The Great Blackfoot Treaties

By Hugh A. Dempsey

The expansive ancestral territory of the Blackfoot Nation ranged from the North Saskatchewan River in Alberta to the Missouri River in Montana and from the Rocky Mountains east to the Cypress Hills. This buffalo-rich land sustained the Blackfoot for generations until the arrival of whiskey traders, unscrupulous wolfers, smallpox epidemics, and the encroachment of white settlers on traditional hunting grounds. These factors led to widespread poverty and demoralization, forcing the Blackfoot to appeal to the Canadian government for protection.

The result of this appeal was Treaty Seven, one of eleven numbered treaties signed across western Canada between 1871 and 1921. Under its terms, the Blackfoot gave up all of southern Alberta in exchange for reserves based upon five people per square mile. In practice, the treaty rendered the Blackfoot powerless and wholly dependent on the government. The Great Blackfoot Treaties examines the context and enormous impact of Treaty Seven, as well as other treaties affecting the Blackfoot during this time period.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heritage House
• Release date: Sep 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781772030792

Hugh A. Dempsey

Hugh A. Dempsey is a Canadian historian who has written more than 20 books, which focus primarily on the history of the Blackfoot Confederacy. Chief Curator Emeritus of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta, Dempsey was made an honorary chief of the Kainai Blackfoot in 1967 and in 1975 was invested as a member of the Order of Canada. He lives in Calgary, Alberta.

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The Great

BLACKFOOT

TREATIES

HUGH A. DEMPSEY

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

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chapter one

TRIBAL TREATIES

chapter two

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TREATIES

Lame Bull Treaty, 1855

Unratified Treaty, 1865

Unratified Treaty, 1868

chapter three

THE NUMBERED TREATIES

Treaty One and Treaty Two

Treaty Three

Treaty Four and Treaty Five

Treaty Six

chapter four

PRELUDE TO TREATY SEVEN

chapter five

TREATY SEVEN, THE BLACKFOOT TREATY, 1877

chapter six

THE AFTERMATH

chapter seven

ESTABLISHING RESERVES

The Blackfoot Reserve

The Blood Reserve

The Peigan Reserve

The Sarcee Reserve

The Stoney Reserve

chapter eight

UNDERSTANDING TREATY SEVEN

APPENDICES

1. Lame Bull Treaty, 1855

2. U.S. Blackfoot Treaty, November 14, 1865 (unratified)

3. U.S. Blackfoot Treaty, September 1, 1868 (unratified)

4. Treaty Number Seven, 1877—Articles of a Treaty

5. Adhesion to Treaty Number Seven, 1877

6. Treaty with the Blackfoot Tribe, 1883

7. Treaty with the Blood Tribe, 1883

8. Treaty with the Sarcee Tribe, 1883

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Notes

Bibliography

Index

Photo Section

FOREWORD

THIS BOOK HAD ITS BEGINNING at an Indian Association of Alberta meeting in 1951 when, as a reporter for the Edmonton Bulletin, I was left wondering why all the speakers placed such an emphasis on treaties. Obviously they were important, as they were associated with Queen Victoria, but that was almost seventy-five years ago. Surely they were of no particular importance in 1951. Yet as I listened, I came to realize that the treaties were more than just pieces of paper. They were promises upon which the whole future of the Native people ultimately depended. The Natives gave up their rights to their hunting grounds, and in exchange the government took on the responsibility for their future. Buffalo hunters had to be taught how to become farmers or ranchers, and education was needed if their children were to survive under the new order.

A few years later, when I was writing a biography of Crowfoot, I found out just how important Treaty Seven was to him and his followers. Their whole reservation system, their commitment to education, and the very existence of the Blackfoot people depended on the government helping them adjust to a new life. In exchange, the Blackfoot surrendered their lands and, ultimately, their freedom.

Treaty Seven was just one of eleven numbered treaties signed across Canada, from Ontario to Alberta and the Northwest Territories, between 1871 and 1921. The importance of these treaties was not what they said—which wasn’t much—but what they implied. The treaties were in fact pacts made with the government of Canada by which the Native people could ultimately move into Canadian society. The idea behind the treaties, born partly of a British sense of justice, was in theory a good one. It was in its administration that the government failed so badly.

