In the 1840s, surveyors and excavators found rich deposits of iron, nickel and copper on the shores
of Lake Superior. Access to these minerals meant wealth and local mining companies appealed to the
Crown for support. So the government sent in William J. Robinson and instructed him to extinguish all
the Indian titles to the land.
In 1850, Robinson quickly completed two treaties with the Ojibwe – one near Lake Huron, the other
near Lake Superior. The Robinson Treaties were the forerunners of all treaties in the next century.
They contained provisions for annual payments to Indian bands, freedom to hunt and fish on unused lands,
and they reserved special areas for the use of the Indians alone.