Pimicikamak - The Winnipeg Treaty

The Winnipeg Treaty

In 1875, the Ministry of the Interior determined to extend the Crown's treaty relations to the peoples east and west but not north of Lake Winnipeg. In September 1875, with Privy Council authority, Treaty Commissioners Alexander Morris and James McKay embarked on the Hudson's Bay Company steamer to several destinations on Lake Winnipeg to make a treaty whose terms, boundaries and signatories were essentially predetermined. The York boat trade via the Hayes River and York Factory on Hudson Bay having collapsed in competition with trade via the Mississippi River, Indians living at Norway House "whose occupation was gone, owing to supplies being brought in by way of the Red River of the North, desired to migrate to the western shore of Lake Winnipeg ...". Morris tells that upon arriving at Norway House, "We found that there were two distinct bands of Indians, the Christian Indians of Norway House, and the Wood or Pagan Indians of Cross Lake." The latter were represented by Tepastenam. Pimicikamak evidently persuaded the Commissioners to include it in Treaty 5, signed on 24 September 1875. Treaty rights are collective, not individual. Under one interpretation of Canadian law, aboriginal peoples may have treaty rights, but these are vested with the entire not community and not the band council.

Read more about this topic:  Pimicikamak

Famous quotes containing the word treaty:

    It is accordance with our determination to refrain from aggression and build up a sentiment and practice among nations more favorable to peace ... that we have incurred the consent of fourteen important nations to the negotiation of a treaty condemning recourse to war, renouncing it as an instrument of national policy.
    Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)