the seventh treaty was signed in september 1877 between the canadian government and the five first nations: the siksika (blackfoot), kainai (blood), piikani (peigan), stoney-nakoda, and tsuut’ina (sarcee). treaty seven was the last of a series of treaties that were signed during the 1870’s. it would be the last treaty signed between the government and the first nations for the next 20 years. this series of treaties during the 1870’s between the canadian government and the first nation people was to determine the division of land. the negotiations of the treaty took place between lieutenant-governor of the north-west territories, david laird and james macleod, commissioner of nwmp who were representing the canadian government. the first nations representatives were largely from the blackfoot confederacy due to their inhabiting the majority of the land being sought after. the first nations' representative was the blackfoot nation who sent crowfoot to make the negotiations on their behalf. the signing of the treaty took place at the blackfoot crossing, a location on their territory. this location was a bit problematic for some of the other nations due to it being quite far from their hunting grounds. the distance factor led to the meeting to discuss the negotiations being pushed back by two days. the treaty commissioners, david laird and james macleod arrived september 16 along with the siksika, stoney-nakoda and tsuut’ina. they all agreed to wait two days for the remaining nations to arrive. on september 19 the negotiations began between the commissioners and the five nations. david laird and james macleod who were representing the canadian government began their side of the negotiations with stating the facts about the decline in the buffalo population and how he proposed to help the indigenous people by introducing new laws to protect the buffalo. the importance of the buffalo to the indigenous people was high due to their dependence on the buffalo for food. david laird proposed new laws to protect the buffalo along with helping and teaching the indigenous people how to learn more about agriculture and ranching that would allow a way to transition from becoming less dependent on the buffalo. david laird stated to the indigenous people that the buffalo would soon be gone and it was important for them to move into agriculture and ranching lifestyles and that the government would support them for doing this. there was also discussion surround annual payments, reserve land and education. the indigenous leaders and their nations were greatly concerned about continuing to be able to hunt and fish across all of the land. crowfoot waited for the arrival of red crow, the leader of the kainai nation and a trusted friend of james macleod before making any decisions with the treaty. once red crow arrived crowfoot explained to him to the best of his abilities about what he believed the treaty to be about. once crowfoot explained to red crow, to the best of his abilities, about the treaty and its terms, the treaty was agreed upon by all the leaders and was signed on september 22, 1877. the treaty involved 130,00 km of land stretching from the rocky mountains to the cypress hills, the red deer river and the us border. the terms of the treaty stated that all nations still maintained the right to hunt on the land and in exchange for giving up the land each nation was to receive “ land equal to 2.59 m2 per family of five and in proportion to that number depending on whether the family was larger or smaller”. along with the exchange of land an immediate payment was given to every man, woman and child and the promise of annual payments of 25 dollars to the nations chief. the government also agreed to pay the salaries of the teachers on the reserves. the last agreement was that each family would be given livestock proportion to their family size. these were the terms agreed upon in exchange for the indigenous people's land. there is very strong evidence to support that the indigenous people did not understand that they were surrendering their land to the government.