If you read only the federal government documents on treaties, you might get the sense that Indians were to be feared and needed to be controlled, that it was because of the good graces and charity of the British Crown and settlers that First Nations would be allowed to keep existing on the lands reserved for them. However, when you talk to Elders and other knowledge keepers about that time, you learn that when the then Chiefs signed the documents, they had a different understanding of the treaties. They considered the process sacred — that the agreements were made between three parties: the Creator, settlers and themselves. You would also understand that ceding land was not a concept that the original people held, because they felt — and continue to feel — the land ultimately belongs to the Creator, they were of the land, and therefore they couldn’t possibly give it away.

If you know First Nations peoples and the views they have about family, you would see that the concept of sharing, caring and protecting people — and the territory — was and is extremely important to them. By signing the treaty, they were helping the settlers who may not have survived the elements without them. 

To this day, opinions vary on how treaty agreements were reached and how they can be interpreted or implemented. The difference in the benefits of the agreements for each side of signatories is as vast and wide as the prairie sky.