EARLY 1700’s Firearms Introduced

The Tsááʔ çhé ne dane begin feeling the effects of colonization even before making direct contact with Europeans. In the east, the Cree begin trading with Europeans, acquire firearms and begin making incursions into western territories. As historian Harold Innis summarizes, the Cree would “cross over by the Saskatchewan [River] to Lesser Slave Lake and the Peace River Trail to war on the Beavers and the Indians along the Peace”. Without firearms they are outmatched and pushed westward.