6 TREATY 7 NUMBERED TREATIES WITHIN ALBERTA: TREATY 7 Planning your FIRST STEPS learning journey “The Government of Canada and the What are treaties and who are courts understand treaties between the signatories of Treaty 7? the Crown and Aboriginal people to be solemn agreements that set out promises, obligations and benefits for both parties.”1 Edmonton From the perspective of First Nations, treaties TREATY 6 are built on respectful, cooperative and Red Deer nation-to-nation relationships between First North Battleford Nations and the Crown on behalf of present Alberta and future generations. Treaties outline the rights, obligations and benefits of the Kindersley TREATY 7 signing parties to each other. The intention of the Crown was to gain title to the lands Calgary for their own claim. First Nations had other beliefs surrounding the negotiations of the Lethbridge treaty. To the First Nations these treaties are Saskatchewan Medicine Hat about sharing the land and resources and TREATY 4 not extinguishment of title. The intent and TREATY 7 provisions of the treaties do not end. This was acknowledged through a ceremonial and sacred agreement that incorporated the spirit *Note: This map shows the and intent for treaties to last, “as long as the Adapted from AADNC approximate area of treaty land 2 www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/DAM/ as there is no consensus between sun shines, the grass grows and rivers flow.” DAM-INTER-HQ/STAGING/texte-text/ rightsholders and stakeholders htoc_1100100032308_eng.pdf about exact treaty boundaries. Treaty 7 elders There are 11 numbered had provisions for a number treaties across Canada, of agricultural implements; have always with Treaties 4, 6, 7, 8 and however, the Treaty 7 signatories maintained 10 residing in Alberta. The wished to concentrate their First Nations in the territory agricultural efforts on ranching. that what was now known as Alberta With this in mind, the treaty included in the were concerned with the commissioners agreed to reduce alarming spread of diseases, the amount of agricultural written treaty such as smallpox and the implements and seed in did not include decimation of the buffalo exchange for an increased due to overhunting. As a number of cattle, making all that was result, they felt the signing exceptions for some bands who discussed and of the treaty would ensure wanted to focus on farming. the survival of their people. agreed to. Additional benefits are as follows: • Every man, woman and How did Treaty 7 come to be? Treaty 7 Elders and child would receive five Tribal Council, 19965 Treaty 7 was signed on September dollars annually. 22, 1877, at Blackfoot Crossing3 • Salaries would be paid for between the Crown and five teachers to instruct bands in southern Alberta: the the children. Kainai (Blood), Siksika (Blackfoot), • Each chief and council- Piikani (Peigan), Nakoda (Stoney) lor would get ten axes, and Tsuu T’ina (Sarcee). From the five handsaws, five au- First Nations’ perspective, Treaty 7 gers, one grindstone, and files and whetstones.7 signatories understood the treaty to be a peaceful agreement of In exchange, the Blackfoot, sharing of land and resources. Blood, Peigan, Sarcee and Stoney To the Crown, however, the First Nations were expected to treaty included surrendering “cede, release, surrender, and traditional lands replaced with yield up to the Government of small parcels of reservation land. Canada” all rights, titles and During this time, major changes privileges to their hunting were happening, such as the grounds. They also had to disappearance of the buffalo, promise to live at peace with disease, settlement and building other “Indians, Métis, and of the railway to the west coast.4 whites, and to obey the Queen’s law.”8 It is worth noting that Treaty 7 Indian reservation GLENBOW ARCHIVES NA-13-1 What obligations, rights and benefits are land was and remains to this Blackfoot chiefs, 1884. Front row, included in Treaty 7? day Crown land. Treaty First L–R: Crowfoot, Sitting on an Eagle Nations cannot buy, sell or Tail, Three Bulls. Back row, L–R: Treaty 76 differs from other donate reserve land as the legal Jean L’Heureux, Red Crow, Numbered Treaties. The title remains with the Crown.9 Sergeant W Piercy. previously signed treaties Walking Together: Education for Reconciliation WHO ARE THE PEOPLE meaning “real people,” or Siksikaitsitapi, meaning OF TREATY 7 IN “Blackfoot-speaking real people.” SOUTHERN ALBERTA? Each Blackfoot Nation is a distinct NEXT STEPS group with its own Blackfoot At the Treaty 7 signing, the language dialect, traditions, »»» government attempted to assign stories, ceremonies and history. Treaties are the basic building one large reservation to two of 12 blocks of the relationship the three Blackfoot-speaking Kainai (Blood) between First Nations tribes and the Tsuu T’ina. Population: 12,500 members and the rest of Canada. However, only Siksika remained Language: Blackfoot at the originally assigned reserve Member of Blackfoot Confederacy —Office of the Treaty Commissioner, location. Kainai, who were to Piikani (Peigan)13 Saskatchewan have shared a reservation with Population: 3,600 members