Treaty No. 9 is an agreement first signed in 1905-1906 between Anishinaabe and OmushkegowukCree communities and the Crown, which includes both the government of Canada and the province of Ontario. It is commonly known as the "James Bay Treaty," since the eastern edge of the treaty territory is the shore of James Bay in northern Ontario, Canada. By the early 1900s, both federal and provincial governments were interested in taking control of lands around the Hudson and James Bay watersheds in northern Ontario - traditionally home to Cree, Oji-Cree, and Ojibway peoples. After nearly a year of delay from Ontario, in May 1905 both governments began negotiating in the terms of the treaty’s written document. Although ratification of the treaty required the agreement of Indigenous peoples living in the territory, none of the Omushkegowuk and the Anishinaabe communities expected to sign were involved in creating the terms of the written document, nor were the terms permitted to change during the treaty expedition. One First Nations community in the bordering Abitibi region of northwestern Quebec is included in this treaty. Further adhesions involving Ojibway and Swampy Cree communities were signed in 1929 and 1937.
Timeline
29 June 1905: Duncan C. Scott and Samuel Stewart are appointed as treaty commissioners by the Government of Canada. Daniel G. MacMartin is appointed as commissioner by the province of Ontario. They would jointly conduct signing ceremonies with First Nations communities on a set route through the proposed treaty territory.
3 July 1905: Agreement between province of Ontario and the federal Canadian government in support of Treaty 9.
1995: Diaries kept by Daniel G. MacMartin, treaty commissioner for the Government of Ontario when the agreement was signed in 1905, are discovered as mislabelled by researchers at Queen's University Archives.
The personal diaries of Daniel G. MacMartin, treaty commissioner for the Government of Ontario, written more than 100 years ago but rediscovered by historians at Queen's University Archives, supported oral histories passed down by Indigenous Elders that the agreements spoken by commissioners at the treaty signings did not reflect the written document. The unearthing of this additional primary source evidence triggered a legal challenge for mining access on First Nations land. MacMartin's diary suggested "First Nation leaders may have been misled by government negotiators as they were signing Treaty No. 9, says Murray Klippenstein, legal representative for Mushkegowuk Council."
