Numbered Treaties

Negotiation

Negotiation of the Numbered Treaties began in 1871. The first seven affected those living on the prairies, while the remaining were negotiated at a later time between 1899 and 1921 and concerned those living further north. Each treaty delineates a tract of land which was thought to be the traditional territory of the First Nations signing that particular treaty. For Canada it was a necessary step before settlement and development could occur further westward. No two treaties were alike, as they were dependent upon specific geographic and social conditions within the territory being addressed.

Government

After confederation, Canada looked to expand its borders from sea to sea. There was a fear among the population that rapid expansion from the United States would leave the country cornered with limited arable land, lack of opportunity for economic growth, and resource extraction. To the west of Ontario was Rupert's Land, fur trading territory operated by the Hudson's Bay Company since 1670, which contained several trading posts and some small settlements, such as the Red River Colony. During the first session of Parliament many called for the annexation of the territory, and letters were sent to the Queen suggesting that "it would promote the prosperity of the Canadian people, and conduce to the advantage of the whole Empire if the Dominion of Canada ... were extended westward to the shore of the Pacific Ocean". In the following years, negotiations took place to acquire full control of the region with the creation of the Rupert's Land Act 1868 and the North-Western Territory Transfer Act of 1870. Even though the government acquired the land from the Hudson's Bay Company, they failed to have full control and use of the land; this transfer solely provided sovereignty over the area.

One of the conditions to ensure British Columbia would join Confederation at the time was the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway to connect it to the rest of the nation. This major infrastructure project would have to go through the interior of the newly acquired land and through First Nation territory. Canadian law, as set out in the Royal Proclamation, recognized that the First Nations who inhabited these lands prior to European contact had title to the land. In order to satisfy British Columbia's request and the growing need for land by eastern settlers and new immigrants, treaties had to be created with the First Nations in the interior.

Similarly, the later treaties of the turn of the century were not conducted until the land was useful for government purposes. When gold was discovered in the Klondike in the 1890s, Treaty 8 was established in the hopes of quelling tensions and conflicts between First Nations of the northern reaches and miners and traders. Despite the fact that First Nations of the Mackenzie River Valley were in economic need well before the 1920s, it was not until an abundance of oil was found that treaties needed to be implemented. The Government of Canada lobbied for treaties in the north only when potential development could be supported in the region. For political and economic reasoning, the Government of Canada hastily put treaties into place without regards to First Nation well-being.

First Nations

With Treaties 1–7, there was some resistance from members of the First Nations to the treaty process and growing anxiety that it would allow a flood of settlers, but many saw it as a way to secure much needed assistance. The First Nations at this time were suffering due to the changing dynamics of the west including disease, famine, and conflict. First Nations people were being decimated by disease, specifically smallpox, and tuberculosis which had catastrophic ramifications for several groups. Tsuu T'ina for example were decimated by Old World disease. Their population fell from several thousand to only 300 to 400 remaining within the 1800s. They began to suffer from famine due to the near extinction of the buffalo. Active participation in selling pemmican and hide in the fur trade, in addition to hunting for personal sustenance, meant that those living on the plains lacked a vital food source to maintain their livelihood. They were eager to receive food aid and other assistance from the government, which they believed would be offered following the implementation of treaties. Some First Nation groups also sought to ensure some form of education would be provided to them through the implementation of the treaties. Education was crucial to the First Nations because their cultural way of life was diminishing around them quite rapidly. They believed that the promise of education would not only help curb the loss of culture but also ensure their children's future success in a new developed West. In the northern regions of this land that was not covered by any treaty, the First Nations were suffering from similar issues, but had to continue to lobby the Canadian government for years before treaties were negotiated. A focus on materials needed for survival was placed when they did finally occur.

Language

Unlike previous treaties, which included both First Nations and European tradition, the numbered treaties were conducted in a purely British diplomatic manner. First Nations were given translators, either of European or Métis descent, who were to translate what was being said during the discussions. What can be seen here is a significant difference between the written documents used by government officials of the time, and the oral traditions used by the First Nations communities throughout the negotiation process. This reality is proven through diaries like those of the Indian commissioner, Duncan Campbell Scott, who wrote a detailed account of negotiating Treaty 9 through Treaty 11. There are also claims from First Nations people that Alexander Morris failed to mention the surrender clause in the treaty text at the negotiations for Treaty 6, leading to miscommunication between the two groups. Evidence can also be found amongst the few written documents of the time by First Nations chiefs; during Treaty 3 negotiations, Chief Powasson took detailed notes during the negotiations, which shows the differences in understanding of what was being offered during the talks because of the language barrier.

The use of specific wording during the negotiations and within the treaties are also points of contention. The language used by the commissioners during the numbered treaties negotiations addressed First Nations tradition by giving them entitlement of children and the Crown was identified as Queen Mother. When the commissioner recognized First Nations peoples as children and the Crown as Queen Mother it ensured the First Nations people were to always to be protected from danger by their parents and enjoy their freedom. As the numbered treaties negotiations came to an end, the language use was significant to First Nations people. To seal the numbered treaties references to the natural world like, "You will always be cared for, all the time, as long as the sun walks" was used to appeal to the First Nations people.

These treaty presentation copies are held in the Bruce Peel Special Collections at University of Alberta Library. Each is printed on parchment with text in black and red and a blue and red border.

List

In the table below is information about each numbered treaty including its signing date, its location, the major signers, those affected, and a brief summary of what each group received following the agreement.

