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Hamilton Spectator
13-05-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Indigenous entrepreneurs explore 231-year old treaty as a way around US tariffs
A First Nations trapper and entrepreneur is using his rights under a 231-year-old treaty to run his business across the US-Canada border without a visa, and other Indigenous business owners are also now using this legal pathway to bypass rising US tariffs and trade restrictions. George Bahm, a member of the Teslin Tlingit Council, and his wife expanded their business, Wild Yukon Furs, into the US in 2022. They sell fur jewellery and handmade goods sourced and created in their Yukon facility to tourists in Skagway, Alaska — a popular stop for international and domestic visitors during the busy cruise season. 'Most of the time, they just ask for my Canadian status card, and then, away I go. It's super simple,' Bahm said, who crosses the border regularly using his Native Alaskan heritage under the 1794 Jay Treaty. Balm and his mother were born in Yukon, and his great-grandparents have Alaskan lineage. 'All my life, I've known that Alaska is one of our trading partners,' said Bahm. With the help of a lawyer, he secured his right to live and work in the US indefinitely under the treaty, allowing him to expand his business across the border. His wife, who is Canadian and non-Indigenous, had to apply for an investor visa to join him. 'The Tlingit have been travelling from the coast to the interior for 10,000 years,' Bahm said. 'Colonial borders tried to cut off our access, our identity. It's important to exercise that right and privilege to trade across the coast.' While Bahm mainly uses the Jay Treaty for business mobility, the treaty is gaining momentum as a means to counter tariff tensions. The treaty, signed in 1794 between the US and Great Britain, guarantees Indigenous Peoples on both sides of the border the right to freely move, work and live — recognizing trade networks that existed before borders were imposed without Indigenous consent. Many Indigenous entrepreneurs are now seeking to revive those networks. In British Columbia, Larry Johnson, president of Nuu-chah-nulth Seafood LP and a member of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, is exploring how to use the treaty to bypass trade barriers and sell Indigenous seafood to US-based casinos, which are eager to buy from Canadian Indigenous communities. 'We can see if there's a way we could breathe life into the Jay Treaty in a modern context, and be free of any kind of tariffs, but based on relationships between two nations,' Johnson said. Some believe that operationalizing the Jay Treaty could help establish an Indigenous trade network independent of both Canada and the United States. 'If you fly over Turtle Island [an Indigenous name for North America], you're not just seeing highways — you're seeing Indigenous trade routes that have been in place for thousands of years,' said Carol Anne Hilton, CEO and founder of the Indigenomics Institute. 'That trade system never disappeared. It's just never been part of the dominant narrative.' The routes are based not on Western models of trade, but on pre-colonial relationship-based systems that stretch back thousands of years, said Hilton. While the US has set guidelines allowing Canadian-born Indigenous people with at least 50 per cent Aboriginal ancestry to live, work, and cross the border without visas or green cards, the treaty provision is not in force in Canada, and the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed in 1956 that the treaty is not recognized as Canadian law. Subsequent court cases have also rejected cross-border mobility or commerce rights based on it. That doesn't mean Indigenous Peoples in Canada aren't willing to see how it can be put into practice. 'It's an opportune time to test that practice and take it to scale,' said John Desjarlais, executive director of the Indigenous Resource Network. Canada's wealth and GDP are deeply connected to First Nations' land and natural resources that fuel industries and sustain communities on both sides of the border. Their contribution to the economy already totals $56 billion , with Indigenous-owned businesses growing rapidly in sectors like clean energy and critical minerals. 'First Nations need a full seat at that table, particularly now more than ever before,' said Cindy Woodhouse, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations in an interview with Canada's National Observer. Woodhouse said despite their contribution, Indigenous communities have been consistently left out of economic discussions that impact their stewardship of lands and resources. 'We've experienced the absence of our self-determination. We've experienced the absence of our sovereignty and the rebuilding of nations,' Hilton said. 'Indigenous people should be represented at this moment as powerful economic agents.' Legal recognition and evolution of Indigenous rights have created the conditions for Indigenous inclusion in national and international trade, such as the UNDRIP , which mandates free, prior, and informed consent on matters that affect Indigenous territories and governance, said Hilton. Woodhouse is holding regular meetings with US tribes to discuss economic relationships and addressing the impacts of trade barriers. 'We can support each other in navigating this new era of US colonialism,' said Woodhouse. 