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By Las Cuatro Fletchas A.C./Four Arrows
In 1867, when several colonies of British North America united to become a larger colony, the area which is now southern Manitoba was Ojibway Nation territory. Canada had bought the rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, but Queen Victoria had insisted that before settlement could be permitted, Treaties must be signed with the First Nations to uphold the honour of the Crown.
In 1871, several persons were appointed Commissioners by the Governor General to represent the Crown to make Treaties in the North West. Weymss Simpson, a Member of Parliament from Sault Ste. Marie, was head of the team. Privately, he was told to enter into Treaty "upon terms as favourable as possible to the Government." Officially, he was told,
"I have the honour to enclose herewith a Commission under the Great Seal... As soon as you have completed your labours at Fort Frances . . . you will without loss of time proceed to Fort Garry, to confer with the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, and enter upon your duties as sole Commissioner with the Indian Tribes to the West of the Province."
When Simpson arrived in the area to the west of Lake Superior, the Ojibway people refused to sign what was supposed to have been Treaty Nº1. The Commissioners were told to come back the following year. The Treaty team pushed on ahead to the Red River where they were joined by Lieutenant Governor Archibald. He was told there was considerable tension: Chief Yellowquill had told the settlers who had started to move in at Portage la Prairie:
"We always thought & wished to be [friendly to] you, but can now see that you look upon us as children & we feel that you're treating us the same."
The settlers were told to leave until a Treaty was signed. Ojibway leaders posted a notice:
"We this day and for the future or until such a time that a treaty be made with us are determined to stand by what we pass at this Council... When we speak first, we speak softly, but when we speak again, we will speak louder."
The settlers left.
Plans proceeded for the Treaty-making. Lieutenant Governor Archibald reported,
"We had led the Indians to believe that they would be treated within their different localities just as their lands were required, and it is exceedingly desirable (with these people) to keep a promise even in matters where a deviation would imply no breach of faith. We therefore propose to open negotiations at the Lower Fort with the Indians of the Province . . . on Tuesday the 25th instant, and with the Indians of the other Districts at Manitoba Post, a Hudson's Bay Fort at the north end of Lake Manitoba on Thursday, 17th August..."
Archibald was struck by the historic potential of what he was about to do. He wrote on July 22, 1871:
"I look upon the proceedings we are now initiating as important in their bearing upon our relations to the Indians of the whole continent. In fact, the terms we now agree upon will probably shape the arrangements we shall have to make with all the Indians between the Red River and the Rocky Mountains. It will therefore be well to neglect nothing that is within our power to enable us to start fairly with the negotiations.
There were rumours in the settlement that the First Nations were going to demand £30 per capita. News came in that the Riding Mountain Indians were forbidding anyone to settle in their area before the Treaty.
