Treaties

In the summer of 1876 Commissioner Thomas Howard met at the Pas to discuss an adhesion with various Indigenous groups from the region. The Indigenous leaders present were aware that the Treaty 6 agreement had contained more benefits for Indigenous signatories and desired to create a new treaty. However, Howard assured them that this was a new unique treaty agreement despite signing them on as an adhesion to Treaty 5. Ultimately Treaty 5 provided signatories with reserves, annuities, articles for cultivation, hunting, trapping and fishing rights, amongst other promises in exchange for ceding their land rights.

On June 25, 1874 Chief Rundle and several other Indigenous leaders from the Treaty 5 area petitioned Alexander Morris—Governor of the North-West Territories for a treaty agreement. The petitioners used two main arguments to justify the need for treaty. First of, the population density was exceeding the territory's capacity to provide the necessities of life. Second, changes in the fur trade transportation system, such as the deployment of steamboats, meant many men faced unemployment and that their families would suffer as a consequence. Seasonal labour associated with the fur trade had long been a source of employment and income for the local economy. They argued that the hunting economy was in need of assistance, and sought to relocate to lands that were suitable for farming. A treaty with the government offered a potential remedy for their declining economic circumstances. The three Saskatchewan First Nations included in Treaty 5 are Cumberland House First Nation, Red Earth First Nation and Shoal Lake First Nation. The Manitoba community of Norway House which faced starvation at the time of treaty, sought to relocate to an area north of Lake Winnipeg where lands were more suitable for agriculture.

Prominent Cree chiefs—led by Chief Sweetgrass—visited W.J. Christie at Fort Edmonton and had him write a letter on their behalf, hoping to enter into an agreement with the government that could provide them with provisions and help their transition to agriculture. They referred to their hardships including: epidemic disease, the bison disappearance and starvation.

The near-extinction of the bison by 1879 due largely to settler over-hunting led to widespread famine in the subsequent years amongst Indigenous populations in the West. Treaty 6 included a clause stating the Canadian government would aid Indigenous signatories in times of famine - this clause was unique from the numbered treaties before, and was requested by Poundmaker. However, the Liberals and Conservatives in the government reneged on their legal obligation due to the cost of that aid. The Conservatives in power in the early 1880s provided rations to starving Indigenous communities, but this was strongly opposed by the Liberals in the House of Commons because they thought this relief would make the receiving population lazy and complacent.

Chiefs Mistawasis and Ahtahkakoop persuaded other delegates at the Treaty discussion at Fort Carlton to sign the treaty. Their main argument was that there was no better alternative, and that the incoming flood of white settlers would continue.

Mistawasis spoke at Fort Carlton that,

"I have heard my brothers speak, complaining of the hardships endured by our people. Some have bewailed the poverty and suffering that has come to Indians because of the destruction of the buffalo as the chief source of our living, the loss of the ancient glory of our forefathers; and with all that I agree, in the silence of my teepee and on the broad prairies where once our fathers could not pass for the great number of those animals that blocked their way; and even in our day, we have had to choose carefully our campground for fear of being trampled in our teepees. With all these things, I think and feel intensely the sorrow my brothers express.

I speak directly to Poundmaker and The Badger and those others who object to signing this treaty. Have you anything better to offer our people? I ask, again, can you suggest any-thing that will bring these things back for tomorrow and all the tomorrows that face our people?

I for one think that the Great White Queen Mother has offered us a way of life when the buffalo are no more. Gone they will be before many snows have come to cover our heads or graves if such should be." (Erasmus, Buffalo Days, 246-7)

Two different treaty signings from various members of the Saulteaux community occurred within a two year period in the 1950s. These two events were perceived as a singular signing by the Canadian government as the two instances shared an official text and title page. Treaty 6 provided signatories with reserves for farming, annual annuities, annual chief salaries, farming implements, education, hunting, fishing and trapping rights, and aid (most notably in times of famine or epidemic), in exchange for land rights.

Almost 75 years after the original Treaty 6 was negotiated, the Wichekan Lake community signed it and was included in the treaty agreement on November 21, 1950. -------------------- In Brenda McLeod's thesis "Treaty land entitlement in Saskatchewan: conflicts in land use and occupancy in the Witchekan Lake area" writes that, "Elders reported that Band members were motivated to sign the adhesion because of the promises that were made for houses, a school, horses and haying equipment. [83] One elder specified that people were not destitute or in need of any of the promised items; people merely wanted what was offered.[84] Yet another elder reported being told by Corporal Chester that if the Band did not sign the treaty adhesion, they might lose their reserve.[85] -------------With the signing of the treaty adhesion, the federal government presence was established quickly; the first changes began with the establishment of a Day School on the Reserve. The Day School changed the way in which the family unit followed the annual cycle of land use and occupancy. Only the men went out to hunt and trap as the women stayed behind to care for the children attending the Day school.The Family Allowance cheque was a source of monthly income for families, provided school-aged children had regular school attendance. Once the Band entered into treaty, an increased government presence in their lives and enforcement of Indian Act truancy regulations monitored school attendance closely. More specifically, one of the women stated, "Trapping at M-61 changed with the school. Before the school, everyone lived an Indian life. After the school, people began to speak English and began to live a White life. The young people went to school but not the entire population."[92]" Pg 111-112.

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.

Chief Joseph Bighead agreed to sign on to Treaty 6 under the terms agreed upon in 1876. In 1913 he signed an Adhesion requesting that his community be allowed to fish and hunt on Lac des Iles, and that a reserve was to be surveyed in 1916. 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.

In 1889 the Pelican Lake First Nations community agreed to the terms of Treaty 6. Treaty 6 provided signatories with reserves for farming, annual annuities, annual chief salaries, 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.