'Dismantle trade barriers within Canada, close long-standing infrastructure gaps, and develop trade relations around the globe.' While Bahm and his wife Vanessa Aegirsdottir's business has remained unaffected by the tariffs so far, uncertainty still looms as they head to Alaska for the busy season. 'There's no playbook for how to do this, which is unfortunate, because this border is much younger than the trade relationship between Canada and the US,' Aegirsdottir said. Aegirsdottir said the process of qualifying for the treaty is convoluted. Bahm had to prove his ancestry through a blood quantum system. The process may be more difficult for some Indigenous people — particularly residential school and Sixties Scoop survivors who may not have access to the necessary documentation. 'It would be nice to see a process enacted that makes it much simpler and more accessible for trade routes to be honoured and utilized on a regular basis, as they would have been before contact and before these borders were implemented,' Aegirsdottir said. Sonal Gupta / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer
National Observer
12-05-2025
- Business
- National Observer
Indigenous entrepreneurs explore 231-year old treaty as a way around US tariffs
A First Nations trapper and entrepreneur is using his rights under a 231-year-old treaty to run his business across the US-Canada border without a visa, and other Indigenous business owners are also now using this legal pathway to bypass rising US tariffs and trade restrictions. George Bahm, a member of the Teslin Tlingit Council, and his wife expanded their business, Wild Yukon Furs, into the US in 2022. They sell fur jewellery and handmade goods sourced and created in their Yukon facility to tourists in Skagway, Alaska — a popular stop for international and domestic visitors during the busy cruise season. 'Most of the time, they just ask for my Canadian status card, and then, away I go. It's super simple,' Bahm said, who crosses the border regularly using his Native Alaskan heritage under the 1794 Jay Treaty. Balm and his mother were born in Yukon, and his great-grandparents have Alaskan lineage. "All my life, I've known that Alaska is one of our trading partners," said Bahm. With the help of a lawyer, he secured his right to live and work in the US indefinitely under the treaty, allowing him to expand his business across the border. His wife, who is Canadian and non-Indigenous, had to apply for an investor visa to join him. 'The Tlingit have been travelling from the coast to the interior for 10,000 years,' Bahm said. 'Colonial borders tried to cut off our access, our identity. It's important to exercise that right and privilege to trade across the coast.' While Bahm mainly uses the Jay Treaty for business mobility, the treaty is gaining momentum as a means to counter tariff tensions. 'We can support each other in navigating this new era of US colonialism,' said Cindy Woodhouse. 'Dismantle trade barriers within Canada, close long-standing infrastructure gaps, and develop trade relations around the globe.' The treaty, signed in 1794 between the US and Great Britain, guarantees Indigenous Peoples on both sides of the border the right to freely move, work and live — recognizing trade networks that existed before borders were imposed without Indigenous consent. Many Indigenous entrepreneurs are now seeking to revive those networks. In British Columbia, Larry Johnson, president of Nuu-chah-nulth Seafood LP and a member of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, is exploring how to use the treaty to bypass trade barriers and sell Indigenous seafood to US-based casinos, which are eager to buy from Canadian Indigenous communities. 'We can see if there's a way we could breathe life into the Jay Treaty in a modern context, and be free of any kind of tariffs, but based on relationships between two nations,' Johnson said. Ancient trade routes Some believe that operationalizing the Jay Treaty could help establish an Indigenous trade network independent of both Canada and the United States. 'If you fly over Turtle Island [an Indigenous name for North America], you're not just seeing highways — you're seeing Indigenous trade routes that have been in place for thousands of years,' said Carol Anne Hilton, CEO and founder of the Indigenomics Institute. 'That trade system never disappeared. It's just never been part of the dominant narrative.' The routes are based not on Western models of trade, but on pre-colonial relationship-based systems that stretch back thousands of years, said Hilton. While the US has set guidelines allowing Canadian-born Indigenous people with at least 50 per cent Aboriginal ancestry to live, work, and cross the border without visas or green cards, the treaty provision is not in force in Canada, and the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed in 1956 that the treaty is not recognized as Canadian law. Subsequent court cases have also rejected cross-border mobility or commerce rights based on it. Renewed interest That doesn't mean Indigenous Peoples in Canada aren't willing to see how it can be put into practice. 'It's an opportune time to test that practice and take it to scale," said John Desjarlais, executive director of the Indigenous Resource Network. Canada's wealth and GDP are deeply connected to First Nations' land and natural resources that fuel industries and sustain communities on both sides of the border. Their contribution to the economy already totals $56 billion, with Indigenous-owned businesses growing rapidly in sectors like clean energy and critical minerals. 