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discovered, and Thompson became recognized as one of the world's greatest land
geographers.
As the great buffalo herds were decimated, the Stoney were affected less than the Plains
Indians, but the effect of white settlers' intrusion on their lifestyle was still apparent. The
missionaries of the day found their teachings had more effect on the mountain people than
on those of the plains, so they intensified their efforts on the Stoney. Rev. John McDou-
gall gained their trust and in 1873 built a small mission church by the Bow River at Mor-
leyville. When the Stoney were presented with Treaty 7 in 1877, they chose to locate their
reserve around the Morleyville church. Abandoning their nomadic lifestyle, they quickly
became adept at farming; unlike the Plains Indians, who relied for their survival on gov-
ernment rations, the Stoney were almost self-sufficient on the reserve.
In 1670, the British government granted the Hudson's Bay Company the right to govern
Rupert's Land, roughly defined by all the land that drained into Hudson Bay. A vast area
of western Canada, including present-day Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Northwest
Territories, and Nunavut, fell under that definition. The land was rich in fur-bearing mam-
mals, which both the British and the French sought to exploit for profit. The Hudson's Bay
Company first built forts around Hudson Bay and encouraged Indians to bring furs to the
posts. But soon, French fur traders based in Montreal began traveling west to secure furs,
forcing their British rivals to do the same. On one such trip, Anthony Henday became the
first white man to view the Canadian Rockies when, on September 11, 1754, he climbed a
ridge above the Red Deer River near present-day Innisfail. Henday returned to the east the
following spring, bringing canoes loaded with furs and providing reports of snowcapped
peaks.
In 1792, Peter Fidler became the first in a long succession of Europeans to actually
enter the mountains. The following year Alexander Mackenzie became the first man to
cross the continent, traveling the Peace and Fraser river watersheds to reach the Pacific
Ocean. Mackenzie's traverse was long and difficult, so subsequent explorers continued to
seek an easier route farther south. In 1807, David Thompson set out from Rocky Mountain
House, traveling up the North Saskatchewan River to Howse Pass, where he descended to
the Columbia River. He established a small trading post near Windermere Lake, but war-
ring Peigan and Kootenay natives forced him to search out an alternate pass to the north.
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