By the early 1900s, both federal and provincial governments were interested in taking control of lands around the Hudson and James Bay watersheds in northern Ontario, traditionally home to Cree, Oji-Cree, and Ojibwe peoples.

After nearly a year of delay from Ontario,[1] in May 1905 both governments began negotiating the terms of the treaty's written document.

The personal diaries of Daniel G. MacMartin, treaty commissioner for the Government of Ontario, written more than 100 years ago but rediscovered by historians at Queen's University Archives, supported oral histories passed down by Indigenous Elders that the agreements spoken by commissioners at the treaty signings did not reflect the written document.

[3] The unearthing of this additional primary source evidence triggered a legal challenge for mining access on First Nations land.

MacMartin's diary suggested "First Nation leaders may have been misled by government negotiators as they were signing Treaty No.