The Great Blackfoot Treaties by Hugh A. Dempsey

ISBN: 978-1-77203-078-5

THE ANCESTRAL TERRITORY of the Blackfoot Nation was an expansive, buffalo-rich land that sustained its people for generations – partly because of the bounty of natural resources prior to the arrival of Europeans and partly through a complex system of diplomatic agreements carved out by the Blackfoot and their neighbours that governed the division of land.

In The Great Blackfoot Treaties, renowned historian Hugh Dempsey traces the evolution of Blackfoot territorial negotiations – beginning with the inter-tribal treaties, then moving on to treaties between the Blackfoot and the United States government, and finally examining the numbered treaties between the Blackfoot and the Canadian government.  Zeroing in on Treaty Seven, signed in 1877, Dempsey examines the motives and ideologies that drove the Blackfoot treaties, the implications of their terms, and the far-reaching effects of their administrative failures.

The Great Blackfoot Treaties challenges several common assumptions about First Nations’ experience with diplomatic negotiations and gives an illuminating and nuanced analysis of this pivotal chapter in Canadian Indigenous history.