This book looks at all the treaties that affected the Blackfoot, not just Treaty Seven. There were treaties with other Native tribes, treaties arranged by fur traders, and treaties made with the government of the United States. They were all part of a learning experience, so when the Blackfoot assembled at Blackfoot Crossing in 1877 to sign Treaty Seven, treaties were nothing new to them. The impact of that treaty, however, coming at the end of generations of reliance on the buffalo, was unlike anything they had ever experienced.

Many people helped me reach this point of understanding something about treaties, not just Treaty Seven, but all the treaties the Blackfoot made with their enemies and with the Americans. Native informants, some interviewed by me and others by Lucien and Jane Hanks and by Claude Schaeffer, were often people who had actually attended the treaties. They included One Gun, Archie Big Swan, John Cotton, Tom Morning Owl, Chewing Black Bones, Yellow Kidney, Dick Sanderville, Harry Undermouse, Charlie Revais, Buck Running Rabbit, John Drunken Chief, White Headed Chief, Heavy Shield, Many Guns, He Will Be Black, Many Hides, and Crooked Meat Strings. I wish to thank Dr. Donald B. Smith for suggesting the topic, Ian Getty for his assistance with documentation relating to the Stoneys, and Valerie Jobson for sharing information on the Stroney tribe. Thanks, as always, go to Doug Cass, Lindsay Moir, and the entire Glenbow Library and Archives staff for their unfailing support. And, finally, thanks to my wife, Pauline, who found out the hard way what it is like to be married to an author.

HUGH A. DEMPSEY

Alberta Map

INTRODUCTION

THE FOUR TRIBES OF THE Blackfoot nation—Blackfoot or Siksika, Bloods or Kainai, North Peigans or Aputoksi-pikuni, and South Peigans or Amiskapi-pikuni—ranged over a huge territory from the North Saskatchewan River in the north to the Missouri River in the south and from the Rocky Mountains east to the Cypress Hills.1 This was a land rich in buffalo, and the shaggy beast provided meat for food, hides for clothing, and a reason to believe in the Great Spirit. It enabled the Blackfoot to be free, independent, and lords of their grassy domain.

This had been true for as long as the Blackfoot could recall. They believed that this world was created for them by the legendary Napi, and it was theirs to use and to protect. Often confronted by enemies on all sides, they fought to keep their land inviolate and intact. In this they had been successful, fending off the Kootenays to the west, the Crees to the north, the Assiniboines to the east, and the Crows and Shoshonis to the south.

Like other Plains tribes, they were at first a people without horses, moving from place to place on foot, using dogs as their beasts of burden. The Blackfoot travelled only short distances at a time, satisfied as long as they were within sight of the great buffalo herds. In winter they sought shelter in the foothills or along the banks of the Bow, Old Man, Marias, and other rivers that fell within their domain.

A major change in this centuries-old routine occurred sometime between 1700 and 1725 when the Blackfoot first obtained horses. These were descendants of animals brought by the Spanish when they invaded Mexico in the 1500s. Over the years, horses were acquired by southern tribes and gradually migrated north as they were traded or stolen. According to a Peigan elder, a great chief of the Blackfoot named Shaved Head took a war party south to raid one of the mountain tribes and captured the first horses. The Blackfeet called these first horses ‘big dogs,’ he recalled. "Later, because the animals were about the size of an elk, they called them ‘elk dogs.’ And that, of course, is still the name for horses [ponokomitax] in the Blackfoot language."2

Because of the importance of the horse to the life and economy of the Blackfoot, the story of acquiring the first horses took on mystical undertones. In one account, a Peigan dreamed of a lake inhabited by strange large animals and was told to go to there to capture and tame these creatures. On arriving at the site, he saw horses emerging from the lake, but each time he tried to catch one, it got away. The man stayed at the lake, and every morning when the horses emerged, he tried to capture one. Finally, on his fourth try, he caught a small colt, and when it submitted, all the other horses followed it. The man then returned to his village, where he taught the people how to train the horses, ride them, and use them for pulling travois.3

