Treaties, Lies & Promises

This riveting account of the links between the Red River Resistance and the numbered treaties explores a largely unknown part of Canadian history. An engaging, informative and essential account of how the Red River Resistance and the making of the numbered treaties are intrinsically linked. Through evocative details, journalist Tom Brodbeck brings to life pivotal events such as an armed insurrection; the three-person delegation of negotiators from Rupert's Land going toe-to-toe with Canada's most powerful politicians and First Nations chiefs negotiating their place in Canada under a dark cloud of presumed white, European superiority. In clear and easy-to-read prose, Tom describes the impact of these events on the development of Canada. In the span of just a few years, they laid the groundwork for the settlement of Western Canada, a period heavily influenced by Indigenous people: the Metis (French and English-speaking) and First Nations (including Anishinaabe and Swampy Cree). Together, they negotiated the Manitoba Act and the first of the numbered treaties but the book reveals the challenges Indigenous people faced when confronting the colonial mindset of the federal government.