Negotiating the Numbered Treaties

An Intellectual and Political History of Alexander Morris

Robert J. Talbot

Distributed for Purich Publishing

Negotiating the Numbered Treaties

An Intellectual and Political History of Alexander Morris

Robert J. Talbot

Alexander Morris, Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba and the North West Territories in the 1870s, was the main negotiator of many of the numbered treaties on the prairies and has often been portrayed as a parsimonious agent of the government, bent on taking advantage of First Nations chiefs and councillors. However, author Robert J. Talbot reveals Morris as a man deeply sympathetic to the challenges faced by Canada’s Indigenous peoples as they sought to secure their future in the face of encroaching settlement and the disappearance of the buffalo. Both Morris and the First Nations negotiators viewed the treaties as the basis of a new, reciprocal arrangement, but by the end of his appointment, Morris was seriously at odds with a federal administration that preferred inaction over honouring its treaty promises.

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction

Part I: The Man in the Making

1. Morris’s Place in Canadian Historiography

2. Morris’s Intellectual Development
Politics and Identity
Beliefs and Convictions
Early Perceptions of Indigenous Peoples

Part II: Business and Politics

3. Morris’s Business Career
Land Speculation
Morris’s Legal Career

4. The Politics of Annexation
Developing the Platform
In Office, 1861-1872

5. "Retirement" in the North West

Part III: The Negotiator

6. An Overview of the Numbered Treaties

7. The First Nations and the Treaties
History and Precedents
Understanding the Oral Record
Pragmatic Considerations

8. Morris the Negotiator
Cross-Cultural Understanding
Treaty 3
Treaty 4
Treaty 5
Treaty 6

Part IV: Indian Affairs

9. Alexander Morris and Indian Affairs
Taking on the Role
Problems with Provencher
The Structure of Administration
Morris and the Sioux
Treaties 1 and 2: The "Outside Promises"
Implementing Treaties 3 - 6
Removed from Power

10. Pride and Satisfaction
The Treaties of Canada

Conclusion
List of Abbreviations
References
Bibliography
Treaty 6 - Reproductions of pages 1, 5, 6, and 8
Treaty Map

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