The importance of both the historical and legendary accounts concerning the introduction of the horse to the Blackfoot people is understandable, given the massive changes that took place among the tribes because of the horse. Now they could travel greater distances in large groups. They could hunt the buffalo more easily from the back of a galloping horse. They could carry more possessions as they moved from place to place. The horse also gave an entirely new meaning to their concept of warfare. Previously, conflicts had been based on territorial dominance, but now the horse became a reason for war. Raiding parties became common, and bloodshed increased as young men risked their lives for material wealth and glory. The horse became the primary reason for peace treaties as the Blackfoot raided their enemies and their enemies raided them. As an elder said, the young men made war and the old men made peace.

Hard on the heels of horse culture came the Europeans with their many wondrous goods. These included metal objects such as knives, axes, and kettles that made daily life so much easier, together with beads and cloth for decoration, and tobacco to replace the Natives’ bitter home-grown variety. European goods first came to them through Cree middlemen, who got them from traders on the shores of Hudson Bay and brought them overland to the prairie tribes. The first European traders to deal directly with the Blackfoot tribes were at Manchester House, which opened on the North Saskatchewan River in 1786. A year later, David Thompson spent a winter with the Peigans and established friendly trading relations with them. Over the next few years, fur traders moved farther and farther west, opening Fort Edmonton in 1794 and Rocky Mountain House in 1799. The Blackfoot benefited from the trade goods offered, but because the forts were just beyond their hunting grounds, the traders had little effect on the Natives’ daily lives and customs. This meant that the Blackfoot were able to retain control over their lands and maintain the independence they had experienced in the pre-European era.

Just as the British used the Saskatchewan River system to reach Blackfoot country, the Americans, too, approached them by water, coming up the Missouri River. The first southern visitors were members of the government-sponsored Lewis and Clark expedition, which in 1805 shot and killed a young Peigan. The ensuing hostility against anyone coming from the south was further exacerbated when American hunters and trappers began to encroach on Blackfoot territory. What followed were several years of unrelenting warfare. Finally, in 1831, the American Fur Company began trading at Fort Piegan on the upper waters of the Missouri River. For the next several years, the Blackfoot became keen traders who pitted Americans against the British to get the best prices for their robes, furs, and dried meat.

The Blackfoot population varied over the years, being affected by warfare and by epidemics of smallpox, measles, and scarlet fever. In 1823 it was estimated to be 10,800 persons, increasing to 13,200 by 1832. The tribes were devastated by a smallpox epidemic in 1837 and were down to only 7,200 persons four years later. The numbers increased to 9,226 in 1869, but that autumn another smallpox epidemic swept through the camps and reduced the population to only 6,144 persons. Further disease and starvation reduced the numbers to the 4,155 who were paid at Treaty Seven.

A major change in Blackfoot relations with the whites occurred in 1855 when a treaty was signed with the American government. At this time, the United States was planning to build a railroad across the West, and one of the possible routes lay within Blackfoot territory. In the treaty, the tribes surrendered the major part of Montana in exchange for an exclusive hunting ground, annuity payments, and other benefits. Signing this treaty were fourteen South Peigans, eight Bloods, and four Blackfoot. Although most of the leading Peigan chiefs were there, many Blood and Blackfoot leaders did not attend as they lived and hunted almost exclusively in British territories and had no interest in an American treaty.

For a few years after this event, there was little change in the Blackfoot way of life. They hunted buffalo and traded with the Americans at Fort Benton or with the British at Rocky Mountain House and Fort Edmonton. However, the discovery of gold along the mountains in Montana Territory in 1862 brought a flood of gold seekers, merchants, and ranchers. The influx resulted in a number of clashes between Natives and settlers, reaching such proportions by 1866 that Montanans were referring to the troubles as a Blackfoot war. The unrest finally culminated with an attack by the United States cavalry, under the direction of Major Eugene Baker, upon a peaceful camp of South Peigans. Baker was looking for the village of Mountain Chief, where he expected to find a number of men wanted for murder, but by mistake he attacked the camp of Heavy Runner, killing 173 men, women, and children. This incident, which occurred in January 1870, became known as the Baker massacre.

