[MUSIC] Desperate to provide for current and future generations, Indigenous leaders accepted the government's affirmations of their right to hunt and fish within their traditional territories. After Big Bear signed on the Treaty Six in 1882, the remaining chiefs followed and signed adhesions at Montreal Lake and Lac La Ronge. Treaty Six held many of the provisions found in Treaties One through Five, including 640 acres per family of five for reserve land. It also provided for a medicine chest to be maintained by the Indian agent for use of the band, ensuring assistance would be provided during famine and disease. An additional $1,000 per year for three years was also promised to help with the transition to agriculture. Annuities of $5 were also provided for each person, as well as $25 for headmen and chiefs each year, a one time initial sum of $12 per person, and a school for each reserve. In exchange, Indigenous leaders understood that they were granting the Canadian government and its settlers permission to occupy their territories alongside their own communities. As expressed by Jim Kâ-Nîpitêhtêw: [MUSIC] So long as the Sun shall cross the sky, so long as the rivers shall run, so long as the grass shall grow, that is how long these promises I have made to you will last. [MUSIC] For Indigenous peoples, the spirit and intent of these treaties is based on an understanding that the agreements were made between two sovereign nations. During those negotiations, commemorative medals were given to all chiefs and headmen, and the iconography that adorns them holds a great deal of significance. On one side, there's the image of Queen Victoria, and on the other, an image of an Indigenous chief and a British officer shaking hands. The image also portrays flowing waters, the sun, and grass, as a representation of earlier treaty promises. These figures also represent the permanency of many treaties. The image of a hatchet buried in the soil between the feet of the figures indicates peace and sharing of the land. Most importantly, the image reflects the emphasis that First Nations placed on their reciprocal relationship with the land and resonates the importance placed on the relationship of equality. In juxtaposition, the text of the treaties declares that Indigenous signatories, quote, do hereby cede, release, surrender and yield up to the Government of the Dominion of Canada for Her Majesty the Queen and Her successors forever, all their rights, titles and privileges whatsoever, to the lands included within the following limits, end quote. This concept diverges from the Indigenous understanding and speaks to a very different understanding of land stewardship. The understanding held by Treaty Six Indigenous signatories suggested a mutual use and sharing of a land alongside settlers for as long as the treaty relationship lasted, whereas the Government of Canada claimed complete ownership of the land. For Indigenous peoples there could be no surrender of the land, as land was not something they could, or would, give or sign away. Although written records are heavily relied upon, Indigenous peoples call upon oral history to recount the treaty negotiations in great detail. The disagreement in the spirit and intent of the treaties remain a point of contention and discord today in the treaty relationship between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian government. A majority of Treaty Seven signatories elected to focus their efforts on ranching rather than agriculture, and as such requested fewer agricultural supplies in exchange for an increase in the number of allotted cattle. Signed in 1877 with members of the Blackfoot Confederacy in southern Alberta, it includes areas of Saskatchewan added during adhesion. Treaties Eight through Eleven share a number of similarities with those that preceded them. Treaties Eight, Ten and Eleven made allowances for 160 acres for those who choose to live beyond the limits of the reserve. These lands in severalty addressed the significant population that no longer resided in their traditional territories. Treaty Eight was signed in 1899, and includes parts of British Columbia, the northern half of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and parts of the Northwest Territories. Negotiated by Deputy Superintendent General Duncan Campbell Scott, Treaties Nine through Eleven were finalized between 1905 and 1923. Treaty Nine covers most of northern Ontario and the very northeast tip of Manitoba. Treaty Ten encompasses those portions of northern Saskatchewan not previously ceded, as well as a small portion of east-central Alberta. Treaty Eleven includes a large area of the Northwest Territories, as well as a small section of both the Yukon and Nunavut Territories. The finalization of these Treaties were key to the governments aim of extracting valuable, natural resources from Canada's North. [MUSIC]
