In response to the changing economic and political environment on the Northern Plains an adhesion to Treaty 6 was signed by Chief Poundmaker that agreed to the same terms as previous signatories to the treaty. Treaty 6 provided signatories with reserves for farming, annuities, farming implements, education, hunting, fishing and trapping rights, and aid (most notably in times of famine or epidemic), in exchange for a cession of community land rights. Poundmaker requested that the government be prepared to provide for Indigenous people once the buffalo were gone in exchange for their lands through treaties.
From Jill St. Germain's book Broken Treaties: United States and Canadian Relations with the Lakotas and the Plains Cree, 1868-1885: "There was, as well, another component to Canadian treaty implementation between 1879 and 1884 : the inclination on the part of the government to comply with treaty stipulations at its own discretion and as it saw fi t. Some treaty promises, including annuities, reserve surveys, and the distribution of some agricultural equipment, demanded immediate fulfillment, and it only made sense to address them. Others, in Canadian understanding, had limited application in the short term, and officials delayed implementation until they deemed the Crees ready for the benefits due them. The Liberals had taken this approach with regard to the agricultural implements promised by the treaty, doling them out cautiously “as needed.” The Conservatives applied this practice to other aspects, including education, handmills, and livestock. Reflecting Canada’s understanding of treaties as only one aspect of relations with the Crees and other indigenous peoples, the Conservative government also gave some attention to the legislative component of Indian affairs, and in 1880 and 1884 it introduced amendments to the 1876 Indian Act, which had implications for treaty implementation and Canadian-Cree relations." Pg 180-181.
St. Germain, Jill. Broken Treaties: United States and Canadian Relations with the Lakotas and the Plains Cree, 1868-1885. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009. 177-250.