Treaty Day in the Battlefords to include five-dollar payments
“Her Majesty’s Commissioners shall… pay to each Indian person the sum of $5 per head yearly.”
Those words are contained in Treaty 6, which involved much of central Saskatchewan and Alberta during the decline in buffalo numbers in 1876. That five dollar payment will be handed out Wednesday, May 4 as part of an Urban Treaty Day celebration organized by the Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs (BATC).
“The Crown, back in 1876, signed treaties with our Indian people back then, and they promised several things to us then. Part of that was the Treaty Day,” explained BATC finance controller Elaine Nancy Moosomin, who is organizing the event.
“That was supposed to be for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows, and the rivers flow.” she said, adding the amount is symbolic today.