In the wake of the powerful resistance shown by Riel
and his supporters in 1869-1870, Manitoba's Lieutenant-Governor
Archibald clearly was uneasy about dealing with the
First Nations at Red River. In the summer of 1871, he
sought the support of militia troops stationed at Fort
Garry before commencing negotiations with the Swampy
Cree and Chippewa Indians for Treaty 1. In all subsequent
treaty negotiations, the North-West Mounted Police would
provide the Crown with a military presence.
Treaty 1 was the first of eleven numbered treaties
signed between the federal government and Canada's
First Nations between 1871 and 1921. The first seven
of these treaties were signed between 1871 and 1877
and covered nearly all of the Canadian Prairies.
Treaties 1 and 2 (1871) were negotiated with the
Swampy Cree and Chippewa Indians and covered the territory
in and near the newly-created province of Manitoba.
Treaty 3 (1873) was negotiated with the Saulteaux
(Plains Ojibwa) Indians and covered the area between
Lake Superior and Lake of the Woods. Treaty 4 (1874)
was negotiated with the Cree and Saulteaux Indians
and covered the Qu'Appelle-Assiniboine Valley and
the area to the west. Treaty 5 (1875) was negotiated
with the Saulteaux and Swampy Cree Indians and extended
from The Pas north of Lake Winnipeg to the Nelson
River. Treaty 6 (1876) was negotiated with the Plains
Cree and Wood Cree of present-day central Saskatchewan
and Alberta, and included all the fertile belt to
the Rocky Mountains. In 1877, the Blackfoot Confederacy
(comprised of the Blackfoot, Blood, Piegan, Sarcee,
and Stoney First Nations) signed Treaty 7, which covered
the remaining area from Lake Superior to the Rocky
Mountains, including present-day southern Alberta.
Most scholars agree that the federal government's
initiation of the numbered treaties was based more
on economic pragmatism than on a concept of "Aboriginal
rights." Given the precedent of the violent and
expensive Indian Wars in the United States (American
expenditures to fight the Indian Wars exceeded
Canada's entire federal budget in the 1870s and 1880s),
the Canadian government sought a peaceful means of
displacing First Nations in preparation for wide-scale
Euro-Canadian settlement. This peaceful approach has
reinforced the perception Canadians have of themselves
as a more law-biding country. It conveniently ignores
the fact that the result, at least as far as First
Nations are concerned, has been the same on both sides
of the border.
