, partly explains the cession of Indigenous lands in what is now Canada. Taken together, our results indicate that the relationship between the railroad and Indigenous land dispossession looked very different in Canada from the United States. In the latter, the process was concurrent; in Canada, land cession occurred well in advance of railway construction. This forward‐looking approach accords with a historical narrative that centres the role of the railway in bringing British Columbia into Confederation and in securing the Prairies from US territorial ambitions.