Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

Treaty 7 is an agreement between the Canadian government and several, mainly Blackfoot, First Nation band governments in what is today Southern Alberta. The idea of developing treaties for Blackfoot lands was suggested to Blackfoot Chief Crowfoot in 1875. Negotiations were concluded two years later and on September 22, 1877, the agreement was signed at the present-day Siksika Nation reserve, east of Calgary. Chief Crowfoot was one of the signatories to Treaty 7. Another signing of this treaty occurred December 4, 1877 to accommodate other Blackfoot leaders who were not present at the primary September 1877 signing. The Canadian government wanted the treaty to allow them to build the railroad across Canada, but the implications for the Indigenous people after the signing of Treaty 7 were mainly suffering and hardship. The buffalo disappeared rapidly and the promised support from Canada’s government to help transition the First Nations bands into an agricultural lifestyle did largely not happen. The speaker wil