D. Aboriginal Treaties

From HCO Jr

Part 7. All Aboard for the West → A. Red River Settlement & Insurrection → B. National Policy & the CPR → C. North West Mounted Police → D. Aboriginal Treaties → E. North West Rebellion → F. Rise of British Columbia → G. Making a Western Home

Introduction

Canada could not send settlers to the prairies until it had signed treaties with the First Nations people who lived there. An early chapter in this textbook discusses early treaties in Upper Canada. Reasons for signing treaties then still existed in the 1870s. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 stated that the Crown (the Canadian government) had to sign land treaties with First Nations if they wanted to settle immigrants on that land.

Early treaties in Upper Canada often resulted in many problems for First Nations. Unfortunately, the Canadian government did not learn from these mistakes. Many non-Native people in Canada at that time had a very low opinion of First Nations people. There was a great deal of racism towards them, their culture and their religious beliefs. When the treaties were signed the Canadian government quickly broke many of the promises that it made to the Native peoples of the prairies: the Ojibwa, Cree, and others.

This chapter will explain why First Nations people signed these treaties, what was happening on the prairies in the 1870s, and then provide you with an example of how some Cree people were treated by the Canadian government after they signed a land treaty.

Life on the Prairies

Preparing & Dressing Buffalo

For many generations the First Nations people who lived on the prairies relied on the buffalo as their main source of food. Huge herds with millions of buffalo roamed the prairies, and provided people with food, clothing, fuel and many other things. Other resources were also taken from the land and the rivers. While life was certainly hard compared with today, the Native peoples of the prairies were able to prosper and thrive.

The arrival of fur traders in the 1700s did change First Nations' lives. However, it was a slow change. The arrival of alcohol was always a problem, but many elements of Native life remained the same. They hunted, trapped and fished. Some men and women worked for fur trade companies, and some of the women had children with the fur traders. However, life for the most part remained good for the First Nations.

What drastically changed life for Native peoples was the loss of the buffalo. Starting in the 1850s the buffalo herds began to decline. This was due to overhunting. It was not just one group that overhunted the buffalo, but many groups.

The first groups were from the United States. Buffalo herds crossed back and forth across the border between the Canadian prairies and the American prairies. More settlers were in the American west in teh 1850s and 1860s. These settlers began to hunt buffalo for food. Soon there were thousands of people living in the American west, and many of them either hunted buffalo or purchased buffalo meat.

Hunting on Horseback

Buffalo skins were also needed in large U.S. cities. By the 1860s there were large factories in many American cities. These factories had machines that needed belts to move pulleys. Today these belts are made of synthetic rubber. In the 1860s these belts were made of tanned buffalo skins, or buffalo leather. Buffalo leather is much stronger and tougher than cow leather. There was large demand for this leather, and people hunted buffalo to get it.

Finally, some wealthy people took trips out west to go hunting. Train trips were organized so people could hunt buffalo. However, these people did not kill just one or two buffalo. They would ride in special train cars, and shoot hundreds and sometimes thousands of buffalo. These animals were not being killed for food. They were being shot and killed for fun.

Crow Teepee Made with 25 Buffalo Skins

Lastly, the American army deliberatly killed buffalo. In the 1870s the U.S. government was fighting a war against the Sioux Nation. American military leaders realized that the Sioux relied on buffalo as a source of food. It decided to kill as many buffalo as possible to starve the Siouix, and force them to surrender.

There were reasons in Canada as well for the decline of the buffalo. By the 1850s and 1860s there were many more fur traders on the Canadian prairies than in the 1700s. These fur traders relied on dried buffalo meat, or buffalo pemmican, as a source of food. Metis hunters at Red River and in Saskatchewan hunted buffalo every year to supply the fur trade posts. This was called the Pemmican Trade.

All of these reasons combined to make buffalo scarce. The biggest reasons were American sport hunters and the American army. They killed thousands and thousands of buffalo for no reason.

In Canada (and in the United States), First Nations who relied on buffalo as a source of food began to starve. They could not hunt enough buffalo to feed their families. Hunters could try to take other animals such as deer, but there were not enough of these animals to feed people. Without the buffalo to support them, First Nations on the prairies became desparate for help.

The Numbered Treaties

Between 1870 and 1921 the Canadian government signed a treaties with First Nations who lived in western and northern Canada. These treaties are called the Numbered Treaties because they are numbered one to eleven. The treaties that covered the prairies (and a bit of northern Canada) were numbered one to eight.

The Canadian government wanted to sign treaties with the First Nations. Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie and then Prime Minister Macdonald both knew about the Indian Wars in the United States. These wars cost the U.S. government almost $20 million dollars every year to fight. This was equal to all the money spent by the Canadian government in a year. Treaties were a cheapery way for the Canadian goverment to get land for settlement.

If the treaties had been signed and lived up to by the Canadian government there would not have been many problems. But, it was clear very early that the Canadian government would not keep the promises it made to Native peoples.

