Treaty 8 Negotiation Strategy

Between 1897 and 1898 the Canadian government began to realize the urgency of negotiating a treaty north of the Treaty 6 boundary due to abundant resources and growing agitation in the North. A key aspect of the government’s strategy for treaty making—as outlined in a letter from James A. Macrae (Inspector in the Department of Indian Affairs who was named Treaty Commissioner for Treaty 8) to James Andrew Joseph McKenna who also worked to negotiate Treaty 8—was to conclude treaties quickly before southern nations could inform them of the pitfalls or imbue the Northern peoples “with an intention to demand all those things the Crees from the south always claimed [the government] promised.”