Treaty Payment Days, Circa 1892

Pre-dawn on a summer's day, on the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg: a flotilla of York boats, piled high with boxes, crates and packs, glides softly towards a clearing. A large crowd has gathered in the darkness at the water's edge. The boatmen leap ashore, immediately setting to work to unload their goods into hastily-erected canvas tents. Excitement builds as a makeshift market begins to take shape. As the sun rises, another boat arrives. Out of it steps a stern-faced Indian agent, and an earnest-looking medical doctor. The agent begins his tour of the traders' tents, inspecting stock, checking prices, ordering the removal of scented waters, gaudy jewelry and other frivolous, money-wasting trinkets.

It is treaty-paying season in the Lake Winnipeg district, and government agents, physicians, Hudson's Bay Company officers and assorted pedlars are making their rounds to the Cree and Ojibway First Nations reserves of the region. The process will take all summer - since the treaty agreements of the 1870's, most of the Lake's widespread aboriginal population now lives under the federal authority of the Indian Act. From Norway House at the Lake's northern tip, to Winnipeg in the south, itinerant traders are following the treaty payment trail, capitalizing on the once-a-year infusion of cash into each native community.

Most treaty payment days followed a predictable schedule. As the first order of business, the head of each family was called in front of the Indian agent. Payments were handed out according to the family's size, with individuals typically receiving $5, band councilors $15 and chiefs $25. As the families received their funds (paid in crisp, consecutively-numbered $1 bills sent directly from the Ottawa Mint), traders hovered nearby, waiting to settle outstanding debts. The tent stores then quickly absorbed much of the remaining cash, as band members shopped for much-needed supplies. Throughout the day, the government doctor carried out his duties, often performing radical surgery without the benefit of drugs or anesthesia.

By early evening, business was done and the dancing and festivities could begin. But the tent men could not linger; quickly, they pulled down tents, packed up their goods, and set off in the darkness to brave the unpredictable waters of Lake Winnipeg, en route to the next crowd waiting expectantly by the shore.