Treaties with the Native Peoples The government’s main goal was to open the North-West Territories and Manitoba to Canadian and European settlement. However, the question of aboriginal title had to be settled first. By 1870, with the exception of the Selkirk settlement, all of the land in the Northwest was under aboriginal control. Between 1874 and 1877, the Canadian government concluded five more treaties with the aboriginal peoples of the prairies. As far as the Natives were concerned, the Canadian government introduce the Indian Act 1876, which placed Native peoples on reserves, and tore Native children away from their kin forcing them to attend residential schools.

The Canadian government sent Indian Commissioner (Department of Indian Affairs) W. Simpson to Manitoba to begin talks with the Cree and Saulteaux peoples. By the end of August 1871, Simpson had concluded Treaties 1 and 2, and the Native peoples had signed away their claim to their traditional homeland.

The government views were ones of aggression, as Simpson outlines below: God intends this land to raise great crops for all his children … White people will come to cultivate it … No power on earth can prevent it. (Simpson quoted in Cranny et. al 179) The Native peoples were hesitant and felt powerless: I have turned this matter in my mind and cannot see … benefit … After I showed you what I meant to keep for a reserve, you continued to make it smaller and smaller … Let the Queen’s subjects go on my land … Let them rob me. (Ay-ee-ta- pe-pe-tung quoted in Cranny et. al 180

Simpson was instructed to offer 160 acres [64.7 hectares] for every family of five. This offer was not acceptable for the Cree or Salteaux. They were able to get farm equipment, supplies, and instruction in farming techniques in return for land. The treaty process continued and the land gained by the government including the date are outline in fig Take a close look at the map with students!!! The reserve lands were tiny. The Canadian government had no intention of living up to its bargain. The Natives of the prairie welcomed the prospect of becoming farmers, as their traditional lifestyle had been endangered due to the extinction of the bison herds.

However, the promised tools, supplies, and animals promised by the government never materialized, and their standard of living began to decline. The Canadian government never wanted the Native peoples to become profitable farmers. They only wanted the Natives to farm enough food for their own use. They didn’t want the Natives to become competition to the white farmers and make money off any surplus wheat. Natives abandoned the idea of farming and become dependant on the government.

The government felt that they were helping out the Natives because the offer of a small amount of land, and the opportunity to become farmers, while not ideal, was better than the alternative—death. It recruited a number of local Catholic missionaries (p. 182) to encourage the Native peoples to sign the treaties. The treaty process and the creation of reserves were ways of destroying a culture.