The attack caused many Blackfoot to flee across the border into Canada, fearing that the Americans had launched a campaign to wipe out the entire nation. They may have been free of American hostility there, but they had not escaped the evils of the frontier. In 1870, Montana traders John Healy and Alfred Hamilton realized they could sell whiskey in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan without fear of being arrested by the authorities. The western Canadian prairies had just been transferred from the British government to Canada, but nothing had been done to enforce law and order. Healy and Hamilton’s trading post, dubbed Fort Whoop-Up, did so well that within a short time other competing posts dotted the region. Such places as Fort Whoop-Up, Standoff, Slideout, and Fort Madison sold a variety of goods, but whiskey was their main stock in trade.

The destruction of the tribes was rapid. In one winter, seventy Bloods were killed in drunken quarrels at just one of the posts. Father Constantine Scollen, an Oblate priest, wrote, The fiery water flowed as freely as the streams running from the Rocky Mountains, and hundreds of the poor Indians fell victim to the white man’s craving for money, some poisoned, some frozen to death whilst in a state of intoxication, and many shot down by American bullets.4

Within a short time the Blackfoot tribes were impoverished and demoralized. Assistance finally came from the Canadian government in 1874 when the newly formed North-West Mounted Police came west and stamped out the illegal traffic. Soon the Blackfoot began to rebuild their shattered lives, replenish their horse herds, and regain their status as lords of the plains.

But just as peace with American authorities in 1855 had resulted in an influx of settlers, so now Canadians began moving into Blackfoot hunting grounds. First, tiny villages rose beside the forts built by the Mounted Police; then a number of small ranches and farms were established nearby. The Blackfoot, alarmed by this action, petitioned the government for help, and in 1877, Treaty No. Seven, or the Blackfoot Treaty, was made. In this agreement the Blackfoot surrendered all of southern Alberta to the Canadian government in exchange for reserves that were set up based on an allocation of one square mile for every five people in a tribe. The treaty also promised them annuity payments and other benefits.

By the time of this treaty, the International Boundary had effectively split the Blackfoot nation in two. The South Peigans, living almost entirely in the United States, settled on their large reservation on Birch and Two Medicine Creeks, while the North Peigans, Blackfoot, and Bloods chose to remain on the Canadian side. After the last of the buffalo herds were destroyed in 1880, the Blackfoot tribes settled on their reserves. From that time on, each tribe developed according to its own unique circumstances.

chapter one

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TRIBAL TREATIES

OVER THE YEARS, THE BLACKFOOT became familiar with treaties, initially made between warring tribes and later negotiated by traders in the hope of securing a more peaceful frontier. One of the earliest records of peacemaking occurred at Manchester House on August 24, 1787, when a trader reported, 1 Tent of Muddy river Indians [Peigans] sent for Tobacco . . . at 4 they arrived their chief business is to make it up between the blood Indians and Crees and Sussew Indians to be at peace and all to come to the Houses as before.1

In the early period of the Blackfoot trade, friendship with the traders was important, with some tribes jealously guarding this relationship and preventing other tribes from coming to trade. In 1795, Duncan M’Gillivray, a trader at Fort George, wrote, It is rumoured that 2 lodges of Gros Ventres are arrived at the Blackfoot Camp, deputed by the rest of that tribe to obtain peace of us and our Allies, that a regular communication to the Fort may be once more established, which they are said to wish for in great eagerness.2 In this instance, the Gros Ventres appear to have been unsuccessful in their quest.

There were various kinds of treaties, perhaps the most common being between bands of two opposing tribes. For example, one or two bands of Blackfoot near the northern edge of their territory might make peace with Cree bands nearby. Yet such a treaty did not necessarily extend to all bands on either side. For example, in 1828, when a treaty was made between the Bloods on one side and the Stoneys and Crees on the other, a fur trader commented, Peace is now firmly established between them and the Stone Indians and a part of the Crees, but, he added, There [is] another Party of Crees which still remain doubtful whether they will consent to Peace and these are the Strongest party.3

On occasions when full tribe-to-tribe treaties were made, the likelihood they would last was much better. In such cases, it was often necessary to send emissaries from band to band, seeking support. One method was for an emissary to go to each of the bands in his own tribe with the proposal for peace. If there was an accord, the bands came together for a grand council to plan a course of action. From there, an emissary was sent to the enemy tribe, carrying sweetgrass and a pipe as signs of peace. This person was known as a peacemaker and had that reputation within his tribe.4 In 1814, when a chief called The Feather died, he was remembered as always being eminently instrumental in preserving peace between the Southward [Cree] Indians and Stone Indians, and those of his own Nation, and their Allies. 5 Similarly, among the Crees, Broken Arm was famous as a peacemaker.

