In 1877, at the first council meeting in the new seat of government in Battleford, many of the laws of the previous council of St Laurent were adopted to protect the buffalo,LAC, MG26, A, vol. 104, "Petition des Metis de la rivier Qu'Appelle, 1874" pp. 41996-41999. however these hunting restrictions did not apply to non-Métis indigenous people as per the arrangement of Treaty 6, nor were they an effective means to reduce hunting by and for American markets. According to Gabriel Dumont, the leader of the South Saskatchewan River caravan, bison had become extinct in the region by 1878.SABS, Department of Agriculture (Saskatchewan), Lands Branch Files, Ag II, southwest quarter of section 20 (river-front lots 21 and 22), township 42-1-3, Dumont's Declaration.
