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.
J.R. Miller writes in Compact, Contract, Covenant: Aboriginal Treaty Making in Canada "Treaty 6 contained two unique clauses. The arrangements for initial payments and annuities, reserve allocation and start-up equipment and livestock, and uniforms and medals for chiefs and councillors were the same as those in Treaty 4. However, the 1876 treaty responded to the worsening conditions on the Prairies with clauses dealing with famine and health care. Because Plains Cree leaders were conscious of the dwindling bison stocks, as Ahtahkakoop had remarked to John Hines in 1874, at Fort Carlton they pressed hard for assistance in times of severe hardship. Morris acknowledged that ‘the Indians were apprehensive of their future’ because they saw the bison disappearing ‘and were anxious and distressed,’ but the commissioners tried to avoid making such a promise, which exceeded their mandate, saying that ‘we could not assume the charge of their every-day life.’ The Cree objected ‘that they did not wish to be fed every day, but to be helped when they commenced to settle because of their ignorance how to commence, and also in case of general famine.’ Ahtahkakoop also explained that ‘they wanted food in the spring when they commenced to farm, and proportionate help as they advanced in civilization.’ Morris appeared to concede, agreeing ‘that in the event of a National [Morris’s emphasis] famine or pestilence such aid as the Crown saw fit would be extended to them.’ The Indians’ concern about disease, an obvious consequence of the smallpox scourge that had recently ravaged their camps, was also met in a fashion with a clause that promised ‘that a medicine chest shall be kept at the house of each Indian Agent for the use and benefit of the Indians, at the discretion of such Agent.’" Pg 179.