If a peace treaty was deemed desirable, a peacemaker might take desperate measures to contact the enemy. Either alone or in a small party, he might enter enemy territory undetected and make his way to an enemy camp. At night, he would creep to a nearby hill, where he sat, cross-legged, pipe in hand, waiting for dawn. There he was usually seen by a scout on an early morning patrol. This was the point of greatest danger. If the scout had a particular hatred for the enemy tribe, perhaps because of a recent loss within his own family, he might ride down upon the peacemaker and kill him. Usually, however, the scout returned to his camp and told the chief what he had seen. The chief, with a party of warriors, rode to the site, where he invited the peacemaker to his lodge. There the emissary was safe and under the protection of the chief.

In most instances the peacemaker brought a pipe and tobacco. If the idea of a treaty was acceptable, the pipe was smoked and plans made for the tribes to meet. At other times, the peacemaker might bring additional symbolic objects. In the 1870s, for example, a Blackfoot messenger carried a frame of crossed sticks with tobacco, eagle plumes, and sweetgrass tied to its centre.6 On another occasion, the Bloods sent the Crees and Stoneys Tobacco and a little weed and a piece of Buffalo back fat tied together.7

Once they had agreed to a treaty, the peacemaker returned to his tribe, sometimes bringing an enemy emissary with him. At the appointed place for the peace meeting, the two tribes camped a short distance from each other, donning their finest clothes and decorating their horses. A surveyor who witnessed such a treaty in 1871, between the Peigans on one side and the Kootenays and Flatheads on the other, left a detailed description of what happened. He wrote: Down the river the faint barbaric music made by beating Indian drums arose. Presently the head of a column of mounted troops came into sight on the crest of the northern bluff of the river. Banners were flying, drums were sounding, and the Blackfeet warriors were chanting their marching song as they slowly advanced.8

The Peigans set up camp, then rode in procession to the Kootenay/Flathead camp. There, speeches lasting over an hour were made by both sides. Then a pipe was produced. Said the surveyor, It was filled with tobacco, lighted, and passed from hand to hand, each warrior smoking it for an instant. A shout arose on the council ground. Quickly it was answered. Women and children began to talk and laugh.9

Another description of a treaty was provided by two Blackfoot elders, One Gun and Crooked Meat Strings.10 They stated that a Cree peacemaker approached the Blackfoot at a trading post and asked for a treaty. The chief, Many Swans, agreed and sent his wife, Many Buffalo Stones Woman, as his emissary. When asked why a woman was chosen, he said: If we go, it would be taken as a sign of war, but they will let her go into their camp and deliver the message.11 When she arrived at the Cree camp with tobacco, she was invited to the chief’s tipi. Said One Gun, The pipe was passed from the chief to the person who was chosen to smoke and then the person would indicate his satisfaction before taking a puff. The pipe was then returned to the chief and then passed on to the next one who was chosen to smoke. By smoking the gift tobacco, they showed they would make peace.12 The woman then led the Crees to a meeting place. The Cree chief carried a peace sign and presented tobacco to the Blackfoot chief, all the time singing his own medicine song. Crooked Meat Strings stated, "All the accompanying Crees were invited in to the society tipis for feasts. The Blackfoot gave the Crees a peaceful smoke. Then the Blackfoot chiefs went round calling and told the Blackfoot each to come and choose one Cree as tsk.si [friend] to take home to sleep."13

There were some peacemaking attempts that were bound to end in failure. In the autumn of 1823, the Crees and Blackfoot came together for negotiations, but, said a fur trader, after a number of fruitless Speeches on both sides, they parted no better friends than they met.14

It is apparent that although peace treaties frequently occurred, they varied in type and nature. Two hunting parties meeting on the prairie might agree to some sort of truce with little ceremony other than smoking a pipe. At other times the treaty might be filled with pomp and ceremony. But in all cases, only the most optimistic would believe that these were meant to last forever. Rather, they were short-term agreements made to resolve an immediate problem, whether that involved hunting rights, trade relations, or cessation of warfare. A written treaty prepared by fur traders provided no additional guarantees and was no different than the verbal treaties made without white intervention.

