Lawrence Vankoughnet was an agent with Canada's Department of Indian Affairs in the late 19th century. Vankoughnet moved quickly up the ranks of the DIA, beginning as a clerk with family connections to prime minister John A. Macdonald. From chief civil servant to deputy superintendent, Lawrence accomplished a lot when he was present. After a 3-month sick leave for a "disordered nervous system", he wasted little time picking up where he left off. Vankoughnet was noted by many historians to be the man who cut costs on the rations the government supplied to the reserves. Despite only visiting the reserves once, where he was reluctant to socialize with the chiefs, Vankoughnet announced his change of policy plans in Battleford shortly afterwards: Indians would only be supplied with rations if they were unable to sustain themselves. Vankoughnet’s goals as deputy superintendent of the DIA was to keep costs to a minimum. He thought that so long as they were supplying reserve peoples with rations, they would remain dependent on the government and therefore a significant burden to their expenditures.
The Department of Indian Affairs and the loss of the buffalo
Relationships between settlers and Indigenous populations shifted drastically around the same time that Plains bison (buffalo) populations disappeared from the plains. With the loss of the buffalo came the loss of the nomadic lifestyles of the indigenous peoples. Their freedom was not something that they could maintain. With the collapse in the 1870s being something that many were not expecting, the government’s ability to supply adequate food was insufficient. Lack of food on reserve land combined with close living conditions and widespread poverty brought on devastating illnesses, including tuberculosis. Many historians viewed TB as the main killer of early reserve populations despite its presence in populations beforehand.
The Metis, who were the offspring of white settlers and Indigenous women, lived less nomadic lives than the Indigenous people. After many fled the Red River settlement, they began setting up permanent settlements throughout the 1870s throughout the northwest.
Many forts were the result of the Catholic mission, like Fort Laurent. Lawrence Clarke, chairman of the Metis Council and fellow developer of Fort Laurent, saw the opportunity to higher eager metis workers and lower standards and wages. Laws and regulations at the Fort meant a secure supply of pemmican as buffalo populations dwindled. The Metis and Indians were hunting the same buffalo and many sensed their demise. As the decline of buffalo increased, so did the Metis and Indigenous' concern for their way of life.
When the Liberal government of Alexander Mackenzie came into power in 1873, they began to hesitantly prepare the west for settlement. With Fort Laurent on the proposed railway route, Lawrence Clarke, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and the federal government authorities sought control over the buffalo and pemmican supply- wanting it out of metis hands.
In the mid 1870s, Lawrence Clarke, Metis council president Gabriel Dumont and the Metis people got into an affair which illegitimated the Fort Laurent law system, bringing the British law into power and the buffalo and pemmican into the hands of the HBC. Two bad years of wheat production caused by an early frost in 1883 and a wet summer in 1884 further aggravated those struggling for food and money on the plains.
The Numbered Treaties: The 1870s
Treaties were decided orally and later finalized in writing. First Nations people saw oral words to be as binding as written words, however, the government saw what was written as the final. Mistranslations often meant that what First Nations agreed to was not what they received. In 1873, the government began changing how they approached the treaty making process. A new chief negotiator and crucial Metis intervention were beneficial for both parties.
In 1875, Treaty Six was successfully negotiated at Fort Carlton with the presence of a police force. Big Bear, a chief of the Cree people, refused to sign- worried about a hanging in the future. He was the first major chief on the Canadian Prairies to not sign. The heart of the fertile belt could now be prepared for settlers.
Cree leaders signed Treaty Six with the understanding that they would receive medical help, protection from famine and assistance converting into an agricultural lifestyle. They did not account for mistranslations in the treaty process, extinction of the bison and economic marginalization.