'First Nations need a full seat at that table, particularly now more than ever before,' said Cindy Woodhouse, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations in an interview with Canada's National Observer. Woodhouse said despite their contribution, Indigenous communities have been consistently left out of economic discussions that impact their stewardship of lands and resources. 'We've experienced the absence of our self-determination. We've experienced the absence of our sovereignty and the rebuilding of nations,' Hilton said. 'Indigenous people should be represented at this moment as powerful economic agents.' Legal recognition and evolution of Indigenous rights have created the conditions for Indigenous inclusion in national and international trade, such as the UNDRIP, which mandates free, prior, and informed consent on matters that affect Indigenous territories and governance, said Hilton. Woodhouse is holding regular meetings with US tribes to discuss economic relationships and addressing the impacts of trade barriers. 'We can support each other in navigating this new era of US colonialism,' said Woodhouse. 'Dismantle trade barriers within Canada, close long-standing infrastructure gaps, and develop trade relations around the globe.' While Bahm and his wife Vanessa Aegirsdottir's business has remained unaffected by the tariffs so far, uncertainty still looms as they head to Alaska for the busy season. 'There's no playbook for how to do this, which is unfortunate, because this border is much younger than the trade relationship between Canada and the US,' Aegirsdottir said. Aegirsdottir said the process of qualifying for the treaty is convoluted. Bahm had to prove his ancestry through a blood quantum system. The process may be more difficult for some Indigenous people — particularly residential school and Sixties Scoop survivors who may not have access to the necessary documentation. 'It would be nice to see a process enacted that makes it much simpler and more accessible for trade routes to be honoured and utilized on a regular basis, as they would have been before contact and before these borders were implemented,' Aegirsdottir said.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tennessee teachers should follow Trump's ‘Gulf of America' order, GOP leader says
Sen. Bo Watson, a Hixson Republican, has introduced a resolution encouraging Tennessee teachers to use the name 'Gulf of America' as the Gulf of Mexico was recently rebranded by President Donald Trump (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout) This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee's free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools. A state Republican leader has introduced a resolution encouraging Tennessee teachers, especially geography teachers, to use the names Gulf of America and Mount McKinley when speaking with their students about map locations recently rebranded by President Donald Trump. As a proposed resolution and not a law, the measure would not place any mandates or requirements on teachers if it's approved. State Sen. Bo Watson, a Hixson Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, filed his resolution Thursday and had amassed 19 co-sponsors, including Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, by the end of the day, ensuring its passage in the 33-member Senate. The bill listed no co-sponsor in the House as of Friday morning. Watson's resolution follows Trump's executive order renaming as the Gulf of America the body of water that for 400 years has been known internationally as the Gulf of Mexico. The order — titled 'Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness' — also reversed President Barack Obama's 2015 executive order renaming Alaska's Mount McKinley, the nation's highest peak, as Denali, the site's Native Alaskan name. Everybody has a right to file resolutions if they think it's important, but it's not going to be one that I'll support. – Senate Minority Leader Ramesh Akbari, Memphis Republican lawmakers in Iowa already have advanced a bill that would require schools to change educational materials to map names that align with Trump's 'America First' worldview. The Tennessee proposal reads: 'We most heartily agree with President Trump that 'the naming of our national treasures … should honor the contribution of visionary and patriotic Americans in our nation's rich past.'' On Friday, Senate Democrats called the resolution a 'distraction' to important education matters aimed at preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow. 'Everybody has a right to file resolutions if they think it's important, but it's not going to be one that I'll support,' said Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, of Memphis. Trump's order has already sparked reflection, discussion, and debate among teachers, as well as mapmakers, journalists, and textbook publishers who seek to stay apolitical about map lines that are inherently political. Mark Finchum, executive director of the Tennessee Council for the Social Studies, said his organization's board has not taken a position so far or offered guidance to social studies teachers who are its members. 'Personally, I believe what teachers will do is what's in the best interest of students,' said Finchum, a retired social studies teacher from Jefferson County. 