Treaties

Concerned about the creation of a strong united Cree community in the Battleford area, Canadian government officials—most notably Edgar Dewdney—did not grant various Cree communities reserves where they desired, and attempted to obstruct a Thirst Dance (Sun Dance) on the Poundmaker Reserve that brought together all Cree communities from the surrounding region.

Chief Foremost Man and the Nakaneet First Nation (Cree) signed Treaty 4 on September 15, 1874. However, the band refused to leave the Cypress Hills area with others who were forcibly removed in 1883, and remained in the area living without a reserve and the benefits of annuities and other Treaty rights. Foremost Man was not averse to living on a reserve; but if the government insisted that he settle on a reserve he wanted it to be in the Cypress Hills area.----------------------- However, the government did not want Indian reserves south of the Canadian Pacific Railway because it was worried about cross-border conflicts between different bands. Other policies which limited movement of Indigenous people as it relates to Canada-America border crossings suggests Canadian officials feared conflict and collusion with American Indians. A more recent interpretation suggests that Canadian authorities were concerned about the potential danger of a concentration of Cree on adjacent reserves in the Cypress Hills, as this would create an Indian territory in which the residents would be difficult to control. ------------------------ After Foremost Man's death in 1897, the band, now led by Chief Crooked Legs, pursued Foremost Man's dream of a reserve in the Hills, eventually hiring a lawyer to promote their cause. The Government conceded in 1913, granting a small reserve at Maple Creek. Still, it was not until 1975 that the Government agreed to pay them their treaty benefits.

In an effort to reduce their costs the Department of the Interior pressured their officials in the North West to cut costs. Various methods were undertaken to promote this initiatve. For example, the department adopted a policy of only giving agricultural implements and cattle to those bands they believed intended to use them. Furthermore, in 1876 David Laird—Minister of the Interior—adopted a policy whereby implements promised under the treaties could only be given with permission from the Department, assuring further delays in providing goods and services to First Nations that were agreed upon under the treaties.

Speaking to Governor General Lord Lorne Chief James Smith demanded speedier implementation of the Treaty 6 agreement and to ensure that his community retained control over its reserve and its affairs.

In the years following their signing to Treaty 4, White Bear (Wahpeemakwa) resisted residential schools and agricultural programs which were imposed by the Canadian Government. -------------- White Bear's expressions of self-determination brought him into conflict with Indian Agent J.J. Campbell. Campbell, claiming to speak for a majority of band members, stated that White Bear should be deposed. This occurred in 1889. The official report of the incident in the Annual Report of Indian Affairs for the year suggested that White Bear's unwillingness to adapt to Euro-Canadian economic structures and cultural practices turned his band members against him, as they sought to adapt to incoming settlers.

Indian Commissioner David Laird outlined that the government was delaying bringing First Nations people at Ile à la Crosse under treaty because there was no imminent prospect of the region being settled or developed by Euro-Canadians.

After Treaty 8 was signed First Nations of the Ile à la Crosse region were placed between two treaty areas. In 1902, Bishop Pascal of Ile à la Crosse indicated to Indian Commissioner James McKenna that extinguishing the rest of the Aboriginal title in the area would be wise, thereby preventing 'unrest' for being treated differently by the Government.

The government upheld the needs of the commercial fisheries over Indigenous peoples’ subsistence. They wanted to ensure that investment in the fisheries were protected and that as many fish got to market as possible. As a result, the government used Indigenous peoples as a scapegoat for the decline of the northern fisheries.

Game officer Andrew Holmes argued in 1918 that Indigenous people had no more right to hunt than any non-Indigenous individual. However, hunting and trapping was vital to the survival of Aboriginal peoples in the both the North and South of the province away from urban centres, and was also protected under treaty and land rights. Concerns over the conservation of large game were professed to be an underlying factor - Indigenous people were often accused of unsustainable consumption, and in certain instances were prosecuted or fined. However, in reality Indigenous peoples alike were not responsible for the mass extinction of large game, and had developed hunting and gaming practices over generations that preserved game and utilized the animal to its fullest extent. Considerably, it was the introduction of European settlers into the mid-west that caused the near extinction of the Bison, causing mass species loss, a completely new environmental landscape, and vast starvation/death across Plaines Indigenous peoples.

With the establishment of the province of Saskatchewan there was new incentive to extinguish Aboriginal title over the territory encompassed in the new province. In 1905 Inspector of Indian Agencies William J. Chisholm recommended settling a treaty to to those nations in the North who had not yet signed onto an existing treaty. This led to treaty negotiations and ultimately the conclusion of Treaty 10 in 1906. Discussion began about the best method of extending treaty rights to Aboriginal peoples in the Ile a la Crosse region. Two options included extending Treaty 8 or initiating a new treaty agreement.