Most First Nations wanted treaties. They were desparate for food, and they hoped that the treaties would help them. During the treaty negotiations, First Nations leaders outlined what they wanted from the government. They wanted the government to teach their people how to farm so they could support themselves. Leaders also wanted schools so their children could be taught English and how to farm. In addition, the First Nations asked for farm equipment and animals to start their new farms. Reserves would be created for the bands so they had large areas to farm. They wanted support from the government during hard times. Native peoples also wanted to keep the right to hunt, trap and fish because this was important to them. All First Nations also would receive a small cash payment every year after the treaty was signed. In return, the chiefs said that Canadian settlers could come to their land and make a new home for themselves.

made treaty demands, and government representatives promised to fulfill them. For example, First Nations realized that their way of life was changing. Buffalo, their most important resource, were becoming scarce. Many leaders asked for things to help their people remain independent after the buffalo completely disappeared. They wanted to learn how to farm. First Nations hoped that by learning how to farm they could remain self-sufficient. They asked for schools to be built on their reserves and teachers hired so their children could learn English and other skills they would need. They also received annual treaty payments of money, and the treaties state that the First Nations retained the right to hunt, trap and fish.

An intense struggle developed in the last few decades of the nineteenth century, as Canada expanded westward. It was more than simply a conflict over land. It went much deeper than that. It was a clash of two opposing ways of life, a profound disagreement of values, and ultimately, a collision of cultures.

An intense struggle developed in the last few decades of the nineteenth century as Canada expanded westward. It was more than a conflict over land. It was a clash of two opposing ways of life, a profound disagreement of values, and ultimately, a collision of cultures.

From the days of first contact, there had been a fundamental difference between the Aboriginal view of land and the European belief. For Aboriginal people, the land could no more be claimed or owed than could the sky or air. It was something that the Creator had given communally for all to share. All would use it, all would benefit from it, and all would seek to conserve and protect it for future generations. For Europeans, land was something to be claimed and owned. From their perspective, land should be utilized for individual profit, wealth, and advantage. A conflict between these two views was inevitable.

Settler's Wagon Going West

To many Canadians, particularly land dealers and incoming settlers, the Aboriginal people on the western prairies were an obstacle. They were considered to be in the way of progress and therefore to be removed or set aside. Some Canadians, particularly the managers of the CPR and Hudson's Bay Company, who now owned large tracts of land , wanted the land to be organized and surveyed before settlers arrived. This was the opposite of what happened in the United States where governmental organizations and structures came after land rushes by settlers. Aboriginal peoples, who had lived and hunted the prairies for generations, were either callously ignored or forcefully displaced.

Most Canadians believed that the best thing that could happen was that the Aboriginal populations would become farmers or herders and eventually assimilated. Most Aboriginal people, on the other hand, wanted to preserve their culture, language, and nomadic way of life. Many were resigned, however, to the fact that their buffalo oriented culture had to disappear, and wanted to take up cattle grazing in order to survive. It was at this point that the Government of Canada sent men like Adams Archibald, Alexander Morris and David Laird west to negotiate treaties with the native people in the name of the Crown.

Governor Adams George Archibald

Unlike most contracts, which provide for real mutual benefit, these treaties were one-sided. Most Aboriginal Nations did not want to sign them. A number of factors gave them no alternative. First, increasing settlement threatened their way of life. Macdonald's National Policy was beginning to bring more and more settlers. Thanks to the North-West Mounted Police and the extension of the railway the trickle of settlers became a flood. When the Aboriginal peoples looked southward, they saw the tragic experience of their American cousins who had their lands taken with hundreds of people killed in the process. Perhaps treaties offered a better option.

Added to that concern was the disappearance of the buffalo. Once numbering over ten million, random killing had decimated their numbers. The buffalo, no longer simply harvested for food and other essential elements of life, was now hunted down for sport. Farmers supported the slaughter, arguing that the buffalo herds interfered with their crops. Ranchers saw them as competition for gazing of their herds.

Hunting Buffalo for Sport

Strangely, substantial numbers of buffalo, not wanting to cross the Canadian Pacific and Northern Pacific railway tracks, failed to migrate north of the border in the 1880s. The situation grew critical. By the end of the decade, the plains buffalo, despite an 1879 law aimed at protecting them, were nearly extinct. Only a small herd was left in Canada, kept fenced in at a farm west of Winnipeg by Samuel Bedson. The Aboriginal peoples of the prairies faced the threat of starvation. Perhaps farming on government reserve lands, obtained through treaties, offered a way out.

RESOURCE: For the viewpoint of a US naturalist, you can read William T. Hornaday's 1889 book, The Extermination of the American Bison.

Blackfoot Woman

Finally, a third calamity befell the Aboriginal people - sickness and disease. Not having been exposed to European diseases; such as, smallpox, tuberculosis, and measles, the aboriginals had absolutely no immunity. The death toll was tragically high. Several of the numbered treaties were negotiated at a time when the Aboriginal Nation had experienced starvation or disease, or sometimes both. Sick and vulnerable, they were forced to accept inequitable terms.

Influenced by the Hudson's Bay Company, who wanted to protect some of its best customers and suppliers, the Canadian government chose not to fight a costly and bitter war against the Aboriginal Nations as the United States had done . Instead, Canada negotiated land treaties that gave the Native Peoples reserves and food.