'I don't think they're going to ignore the topic, but I also don't think they'll simply call it the Gulf of America and continue with the lesson,' he said. 'In Tennessee, geography is primarily taught in middle and high school, so these students are old enough to have heard the words Gulf of Mexico. If you just call it the Gulf of America, some student is going to raise their hand.' Tennessee, which overwhelmingly voted for Trump last fall and where Republicans have a firm grip on state government, has been an early adopter of laws stoking culture war battles around education in recent years. In 2021, it became one of the first states to enact a law intended to restrict K-12 classroom discussions about race, gender, and bias. That law is being challenged in court by a group of teachers and the state's largest teacher organization. Under Republican Gov. Bill Lee, the legislature also has passed several laws leading to the purging of hundreds of library books from public schools, with titles involving race, sex, and the Holocaust among the most frequent targets. And earlier this month, Watson introduced a bill that could allow school districts and charter schools to bar undocumented students from enrolling, potentially challenging a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision entitling all children to a public education regardless of their immigration status. His latest resolution says the body of water between Florida and Mexico warrants renaming because of the gulf's pivotal role in shaping America's future and the global economy. Regarding the name of the nation's highest peak in Alaska, the resolution cites President William McKinley's leadership behind the U.S. victory in the Spanish-American War and the nation's rapid expansion, including the annexations of Puerto Rico, Guam, and Hawaii, during McKinley's administration from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. Informally, Alaskans have called the snow-covered mountain Denali, its Native name, for decades. President McKinley, who was from Ohio, never set foot in the state. Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@ Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump expected to expand school choice options in new executive order
Jan. 29 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Wednesday aimed at expanding school choice programs as soon-to-be-released results show American students slowly failing. The order is expected to impact several federal departments in an effort to free up federal money to prioritize funding to expand school programs and offer more choices to parents, CBS News, NBC News and The Hill reported. It will direct the U.S. Department of Education to prioritize school choice programs via its discretionary grant programs, and to figure how much money to give districts and other schools for its K-12 scholarship programs. Trump's nominee for education secretary, former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, has yet to be confirmed to the post. In his first term Trump called on Congress to open up school choice programs nationwide and campaigned on the issue during November's election. It's expected Trump will further order newly sworn-in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to form a plan how military families can divert Pentagon funds to send kids to a school of their own choice. His new order also directs the soon-to-be confirmed interior secretary to likewise submit a plan to Trump on how it can be applied to the roughly 47,000 students in Native American and Native Alaskan students enrolled in Bureau of Indian Education schools. Meanwhile, former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is awaiting a likely senate confirmation to head the U.S. Interior Department. The presidential order will arrive on top of results slated to be released Wednesday by the National Assessment of Education Progress that will indicate how 40% of 4th grade students did not meet basic reading levels which was the highest percentage ever recorded. On Sunday, the Education Department announced it was marking this week National School Choice Week. However, critics argue that school choice with its taxpayer-funded vouchers harm public schools. The new NAEP data to released Wednesday showed that 70% of 8th-grade students were not proficient in reading and 72% were not proficient in math, and that 4th and 8th-grade average reading scores have continued a downward spiral two points each from 2022. "Every child deserves the best education available, regardless of their zip code," the White House said. "However, for generations, our government-assigned education system has failed millions of parents, students and teachers. This executive order begins to rectify that wrong by opening up opportunities for students to attend the school that best fits their needs." According to a senior administration official, Trump's order will empower the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to issue guidance on how states will receive block grants to fund tuition at private and faith-based institutions. "Today, vouchers subsidize wealthy families who already send their kids to private and religious schools," Randi Weingarten, president of American Federation of Teachers, said last year. But research shows, Weingarten added, that school vouchers "negatively affect achievement." "Privatizers fund those giveaways by defunding and destabilizing public schools," she stated last year.
