 In September 1875, with Privy Council authority, Treaty Commissioners Alexander Morris and James McKay embarked on the Hudson's Bay Company steamer to several destinations on Lake Winnipeg to make a treaty whose terms, boundaries and signatories were essentially predetermined.The York boat trade via the Hayes River and York Factory on Hudson Bay having collapsed in competition with trade via the Mississippi River, Indians living at Norway House "whose occupation was gone, owing to supplies being brought in by way of the Red River of the North, desired to migrate to the western shore of Lake Winnipeg ...".Morris tells that upon arriving at Norway House, "We found that there were two distinct bands of Indians, the Christian Indians of Norway House, and the Wood or Pagan Indians of Cross Lake."