Years of hunger and despair that coincided with extermination of the bison and relocation of groups to reserves, exacerbated by inadequate food aid from the dominion government, created ecological conditions in which the disease exploded. Half-hearted relief measures during the famine of 1878-80 and after, which kept plains people in a constant state of hunger, not only undermined the government’s half-baked self-sufficiency initiative but also illustrated the moral and legal failures of the Crown’s treaty commitment to provide assistance in the case of a widespread famine on the plains.