Sub-series consists of records of treaties and surrenders. Vol. 1818 contains a parchment copy of IT (Indian Treaty) 296 (known also as Western Treaty 6 and, in the Department of Indian Affairs numbering system, as Treaty 157A), signed near Fort Carlton by the Cree Indians, August 23-28, 1876. Volumes 1840-1853 and 11964 contain the main body of federal government Treaties, land surrenders and adhesions, amendments and other associated documents pertaining to Indian land which are in Library and Archives Canada custody. By the late 19th century, the Department of Indian Affairs had amassed at its headquarters office an extensive collection of original Indian Treaty documents. Drawn from various sources over many years, these records were maintained together as a collection by the Department. The first instalment of the documents now found in this sub-series in volumes 1840-1853 and 11964 was transferred to National Archives custody in 1907. Additional records were transferred subsequently over a number of years.
The federal government published transcribed texts of the majority, but not all, of these documents in a three-volume set titled "Indian Treaties and Surrenders". The first two volumes appeared in 1891; the third was published in 1912. Prior to this publication, the Department of Indian Affairs had devised a numbering system for the individual documents. Documents numbered 1-138 according to this system were published as volume I of "Indian Treaties and Surrenders". Documents 140-280 1/2 were published as volume II, and documents 281-483 were published as volume III. The texts of documents numbered higher than 483 were not published.
The existence of this numbering system, designed by the creating/maintaining agency while the records were still in its custody, and the wide availability to the public through publication of the texts of the documents described according to this numbering system, can create an element of confusion for users of the original and microfilm copies of the records now in Library and Archives Canada custody. Although the numbers assigned to the documents by the Department of Indian Affairs are retained in Library and Archives Canada finding aids as a secondary means of identification, the primary means by which individual documents are controlled and described at Library and Archives Canada is by their volume number (volumes 1840-1853 and 11964) and, more importantly, by their IT (Indian Treaty) number. The IT number system was devised by the National Archives in the early 1990s at the time at which the records were re-arranged for microfilming. There is not a 1:1 relationship between what the Library and Archives Canada finding aids refer to as the "Indian Affairs number" (i.e., the number which describes the document in the publication "Indian Treaties and Surrenders") assigned to a document and the "IT number" assigned by the National Archives. This is explained by the fact that the "document" identified by a single number by the Department of Indian Affairs was, in some cases, made up of a number of individual documents. Where one number only was assigned by the Department of Indian Affairs, multiple IT numbers have been assigned by the National Archives for the various component parts of the "document". For example, the treaty of 17 May 1790 between the Crown and the Chippawa, Ottawa, Pottowatomy and Huron Nations at Detroit is identified in the Department of Indian Affairs numbering system as treaty number 2. However, the record is actually comprised of three documents - a manuscript original, a manuscript contemporary copy, and a manuscript true copy prepared at a later date. In the National Archives numbering system, these three records are identified as IT 2, IT 3, and IT 4. Description of the records is further complicated by the existence of a third nomenclature for certain of the treaty records. For example, those records commonly referred to as the "Western Treaties" numbered 1-11, have been assigned numbers in both the Department of Indian Affairs and the National Archives numbering systems. A user wishing to consult "Western Treaty 7" (that made with the Blackfoot, Blood, Peigan, Sarcee, and Stoney Nations, 22 September 1877), would find this record identified as Treaty # 163 in the Department of Indian Affairs numbering system (and, hence, identified as such in the publication "Indian Treaties and Surrenders"). However, the same record is actually comprised of two component records, a manuscript original and a 4 December 1877 adhesion to Treaty, signed by Chief Three Bulls, and is described according to the National Archives numbering system as, respectively IT 310 and IT 311.
Sub-series also consists of medals commemorating the signature of various treaties or other related events. These medals include, but are not limited to, Treaty 1 & 2 medal (1871); Treaty 1 & 2 replacement medal (1872); Treaty 3,4,5,6,7,& 8 medal (1873-1877, 1899); Treaty 10 medals (1906-1907); Treaty 9 badges (1910); Treaty 11 medal (1921-1922); Treaty 3 medal issued to Chief Muskeekee Eyineer (ca. 1873); medals commemorating the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York Royal Visit in Calgary (1902).