Reconciliation is about Siksika and Tsuu T’ina, chose a Language: Blackfoot understanding the past and reserve close to their traditional Member of Blackfoot Confederacy working together to build wintering grounds and the a new future. “We are all Siksika (Blackfoot)14 sacred Mookawansin (Belly treaty people” means that Population: 6,000 members Buttes) and Ninastako (Chief we all have rights and Language: Blackfoot Mountain). Tsuu T’ina moved obligations with respect to Member of Blackfoot Confederacy west and settled close to Fort this land and each other. Calgary (now the city of Calgary). Tsuu T’ina (Sarcee)15 Many schools are on Piikani chose their traditional their journey towards Today the Tsuu T’ina reserve area close to the Porcupine understanding that “We are adjoins the southwestern city Hills, between what is now all treaty people” and choose limits of Calgary and has about Pincher Creek and Fort Macleod, to acknowledge the treaty 2,500 members. Tsuu T’ina is the as the site of their reserve.10 territory on which they reside. term used by the Athabaskan Also, schools are fostering The Blackfoot Confederacy (Dene) meaning “many people.” and developing relationships Tsuu T’ina people strongly believe with Indigenous people and Blackfoot traditional territory that education is a universal right communities, which is an stretched from the North that fosters the well-being of the essential component on the Saskatchewan River in Alberta individual and the community.16 path towards reconciliation. and Saskatchewan, to the Yellowstone River in the state of Stoney-Nakoda17 Montana, from the Continental Stoney-Nakoda Nation has a Divide in the west, to the Great combined population of 5,500 Sand Hills in the province now members and includes the known as Saskatchewan. The Bearspaw, Chiniquay and Wesley creation of the United States– First Nations. The Stoneys are Canada border split the Piikani the original “people of the into the Amsskaapipiikani in mountains” known in their Montana and the Apatohsipiikani Nakoda language as the Iyarhe in southern Alberta.11 Today, Nakoda. The Stoney people are the member Nations of the Blackfoot only Indigenous people in Canada Confederacy include Kainai, that, after signing a treaty, Piikani, Siksika and the Blackfeet were assigned a single land in the state of Montana. allocation for three individual People of the Blackfoot Nations groups. Today, they are known refer to themselves as Niitsitapi, as the Iyethka, “pure people.”18 Stepping Stones | 6 | TREATY 7 Continuing Your NOTES 1. Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), “Treaties with Aboriginal People in Learning Journey Canada,” www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100032291/1100100032292 (accessed October 17, 2017). What does the phrase, “We are 2. Alexander Morris, The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories: Including the Negotiations on Which They Were Based, and Other Information Relating all treaty people” mean? Do all Thereto (Toronto: Willing & Williamson, 1880). people of Treaty 7 benefit equally? 3. For more information go to www.blackfootcrossing.ca/. How do differing world views 4. Hugh H Dempsey, “Treaty Research Report—Treaty Seven (1877)” (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada [INAC], 1987), www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100028789/1100100028791 impact the interpretation of treaty (accessed October 17, 2017). provisions in modern times? 5. Treaty 7 Elders and Tribal Council with Walter Hildebrandt, Dorothy First Rider and Sarah Carter, The True Spirit and Original Intent of Treaty 7 (Kingston, Ont: McGill-Queens University Press, 1996), 330. 6. INAC, “Treaty Texts—Treaty and Supplementary Treaty No 7,” www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/ 1100100028793/1100100028803 (accessed October 17, 2017). 7. INAC, “The Numbered Treaties (1871–1921),” www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1360948213124/ 1360948312708 (accessed October 17, 2017). 8. Hugh H Dempsey, “Treaty Research Report—Treaty Seven (1877)” (Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada [INAC], 1987), www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100028789/1100100028791 (accessed October 17, 2017). 9. INAC, “Land Management,” “Reserve Land” www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/ eng/1100100034737/1100100034738 (accessed October 17, 2017). 10. Alberta Teachers’ Association, Education Is Our Buffalo, www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollection Documents/ATA/Publications/Human-Rights-Issues/Education%20is%20Our%20Buffalo%20 (PD-80-7).pdf (accessed October 17, 2017). 11. Glenbow Museum, “Niitsitapiisini Teacher Toolkit,” www.glenbow.org/blackfoot/ teacher_toolkit/english/culture/socialOrganization.html (accessed October 17, 2017). HALI HEAVY SHIELD 12. For more information go to http://bloodtribe.org/. The big rock near Okotoks is the 13. For more information go to http://piikanination.wixsite.com/piikanination. Okotoks Erratic19 and was formed from beds of silt, sand and pebbles deposited 14. For more information go to http://siksikanation.com/wp/. over 520 million years ago.