Treaty 4: The Agreement at Qu'Appelle
Treaty 4: The Agreement at Qu'Appelle
Native Studies 30 | Unit 1: Identity, Worldview, and Rights | Lesson 4.2
Native Studies 30 | Unit 1: Identity, Worldview, and Rights | Lesson 4.2
Learning Goal: I can explain what Treaty 4 is, who signed it, where it was signed, and what both parties understood they were agreeing to. I can describe at least two promises made in Treaty 4 and explain why the treaty is still legally and politically significant today.
Cree, Saulteaux, and Assiniboine Nations signed Treaty 4 on September 15, 1874, at Qu'Appelle Lakes in what is now southern Saskatchewan. The site is now the town of Fort Qu'Appelle, in the Qu'Appelle Valley, the home territory of Muscowpeting, Piapot, Peepeekisis, Standing Buffalo, and Okanese First Nations. Treaty 4 governs the land you live on today.
The federal government drafted the written text of Treaty 4. It recorded a cession of land, with the Nations handing over title to approximately 75,000 square miles of territory in exchange for specific Crown promises:
A reserve for each band at one square mile of land per family of five
Annual payments of five dollars per person, twenty-five for chiefs, fifteen for headmen
Schools on reserves with government-supplied teachers
Agricultural supplies including cattle, tools, and seed for three years after settlement
The right to hunt and fish throughout the ceded territory as long as the land was not required for settlement
The Crown treated Treaty 4 as a land transaction. In the government's reading, the Nations agreed to surrender title to their territory in exchange for specific benefits.
Cree and Saulteaux Elders and leaders, then and since, have described a different agreement. They came to share the land, not transfer it permanently. Cree and Saulteaux legal traditions held no concept of land as a commodity a nation could sell. The treaty, in their understanding, created a relationship of coexistence and mutual responsibility.
Chief Piapot resisted treaty terms he judged unjust and pushed for better conditions for his people. Piapot First Nation, whose members attend FHQ Virtual School, carries his name today.
That gap between understandings has never closed. It drives land disputes, treaty claims, and legal negotiations in this region right now.
The Crown has never fully honoured Treaty 4. Reserves received less land than the treaty specified. Agricultural support ended before communities could establish themselves. The schools the Crown promised became residential schools, built to destroy Indigenous languages and cultures.
Treaty Land Entitlement agreements in Saskatchewan exist because the Crown did not deliver the land it promised in 1874. First Nations continue to negotiate for what the Crown owed them then.
The treaty also creates current obligations. When governments or companies want to develop land or extract resources in Treaty 4 territory, they carry a legal duty to consult the affected First Nations. That duty comes from Treaty 4 itself.
Key Idea: Cree, Saulteaux, and Assiniboine Nations and the Crown signed Treaty 4 in 1874 at Fort Qu'Appelle. The Crown understood it as a land surrender. The Nations understood it as a sharing arrangement. The Crown kept few of its promises. The treaty is a living legal document, and it creates consultation obligations for any government acting on Treaty 4 territory today.
Office of the Treaty Commissioner, Saskatchewan. (2007). Treaty 4. https://www.otc.ca
Cardinal, H. & Hildebrandt, W. (2000). Treaty Elders of Saskatchewan. University of Calgary Press.
Government of Canada. (1874). Treaty No. 4. Library and Archives Canada. https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/aboriginal-heritage/treaties/Pages/treaty-texts.aspx
The Canadian Encyclopedia. (2023). Treaty 4. https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/treaty-4
Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations. (n.d.). Treaties in Saskatchewan. https://www.fsin.com