for a treaty. In 1874, Lieutenant-Governor Alexander Morris is quoted as saying "the country lying adjacent to Norway House is not adapted to agriculture purposes" and "there is therefore no present necessity for the negotiation of any treaty". The land that Treaty Five covers was needed by the Canadian Government for the railway that was being built, as they believed that Winnipeg was going to be a centre of communication for the prairies. Lake Winnipeg was seen as valuable body of water as it could be used for both transport and trade. The right of way for steamboats on Lake Winnipeg was a priority for the government, making Treaty Five land very important. Timeline First Treaty trip, 1875 Alexander Morris and James McKay were sent as commissioners to negotiate the treaty. On September 20, 1875, Morris and McKay met with Berens River bands at the Wesleyan Mission School House near a trading post along the river. This meeting went smoothly with the only debates being about how the new chiefs were to be elected and how the locations of the reserves were to be chosen. Eventually these issues were resolved and the commissioners received acceptance of the terms. The next day the commissioners went north to discuss the treaty with two bands of Cree, one Christian and one not, called the Wood Band at Norway House by Nelson River. The treaty was signed by the band with little protest and Morris and McKay moved along. Morris and McKay then moved along to the Grand River Rapids on the Saskatchewan River to meet with the Indigenous groups there on September 27, 1875.They gave this group of Indigenous peoples the same explanation of the treaty that they had given the previous groups. The difference in this case is that the band would need to move from the North side of the river to the South side since the area that they were currently occupying was ideal for a transportation development. The band requested 500 dollars to pay for the rebuilding and moving of their entire settlement and were granted this from the commissioners. On their way south along Lake Winnipeg on September 28, Morris and McKay came across a man who said his name was Thickfoot and was a spokesperson for the Jack Head Point peoples as well as the peoples of Big Island, Black Island, Wapand, and other islands in the