ssion of
100,000 square miles of territory, covering the Lake Winnipeg region,
etc., after which the Great Treaty (No.6), at Forts Carlton and
Pitt, in 1876, covering almost all the country drained by the two
Saskatchewans, was partly effected by Mr. Morris and his associates,
the recalcitrants being afterwards induced by Mr. Laird to adhere
to the treaty, with the exception of the notorious Big Bear, the
insurgent chief who figured so prominently in the Rebellion of 1885.
The final treaty, or No. 7, made with the Assiniboines and Blackfeet,
the most powerful and predatory of all our Plain Indians, was
concluded by Mr. Laird and the late Lieut.-Colonel McLeod in 1877.
By this last treaty had now been ceded the whole country from Lake
Winnipeg to the Rocky Mountains, and from the international boundary
to the District of Athabasca. But there remained in native hands
still that vast northern anticlinal, which differs almost entirely in
its superficial features from the prairies and plains to the south;
and it was this region, enormous in extent and rich in economic
resources, which, it was decided by Government, should now be placed
by treaty at the disposal of the Canadian people. To this end it was
determined that at Lesser Slave Lake the first conference should be
held, and the initial steps taken towards the cession of the whole
western portion of the unceded territory up to the 60th parallel of
north latitude.

The more immediate motive for treating with the Indians of Athabasca
has been already referred to, viz., the discovery of gold in the
Klondike, and the astonishing rush of miners and prospectors, in
consequence, to the Yukon, not only from the Pacific side, but,
east of the mountains, by way of the Peace and Mackenzie rivers. Up
to that date, excepting to the fur-traders and a few missionaries,
settlers, explorers, geologists and sportsmen, the Peace River
region was practically unknown; certainly as little known to the
people of Ontario, for example, as was the Red River country thirty
years before. It was thought to be a most difficult country to
reach--a _terra incognita_--rude and dangerous, having no allurements
for the average Canadian, whose notions about it, if he had any, were
limited, as usual, to the awe-inspiring legend of "barbarous Indians
and perpetual frost."

There is a lust, however, the unquenchable lust for gold, which
seems to arouse the dullest from their apathy. This is the _primum
m