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In the summers of 1905/1906 the Dominion government entered into a treaty with the Cree and Ojibwa of northern Ontario. Known as Treaty Nine it encompassed a vast portion of the province. This treaty could not have been accomplished with the ease that it was without the assistance of the Hudson's Bay Company. Acting in its own self-interest the HBC facilitated the government's attempts to create a treaty. Understanding the HBC's role in the treaty process highlights the continued importance of the Company in northern Canada, and its affect on treaty creation.
Résumé: Au cours des étés 1905 et 1906, le Traité No 9 est négocié entre les Cris et Objiwes du nord de l'Ontario et le gouvernement du Dominion du Canada. Ce traité, qui s'appliquait à une vaste portion de la province de l'Ontario, n'aurait pu être signé aussi rapidement sans l'aide de la Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson, En facilitant les efforts du gouvernement pour arriver à un accord, la Compagnie cherchait en fait surtout à protéger ses propres intérêts. L'étude des négociations aboutissant à la signature de ce traité montre que la Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson jouait toujours un rôle important à cette époque dans le nord du Canada, et cette influence se reflète dans la manière dont sont établis les traités.
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) played an important role in the creation of Treaty Nine as - it sought to secure itself a position in the changing political environment of the north. By the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries the fur trade in , northern Ontario was being disrupted ., by the arrival of railways, prospectors and government surveyors. A treaty offered the Company the chance of securing some protection from a process that could not be stopped. The HBC, through its employees and knowledge of the north, provided Dominion officials with the expertise and assistance they required to complete the negotiation of Treaty Nine. Indeed, without the HBC's assistance Treaty Nine would have been either delayed, or taken far longer to negotiate. In the summers of 1905 and 1906 the Dominion government in Ottawa sent treaty commissioners north of the height of land (the geographical divide that separates rivers and lakes draining into...