Arthur Ray, Jim Miller, and Frank Tough draw on a wide range of documentary sources to provide a rich and complex interpretation of the process that led to these historic agreements. The authors explain how Saskatchewan treaties were shaped by long-standing First Nations' Hudson's Bay Company diplomatic and economic understandings, treaty practices developed in eastern Canada before the 1870s, and the changing economic and political realities of western Canada during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ray, Miller, and Tough also show why these same forces were responsible for creating some of the misunderstandings and disputes that subsequently arose between the First Nations and government officials regarding the interpretation and implementation of the accords. Bounty and Benevolence offers new insights into this crucial dimension of Canadian history, making it of interest to the general reader as well as specialists in the field of First Nations history.

ARTHUR J. RAY is the author of, among other books, Indians and the Fur Trade. He is a professor emeritus of history at the University of British Columbia, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and co-editor of the Canadian Historical Review. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Arthur J. Ray's profile page

Jim Miller's profile page

Frank Tough's profile page

"Its extensive examination of the knowledge which Indian people in Saskatchewan had acquired of early treaty negotiations ... and the utilization of it by Indian leaders in negotiations is unique ... an eye opener." Roger Carter, Native Law Centre, University of Saskatchewan