Chief Shingwauk is one of the signatories of the Treaty. Photo: Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre, Algoma University

A treaty is an agreement between two sovereign nations. Throughout history, several treaties were signed between incoming Europeans and North American Indigenous peoples. The Robinson-Huron Treaty was signed in Sault Ste. Marie in 1850 between Indigenous people in the area and the British Government, creating 17 reserves in Ontario which set land aside for Indigenous peoples to live, hunt, and fish. Garden River (located just east of Sault Ste. Marie) was one of the reserves officially created in 1850, although the Garden River First Nation existed much earlier. As the Chief of the Ojibway people in this area, Chief Shingwauk also signed the U.S. Treaty at Prairie du Chien (1825).