What were the reasons for wanting a Treaty relationship?

The Crown wanted to establish a relationship with First Nations because they wanted access to the land and resources of western and northern Canada. The western prairies were a large part of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's 'National Policy', which envisioned the west as an agricultural producing region full of European immigrants. Macdonald's government also needed to complete a railway from Ontario to British Columbia in order to ensure that B.C. would remain in Confederation. The Crown was also afraid of the expansionist tendencies of the United States, who was looking northwards to expand its borders. If Canada did not settle the land in the west, it was conceivable that the Americans would. Canada and the First Nations also wanted to avoid the same type of Indian Wars that were occurring in the United States as the cost had been great, both financially and in lives lost.

First Nations had differing reasons for wanting a Treaty relationship with the Crown. During the 1870s, First Nations were going through a period of transition. Diseases, such as small pox, were wiping out large numbers of First Nations people. The decline of the buffalo, the Plains First Nations main source of food, was creating starvation conditions in First Nations communities. The decline of the fur trade was also affecting the livelihood of First Nations in northern areas. With their traditional way of life slowly disappearing, First Nations saw the Treaties as a bridge to the future and a way to provide for their future generations.

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