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History

Contact with Other Aboriginal Groups and Europeans

	Source
	Mistahi Maskwa, also known as Big Bear, a Plains Cree chief, trading at Fort Pitt, Saskatchewan (today NWT), 1884

On the prairies, the Plains Cree clashed with other Aboriginal groups such as the Dakota and Blackfoot. Raiding each other's territory was common. The Cree were numerous, powerful and successful -- they had horses and guns. By the middle of the 1800s, the Cree were comfortable as a plains people. Many Cree women had married French or English fur traders, and their descendants became a new group, the Métis. These people were fur traders, at home on the prairies. Life for the Plains Cree seemed good, but as with many other Aboriginal people throughout North America, many of them were killed by disease brought by Europeans. Smallpox took a terrible toll, with epidemics wiping out most of the population in some villages.

Source
German-speaking Lutheran settlers at Beresina, in present-day Saskatchewan, 1889

Prairie Aboriginal people continued to fight among themselves, especially the Cree and peoples living farther south and west. Peace came in the late 1800s when the two great rivals, Blackfoot and Cree, were no longer at war with each other. They had a more serious concern: survival in the face of European diseases, settlers, and the destruction of the great buffalo herds.

During the 1870s, the prairie lands began to change. White settlers were moving in, disrupting the way of life of all First Nations people. Some Aboriginal leaders wanted to fight the settlers and the government. Others wanted treaties with the Canadian government, in order to provide for their people. They wanted payments for their lands, and control of where settlers might live. A treaty was an agreement between the Canadian government and a group of Aboriginal people. Treaties provided for areas of land to be held "in reserve" for the group. In return, the Aboriginal people gave up vast territories.

Source		Source
Poundmaker, also known as The Drummer, a Plains Cree chief (later adopted by Crowfoot of the Blackfoot Nation), 1885		Mistahi Maskwa, also known as Big Bear, a Plains Cree chief, 1885

Glossary

Métis: a person whose ancestry is both Aboriginal and European

smallpox: a contagious disease that killed many Aboriginal people in North America

treaty: agreements that are signed between Aboriginal peoples and governments; they define the rights of Aboriginal people and governments to use lands that Aboriginal people traditionally occupied.