CBC recently quoted two First Nations leaders and an Indigenous politics professor arguing that Alberta has no path to separation because treaty lands were never “ceded, given up, yielded or surrendered.”

“Alberta can't separate. They simply cannot. They do not have the authority,” said professor Danette Starblanket.

Starblanket's argument wasn't merely that separation would be difficult or constitutionally messy. She made a broader claim: treaty territories were never “ceded, given up, yielded or surrendered,” that First Nations maintain authority over those territories, and because treaties helped create Canada itself, they cannot simply be violated.

Dramatic claim. There's only one problem: the treaties themselves say otherwise.

The written text of the numbered treaties covering Alberta, including Treaties 6, 7 and 8, repeatedly uses explicit surrender language.

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Treaty 6 states that the signatories:

“do hereby cede, release, surrender and yield up...” their rights and title to the lands in question. (Crown-Indigenous Relations Canada)

That's not disputed. It's in the treaty documents themselves.

That's like arguing a contract never mentioned payment terms while the words “payment due” are sitting in paragraph three.