As ethnologist John Ewers observed, Older men and chiefs tired of incessant warfare with neighboring tribes and the terrible losses suffered in numerous engagements both large and small. Sometimes they managed to negotiate a peace with like-minded chiefs of an enemy tribe. But their peace usually proved to be only a short breather between hostilities. Their efforts were nullified by their own young men who needed enemy horses and war honors to gain economic and social status.15 Perhaps the situation was best expressed by a Blackfoot who, when asked to sign a treaty, said he agreed with the idea but would not sign until he had killed a few more Crees.

There are numerous accounts in fur trade records of treaties being made, usually for the benefit of the traders. Chiefs were consulted when they came to trade and persuaded that peace would be to their benefit. If the tribe was willing, tobacco would be sent to the enemy tribe, asking for peace. Arrangements were made, either then or later, for the two tribes to come together at the fort for the treaty.

In January 1807, for example, James Bird, chief factor at Fort Edmon-ton, told John Peter Pruden, at Rocky Mountain House, of his efforts to make peace. Until he was successful, however, he cautioned his fellow trader to guard against the Blackfoot who would be visiting him. He wrote,

There is not much reason to apprehend any hostile behaviour from them, but at the same time it is proper that You should be on Your guard when you receive their first visit without betraying however your doubts of their Friendship towards us. Point out to them as forcibly as possible the necessity there is of their being on a friendly footing with the Southward [Cree] Indians for to have a safe & easy Interaction with us and above all that if they value our Friendship & assistance it will always be necessary for them whatever Quarrels may arise among the Indians; to consider us as a party unconcerned. Friends to all, sorry for their dissensions, and at all times willing to do everything in our power to compose them. You may also tell them that through our persuasions the Southward Indians are disposed for Peace and that they may this Spring visit with the Houses without danger.16

Three months later, on April 7, 1807, Bird reported that a peace treaty was being arranged at Fort Edmonton. He stated,

A few Blackfeet arrived, among them was their principal Chief, a man who has long been remarkable for his attachment to white Men & his friendship for the Crees. This Man tells us that his Country Men all wish sincerely for Peace that having been long accustomed to be supplied with Brandy, Tobacco &c these articles are become objects of primary necessity to them & nothing but absolute Danger can prevent their coming to procure them as usual. Conceiving himself to be beloved by the Crees, he says, he has come therefore to ascertain their sentiments towards his Country men in general and if those should prove favourable we may expect to see all the Blackfeet here before the departure of the Canoes. Several Crees are now here, in general they seem to wish for Peace.17

True to their word, bands of Blackfoot and Bloods arrived on May 10, and James Bird reported, Peace is reestablished among the natives.18 This, of course, was important to the traders, as it increased trade and permitted the Blackfoot to visit the fort without fear of attack. There was one moment of misgiving in April 1808 when some Crees came to Fort Edmonton and announced they were going to war against the Blackfoot. We have urged all the reasons in our power to prevent them from breaking the Peace so lately made, said the trader, but have more to hope from their own fears than from all we have been able to say to them on the subject.19

The treaty was again in danger of falling apart during the summer when a Blackfoot was killed outside the gates of the fort. He had been camping in the area for the purpose of cementing more firmly the Peace between them & the Crees.20 The traders expected retaliation, and threats were made, but the peace treaty held.

One of the problems over the years was that the Crees and Assiniboines trading at Fort Carlton, in what is now the central part of Saskatchewan, did not feel bound by any treaties made by their fellow tribesmen at Fort Edmonton. The traders tried to overcome this problem, with varying degrees of success. In the spring of 1819, for example, the trader at Edmonton reported the arrival