29 INTRODUCTION.

Treaty No. 5 followed, with the cession of 100,000 square
miles of territory, covering the Lake Winnipeg region, etc.,
after which the Great Treaty (No. 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 recaleitrants 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 Licut.-Colonel MeLeod in
is77. By this last treaty had now been ceded the whole
country from Lake Winnipeg to the Rocky Mountains, and
from the international boundary to the Distriet of Atha-
basca. But there remained in native hands sill 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 wag 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
uneeded territory up to the 60th parallel of north latitude.
Uhe 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 unknown; certainly as little known to the people of
Ontario, for example, as was the Red River eountry thirty