Treaty Six: A Portrait of Cree Agency

The author argues that current Canadian historiography imagines that, threatened with starvation, First Nations tribes were passive and compliant actors in the process of negotiating the Numbered Treaties of the North-West. With an excellent examination of primary and secondary sources, the author convincingly established that the Cree of the North-West were fully aware of their present and future needs, and not only had plenty of agency, but actually out-bargained the government negotiators. The jurists at every level singled out this paper for praise, noting in particular how well-written and convincing the essay was.