Colonists in New France recognized that their small settlements were outnumbered by their native neighbours. This lead to policies that were lenient towards the Indians. Alcohol often caused problems. The Indians believed that the alcohol brought forth evil spirits so they weren't responsible for their actions when they were drunk. They did not want alcohol taken away from them which exacerbated problems caused by drinking. So the early French leaders enacted a law that held the person who provided alcohol to the natives responsible for any damages incurred while they drunk. There was a situation where a drunk Indian raped a married woman. Outraged the settlers went to the Indian village and demanded that the rapist be turned over to them so he could be hung. The Chiefs refused to do this. They reasoned that it would be unfair to execute the man because he did not know that his action was a capital offence. But now he knew what the punishment was, so he would be turned over to the settlers if he did it again. Indians captured, owned, sold and traded slaves from other tribes. In the early years the French colonists bought or bartered with their neighbours for their slaves which they used as labourers. As the colony grew and the French explorers travelled into the continent the leaders realized that owning slaves from other tribes would cause animosity with the other tribes. First they banned the use of slaves from neighbouring tribes, then they later banned the trade and usage of all Indian slaves. The French Jesuits sought to convert the natives to Christianity. There are stories of priests preaching the virtues of chastity and monogamy to the indians while the Indians smiled and pointed out the young Christian men leaving their lovers homes.

In the early years the Algonquians were the middle men who controlled the fur trade with their Western neighbours. This control was soon lost when the Iroquois set out on a series of wars designed to completely eradicate the Algonquian people and take control of the western fur trade themselves. While they did manage to kill around 80 percent of the Algonquians and disperse the survivors they did not manage to gain control of the fur trade. Instead Frenchmen went west to trap and trade for furs and lived with the Indians they met. These men were under license and had to pay a duty on their returns to the French government. Some men circumvented these duties by bypassing the French colonies and taking their furs to the Dutch at New Amsterdam. Radisson and Groselliers were French brothers-in-law who obtained a license to go west and trade with the Indians. When they returned to New France they had their furs confiscated because they were in what is now Western Canada for a year and a week, while their license only gave them permission to be away trading and trapping for a year. The end result of this injustice by the French Crown led to the two men travelling to England and becoming the founders of the Hudson's Bay Company.

After the British won control of Canada the fur traders expanded west. They built posts along rivers and lakes, using boats and canoes to transport goods in and furs out. The Indians were generally treated fairly although there were many exceptions while the Northwest and Hudson's Bay Companies were competing for control of the fur trade. Indians who killed the fur traders were hunted down and killed or their fellow tribesmen were made to pay an appropriate price for the life of the dead man. Duncan McGilvray tells us in his journal of an attack on both the Hudson's Bay Company and Northwest Companies posts in Eastern Alberta by Piegan Indians from the Alberta foothills. The Indians attacked them, killing many of the traders then looting and burning their forts. All of their fellow tribesmen were prohibited from trading with them until two years later when the Indians offered peace and paid for the losses and damages they caused earlier. The Piegans realised that they were becoming severely disadvantaged and outgunned as their Eastern neighbours kept buying guns and steel knives from the fur traders.

As the fur trade continued the Hudson's Bay Company strove to earn the respect and trust of their native customers. When Canada became a Confederation in 1867 the Hudson's Bay Company told government about the plight of the Plains Indians who were suffering at the hands of the American traders. After the Cypress Hills massacre the federal government sent captain F.P. Robertson to what is now Alberta to assess the situation and make a report. His report became the basis used by Prime Minister Sir John A MacDonald in his decision to create a national police force.

It was Sir John who created the Northwest Mounted Police and sent them west. Their arrival was welcomed by the Indians and soon the NWMP had earned their trust. This trust in the police and the federal government of Canada led the Indians to sign treaties with the government and give up their rights to their land. Peter Erasmus was a translator hired by the Cree to represent them during the negotiations for Treaty 6. In his memoir Erasmus said that the Chiefs recognized that the Canadian government treated them as equals and prosecuted white men who committed crimes against them. While an Indian's life was considered worthless in the United States and a man who killed an Indian was left free to kill again, the NWMP hunted down those who murdered Indians in Canada and hung them.

When Sitting Bull was being hunted down by the US Calvary he brought his people to Canada seeking safety. As the entire US Calvary was hunting him down, he and his people were met at the border and welcomed into Canada by one member of the Northwest Mounted Police. Sitting Bull was told he was welcome to stay as long as he and his people behaved. And so they did. The Canadian government would not treaty them though, nor would they provide them with food. So when the buffalo died off in Canada, Sitting Bull and his people returned to the United States.

In British Columbia James Douglas, the second governor of the Hudson's Bay Company's colony of Vancouver Island and the first governor of British Columbia was a man of mixed blood. His mother was a mulatto from the West Indies and his father was a British merchant. Douglas's wife Amelia was the daughter of a Scottish Northwest Company fur trader and his Cree wife. Most of Douglas 'S cabinet members were married to Indian women or half-breed daughters of Scottish fur traders. As we look back at our history we will see that the Indians in British Columbia were treated as equals by the government and were punished for crimes the same as white men were.

When the Whitman massacre happened in Oregon territory, American settlers fled to the Hudson's Bay Company Fort seeking shelter from the Cayuse Indians. Those who could not make it to the fort dressed up as British farmers to avoid being slaughtered by the Indians. When Peter Skene Ogden, the Hudson's Bay Company trader in charge of the fort, heard of the massacre he immediately left his post and marched into the Indians camp and negotiated the release of their American hostages. Ogden then offered to act on the American settlers behalf as a negotiator to restore peace with the Indians. Sadly his offer was rejected and the Americans attacked the Indians, starting the Cayuse War.