The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan | Details

The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan | Details: "after 1879 the Canadian government used increasing hunger among the First Nations to force them on to reserves: only First Nations who were actually settled and working for rations would receive food. The government believed that keeping First Nations in a state of near-starvation would bend them to its will; it also realized that this policy was likely to cause death and illness—as it did. The First Nations interpreted the loss of the buffalo to be the “general famine” covered under the famine clause of Treaty 6, and many observers in the North-West agreed. But the Canadian government insisted that its grudging distribution of rations was a matter of favour, not a treaty obligation. As for the provision of treaty agricultural supplies, it was done in a disorganized, parsimonious and careless manner, with the result that many bands did not receive anything like the quantity or quality they were entitled to under the treaty. The lack of implementation, or at best the very poor implementation, of the provisions of Treaty 6 was the major reason some First Nations individuals participated in the NORTH-WEST RESISTANCE of 1885"