Treaty 6 Essay

Alberta Treaty History

Treaty 6

Alexander Morris, a Canadian politician serving under John A. Macdonald, began the signing of Treaty 6 in August of 1876. Treaty 6 was signed in Fort Carlton Saskatchewan, near a river the Aboriginal people called ka-kisiskaciwan, with around two thousand Plains Cree, Woodland Cree, and Assiniboines peoples present (“Treaty 6”, 2005). Aboriginal peoples of the West were dying from smallpox and their buffalo were down to two known herds in the Cypress Hills (“Treaty 6 education”, 2015), this resulted in additional clauses unique to treaty 6; the Medicine Chest clause, symbolic as it represents Canada’s responsibility to care for the health and wellness of the Indigenous peoples in perpetuity, and the Pestilence

and Famine clause.
Not every chief agreed with treaty 6. Chief Big Bear (Chief Mistahi-maskwa) knew the treaty signing would have devastating effects on his people and their way of life, but his protest resulted in the starvation of his people and a forced signing in December, 1882. Big Bear was later convicted of treason for his peaceful protests and attempts to unite the Cree nations back into a single nation; he was jailed and later died of poor health upon release (“Treaty 6 education”, 2005).
Not every nation was able to keep their promised land.

The Papaschase band was originally entitled to 124 square kilometers of highly sought after land, now known to be South Edmonton. That land was then reduced to 103.6 square kilometers, then lost entirely to a questionable document signed by three men in November 19, 1888. The band was forced to leave their land and join the Enoch reserve (“Aboriginal History Documents”, 2015) and the remaining money made from their land was given directly to the Enoch band. The Michel Band, who were entitled to 103.6 square kilometers northwest of Edmonton, was the only reported case of an entire band enfranchised in March, 1958 (“Aboriginal Rights”,

2008).
Treaty 7
The signing of treaty 7 took place in September of 1877 at the Blackfoot Crossing of the Bow River (present day Siksika Nation) in Calgary. The commissioners present were David Laird, Lieutenant-Governor and Indian Superintendent of the North-West Territories, and Colonel James Macleod, a NWMP commissioner who had built former trust with the Blackfoot people during the wars on whiskey trade (Taylor, 2015). Unlike treaty 6, which the government postponed until Aboriginal tension was at its worst, treaty 7 was rushed in order to complete the transcontinental railroad promised to British Columbia when they became part of the confederation in 1871 (Blackfoot Crossing historical park).
Treaty 7 was known to be the most controversial treaty written, as it was never clear that whole negotiations were ever recorded.

The Blackfoot interpreter, Jerry Potts, was replaced by a government interpreter, James Bird, due to overly summarizing the English language; translation issues continued with the lack of language equivalency (“Treaty 6”, 2005). With the signing of the treaty the government received 130000 square kilometers of Blackfoot territory for development, and the Blackfoot confederation relinquished their nomadic way of life for permanent reservation living and European style agriculture; it is in present day debate whether Aboriginal negotiations were drawn as there are no signed names of any chiefs on the official treaty document, and the spoken word history of treaty 7 contradicts a good portion of the legal document (Taylor,

2015).
Treaty 8
Treaty 8 was signed in June of 1899 at the Lesser Slave Lake Settlement now known as Grouard, Alberta. Peoples present were the Woodland Cree, Dunneza, and Chipewyan bands; as well as Commissioners James Ross and James McKenna (Taylor, 2015). Treaty 8 followed a similar pattern to treaty 6, the Northwestern land of Canada was not conducive to government needs and therefore a treaty was not deemed necessary, despite increasing evidence of hardship. The sudden influx of immigrants following the gold rush (1896-1899) quickly accelerated economic potential, at which point the government saw an immediate need to extend treaties to include northern territory (Hopfner, 2010).
Treaty 8 is unique in that it was the first treaty to have a Metis (half-breed) commission, who negotiated for the large Metis population to join the treaty reserves or accept a transferrable script which would offer them either money or land. It was also the largest span of land ever negotiated, approximately 840,000 square kilometers of northeastern British Columbia, northern Alberta, northern Manitoba and parts of the Northwest Territories; an estimation of 2700 Aboriginal and 1700 Metis occupied the area (Taylor, 2015).