22 IJSTTEODUCTIOlSr. 



Treaty ISTo. 5 followed, with the cession of 100,000 square 

 miles of territory, covering the Lake Winnipeg region, etc., 

 after which the Great Treaty (ISTo. 6), at Forts Carlton and 

 Pitt, in 1876, covering almost all the country drained by 

 the two Saskatchewans, was partly effected by Mr. Morris 

 and his associates, the recalcitrants being afterwards induced 

 by Mr. Laird to adhere to the treaty, with the exception of 

 the notorious Big Bear, the insurgent chief who figured so 

 prominently in the Rebellion of 1885. The .final treaty, or 

 No. 7, made with the Assiniboines and Blackfeet, the most 

 powerful and predatory of all our Plain Indians, was con- 

 cluded by Mr. Laird and the late Lieut.-Oolonel McLeod in 

 1877. By this last treaty had now been ceded the whole 

 country from Lake Winnipeg to the Kocky Mountains, and 

 from the international boundary to the District of Atha- 

 basca. But there remained in native hands still that vast 

 northern anticlinal, which differs almost entirely in its super- 

 ficial features from the prairies and plains to the south; and 

 it was this region, enormous in extent and rich in economic 

 resources, which, it was decided by Government, should now 

 be placed by treaty at the disposal of the Canadian people. 

 To this end it was determined that at Lesser Slave Lake the 

 first conference should be held, and the initial steps taken 

 towards the cession of the whole western portion of the 

 unceded territory up to the 60th parallel of north latitude. 



The more immediate motive for treating with the Indians 

 of Athabasca has been already referred to, viz., the discovery 

 of gold in the Klondike, and the astonishing rush of miners 

 and prospectors, in consequence, to the Yukon, not only from 

 the Pacific side, but, east of the mountains, by way of the 

 Peace and Mackenzie rivers. Up to that date, excepting to 

 the fur-traders and a few missionaries, settlers, explorers, 

 geologists and sportsmen, the Peace River region was practi- 

 cally unknovsm; certainly as little known to the people' of 

 Ontario, for example, as was the Red River country thirty 



