The Threat of Starvation Bends Native People to Edgar Dewdney's Will

Edgar Dewdney, who served as Indian commissioner for Manitoba and the North-West Territories from 1879 to 1888, had no qualms about being ruthless. He used the threat of starvation to bend Native people to his will. When he took office, the commissioner faced two immediate problems. Many Plains Cree resented the government's slow pace in implementing treaties 1, 2, 4, and 6. Those who had signed the treaties were unhappy because federal officials had delivered so few of the promised livestock and little of the farming equipment; they had not surveyed most of the reserves; and they had taken no steps to preserve the few remaining buffalo. Some of the most influential Plains Indian leaders refused to join Treaty 4 or 5 unless they could obtain improvements in the terms.

--Arthur J. Ray, An Illustrated History of Canada's Native People: I Have Lived Here Since the World Began, 4th ed. (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2016), 215-216.