In the fifty years between 1871 and 1921, the Crown signed eleven treaties, seven in a six-year period during the 1870s. Through them, the Crown permanently acquired full title to two million sq km. The Aboriginal People were given lands set aside by the Crown for "the use and benefit of the Indian people. But in many cases, this meant being marginalized on inferior grazing land, and fighting the twin foes of poverty and discrimination.

Prairie Language Groups

Signing the Numbered Treaties

Treaties 1 (Stone Fort) and 2 (Manitoba Post) were concluded between August 3 and 21, 1871, between Manitoba Lieutenant-Governor Adams Archibald and a group of Saulteaux (Swampy Cree) and Chippewa (Ojibwa) led by their chief, Yellow Quill. At issue was the desire of white settlers to move into the area west of the Red River settlement, currently occupied by the Saulteaux. Not wanting another rebellion as had occurred the year before in Red River itself, the government offered perpetual land, fishing, and hunting rights. Treaty 3 (Northwest Angle), negotiated with the Ojibwa in 1873, resolved disputed land between the Selkirk settlement and Lake Superior.

The Numbered Treaties

Treaty 4 was signed September 15, 1875, by Manitoba Governor Alexander Morris, NWT Governor David Laird and groups of Saulteaux and Cree at Qu'Appelle Lake. Treaty 5 (Winnipeg) was signed September 20, 1875, by Morris, and groups of Saulteaux and Swampy Cree at Norway House. Treaty 6 was signed in August and September, 1876, by Morris, and several destitute groups of Plains and Wood Cree at Fort Carlton and Fort Pitt. This treaty had a special famine relief proviso that "in the event hereafter of the Indians comprised within this treaty being overtaken by any pestilence, or by a general famine, the Queen, on being satisfied and certified thereof by Her Indian Agent or Agents, will grant to the Indians assistance of such character and to such extent as Her Chief Superintendent of Indian Affairs shall deem necessary and sufficient to relieve the Indians from the calamity that shall have befallen them."

NWT Governor David Laird

Treaty 7, signed in September 22, 1877, at Blackfoot Crossing between NWT Governor David Laird and the Blackfoot, Blood, Peigan, Sarcee, Stoney and other tribes, resulted in the aboriginals giving up title to almost 130 000 square km of southern Alberta. Aboriginal chiefs, such as Big Bear (Mistahimhaskwa) and Poundmaker (Pitikwahanapiwiyin), held out and refused to sign treaties, only doing so when starvation and destitution forced them to do so.

In response to the pleas of the chiefs, Governor General Lord Lorne made a trip west to visit the signers of Treaty 7. On September 10, 1881, he and his staff met with Crowfoot and the other chiefs [in the pictures] at Blackfoot Crossing on the Bow River, and promised them better treatment.

Meeting at Blackfoot Crossing - Pencil Sketch made on the spot

Meeting at Blackfoot Crossing - [Painting by Sydney Hall

The remaining numbered treaties carved up huge expanses of the prairies and the north so that within fifty years, full land title from the forty-ninth parallel to the Arctic was in the Canadian government's hands.

In most cases, the aboriginals received the worst of the arrangement. They gave up aboriginal title to immense areas of prairie in return for inferior reserve land. In exchange for the permanent loss of their title, the Aboriginal Peoples normally received a lump sum payment, an annual payment, and promises of schools, services, and resources. Unfortunately, those things were not always forthcoming. The treaties stipulated that the Aboriginal People fully abide by all terms, that they obey all laws of Canada, and continue to be loyal subjects of Queen Victoria.

Commissioner Alexander Morris

Unfortunately, some government agents, working on reserves, cheated the Aboriginal people. In some cases, they forced them onto poorer grazing land and dispensed inferior food and supplies. Largely because of the treaties, many Aboriginal people became marginalized, constantly struggling to maintain their dignity and to retain their way of life. Subsequent droughts in the 1880s, while they were attempting to adapt to a farming lifestyle, made matters much worse. The complete loss of their culture became a very grave threat.

Cree Group, File Hills, Saskatchewan

Canada also embarked on a policy of assimilation. Not content to take prime land away from the Aboriginal Nations, the government went even further. Aboriginal customs and traditions were seen as archaic and a barrier to their full integration within Canadian society. In 1876, the government passed the Indian Act, which made sure aboriginals retained second-class citizenship by making them officially wards of the Crown. This Act determined the rules under which the aboriginals were to live.

Treaty Six Medal given to Chiefs

Many of the most racist and discriminatory terms of the Act remained well into the twentieth century. In 1885 an amendment to the Act was passed that placed restrictions on aboriginal ceremonies, effectively outlawing the Sun Dance and the potlatch. The infamous residential schools, reaching eighty within fifty years, were specifically aimed at teaching the children English and farming and domestic skills, and assimilating Aboriginal children into mainstream Canadian society. In 1886 Chief Crowfoot traveled east with a delegation of western chiefs to complain. Their arguments fell on deaf ears.

In spite of all this early hardship, the first nations of the Canadian plains survived, and their population is now greater than at the time of the treaties. Today they are asserting their powers and rights to have a say in managing their own destinies.