Covenant Chain definition

Covenant Chain first appeared in the Maryland Mohawk agreement of July 1677. In 1677, the first “Silver Covenant Chain” was made between the Iroquois, on the one hand, and the New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut colonies, as well as the River Indians of the ▇▇▇▇▇▇ Valley, on the other. In subsequent years, the alliance was gradually extended to all the colonies and other Indian Nations, south, east, north, and west, and was constantly renewed. As ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ puts it: “The Covenant Chain is the reason there was peace during the long period from 1677 to 1755.”6 Finally, for the British, it was a British chain which excluded the French. Since the Iroquois had become British allies, the British started presenting the “Iroquois Confederacy and its Native Allies as the Iroquois Empire dependent on the Province of New York” (Colden, 1747), and the Confederacy’s Native Allies as their “tributaries”. ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ has shown that the Iroquois Empire did not exist. It was a creation of the British imagination employed in order to eventually appropriate their lands. The British used their alliance with the Iroquois (and their allies) to argue the dependency of these Nations on the British Crown and, hence, British sovereignty over all of known North America. The Iroquois “depended” on New York, which was in turn a dependency of the British Crown. If the Iroquois therefore had tributaries and an Empire, it belonged to Britain. What belonged to the Iroquois belonged to Britain. All very convenient. As early as 1688 the British were saying: “We have thought fit to own the Five Nations as our subjects and resolved to protect them as such”. As ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ has written: “Lacking a reasonable alternative until the French could be forced off the Continent, the British donated an empire to the Iroquois in order to claim it for themselves.” (op. cit., p.11) In 1701, a separate Alliance and Covenant was established in Montreal between the Iroquois, the French, and the latter’s allies, because the French refused to join the Covenant Chain which was considered by them (and the English) as an exclusively British/Iroquois (plus Native allies) Chain—although never so by the Iroquois, as noted above. For the British, the Covenant Chain was an instrument of conquest. Its purpose was to extend the British Empire. This was the hidden agenda. When the western Native Nations left the Iroquois Confederacy in the mid-1700’s, and thus were no longer seen by the British as tributaries of the Iroquois, the British re...
View Source

Examples of Covenant Chain in a sentence

  • In particular, crucially absent from these decisions was consideration of how the Crown’s responsibilities to the Silver Covenant Chain predate the ▇▇▇ Treaty, and served as the basis for the guarantee under Article III.

  • As far as British-Haudenosaunee relations were concerned around the time the ▇▇▇ Treaty was concluded, we know the principles of the Kaswentha and Silver Covenant Chain guided Haudenosaunee-Crown relations then, as they do now.

  • As such, the substance of Article III was relied upon as an act to “polish the chain.” Without the guaranteed freedom to pass and ▇▇▇▇▇▇, the Crown would have been in blatant transgression of their responsibilities to that alliance.99 The Silver Covenant Chain relationship was directly implicated in the ▇▇▇ Treaty to the extent it guaranteed First Nations’ mobility rights, and through this relationship the Haudenosaunee—and the Silver Covenant Chain as a whole—were party to Article III.

  • When the Crown lobbied the United States for First Nations’ mobility rights at the ▇▇▇ Treaty negotiation, it did so knowing that if it transgressed the Covenant Chain principle of sovereign non-interference it would surely face another war.

  • The northern branch of the Indian department ensured the existence and continuance of the Covenant Chain and Canada’s current Ministry of Indigenous Affairs.

  • In my view, ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ even suggests that as a central element informing ▇▇▇ Treaty negotiations around Article III, the the Silver Covenant Chain should be considered over and above the international and domestic criteria—such as the Vienna Convention—which did not even formally exist at the time it was concluded.

  • In the Treaty of Paris, a new border was made along the Great Lakes that overlooked the Covenant Chain and the Treaty of Fort Stanwix.

  • Viewed in light of the principles of the Silver Covenant Chain, the Crown’s assurance to the Haudenosaunee that the border would only be internally enforceable between Britain and the United States was a fundamental contribution to the renewable and reciprocal basis of their treaty relationship.

  • Secondly, the ▇▇▇ Treaty has never been properly considered in light of the Crown’s obligations to the Haudenosaunee (or other parties) through the Silver Covenant Chain.

  • For greater certainty, nothing in this Agreement shall be construed so as to abrogate or derogate from the protection aboriginal or treaty rights of the Band members by the recognition and affirmation of those rights in section of the Constitution Act, in the Covenant Chain of Treaties.

Related to Covenant Chain

  • Covenant Compliance Worksheet means a fully completed worksheet in the form of Attachment A to Exhibit C.

  • Covenant Period means the period of time from the date of this Agreement to the date that is two years after the Date of Termination.

  • Covenant means a covenant, condition, limitation or restriction in a document or instrument in effect at Date of Policy.

  • Covenant Testing Period means a period (a) commencing on the last day of the fiscal quarter of Parent most recently ended prior to a Covenant Trigger Event for which Borrowers are required to deliver quarterly or annual financial statements pursuant to Section 5.2 of this Agreement, and (b) continuing through and including (but ending on) the first day, after such Covenant Trigger Event, on which Availability has exceeded 20% of the then effective Borrowing Base for 30 consecutive days.

  • Restrictive Covenant Violation means the Participant’s breach of the Restrictive Covenants listed on Appendix A or any covenant regarding confidentiality, competitive activity, solicitation of the Company’s vendors, suppliers, customers, or employees, or any similar provision applicable to or agreed to by the Participant.