Perspectives

Government

The Crown's intentions were based upon expansion and transition. The treaties allowed the fur trading territory to house a new settler society. As stated in the written terms of the numbered treaties, the Crown desired "peace and goodwill" between First Nations and Her Majesty. In the view of the Crown, treaties were the agreement to trade First Nations territory for "bounty and benevolence". This language makes the First Nations wards of the state and under the government's protection. With these agreements, not only could the Dominion of Canada expand west and northward, but also First Nations could make the transition into a new economy. No longer would First Nations be dependent on a nomadic lifestyle, but rather begin to adapt and integrate into a western settlement society through farming and other entrepreneurial means. To treaty makers, the treaties were essentially a beneficial commercial exchange of both land and identity.

First Nations

Originally, First Nations people felt the treaties had the potential to satisfy the needs of their communities and foster mutual respect and understanding between themselves, the Crown, and all people of Canada. Throughout the signing of the treaties, First Nations believed that their agreement was everlasting, and had many reasons for believing so. For example, during the signing of Treaty 6, a pipe ceremony was conducted before the signing stipulating that nothing but the truth was to be spoken during negotiations.

Effects and violations

Many First Nations groups felt the numbered treaties signed by the Dominion Government and their First Nations chiefs between 1877 and 1921 were rushed and disorganized, limiting to the Indigenous way of life and ultimately had poor results due to unfulfilled promises. Because of the treaties, Canada was seen as an oppressive colonizer at this time, most prominently because the government was more concerned with changing the various First Nations groups, rather than negotiating and collaborating with them. Some of the most prominent effects of the numbered treaties for First Nations groups included limited funds for education, supplies (such as fishing net twine) and minimal allocation of land as First Nations reserves. Upon signing the treaties, Canada obtained control of most aspects of society, especially in schooling, resource extraction, land use and implementation of laws for various social issues (such as alcohol policies).

The Dominion Government also violated many of the treaty terms; in restructuring and mandating education through the creation of residential schools, the government breached the treaty agreements around the question of education. Many First Nations were allocated less reserve lands than they were supposed to according to the Treaty, which resulted in many indigenous land claims based on treaty rights entitlements. Also, First Nations felt the agreements from the numbered treaties were dishonoured when their traditional forms of governance were removed and they became "wards of the state", and when Indian agents began to control the sale of their seeds and livestock. Further restrictions and policies were put in place that controlled First Nations' way of life beyond the original stipulations that were outlined in the numbered treaties.

The American Indian Movement of the 1960s interpreted the treaties as being invalid because they were:

• coerced, accordingly not an agreement between equal partners
• breached many times in their history by the government, notably by the residential school system and resource extraction
• not reached by agreement with the lawful hereditary chiefs, and especially without the involvement of women who by tradition often had final authority

As a result of the agency asserted during treaty negotiations and the active pursuit of treaty revisions by Indigenous leaders like Plains Cree chiefs Pitikwahanapiwiyin (also known as Pound Maker) and Mistahimaskwa (Big Bear), Crown officials acting to establish and maintain the Numbered Treaties had to resort to exploiting environmental conditions such as epidemics and hunger crises as well as utilizing underhanded tactics of arrest and incarceration of leaders in order to gain control over and coerce First Nations who continuously protested the broken promises, attacks on Indigenous autonomy, and theft of land surrounding the Crown's manipulations of agreed upon Treaty terms and language.

Legacy

In 1981, all provinces other than Quebec agreed to a constitutional amendment, which included a reiteration of the rights of the indigenous peoples of Canada as established by former treaties (Chapter 35). Subsequent attempts (Meech Lake Accord, Charlottetown Accord) to try to appease the government of Quebec with certain constitutional provisions, such as the recognition of Quebec as a "distinct society" failed in part due to First Nations opposition. Many aboriginal leaders saw this renegotiation as an opportune time to enshrine the increased rights and powers and recognition that they had been campaigning for since the process of patriating the Canadian constitution began in the 1970s. With Newfoundland and Manitoba as the only provinces yet to sign the Meech Lake Accord, First Nations groups in Manitoba mobilized and managed, with the legislative maneuvering of the then Chief of the Red Sucker Lake First Nation and member of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly Elijah Harper, to delay the ratification of the accord until the legislative session ended for the summer, essentially "killing" the bill to ratify the accord, and with that, the Meech Lake Accord itself. Later, controversy occurred during the 1995 Quebec independence referendum, with differing points of view regarding the rights of provincial and indigenous nations to end or maintain their union with Canada, though it had never been in dispute that First Nations would have to voluntarily agree with their formal treaty partner, the Canadian Crown, to modify the treaties.

In 2010, Canada signed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In 2011 and again in 2012 the United Nations criticized the federal government over Attawapiskat. In 2012 in Daniels v. Canada the Federal Court of Canada ruled that 200,000 off-reserve First Nations people and 400,000 Métis were also "Indians" under s. 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867. These had no formal representation at the Assembly of First Nations, which had hitherto been assumed by the federal government to speak authoritatively on all matters involving "Indians".

In 2012 the Idle No More movement and subsequent hunger strike by Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence brought the assertion that the treaties provide for direct Crown recourse back to public attention. Chief Spence demanded direct Crown attention to the Cabinet's attempt to remove federal government oversight of lands and waters and environmental issues that duplicated provincial oversight of the same. After an agreement by opposition parties was struck to end Chief Spence's hunger strike, the legal analysis that supported the principle of direct Crown recourse was adamantly supported by interim Liberal Party of Canada leader Bob Rae and others. Idle No More itself presented its legal analysis via Pamela Palmater. Her analysis resembled that of Matthew Coon Come, who summarized the Grand Council of the Crees position in a scholarly analysis of the Quebec sovereignty movement and its authority to withdraw from Confederation taking First Nations territory with it. Both his analysis and Palmater's emphasize the need for voluntary renegotiation of treaties between equal partners, and the impossibility of cutting off any avenue of appeal to the Crown.

In 2024, APTN premiered Treaty Road, a documentary series about the treaties and their impact on Canada's indigenous peoples.