BIG BEAR--"What we want is that we should hear what will make our hearts glad, and all good peoples' hearts glad. There were plenty things left undone, and it does not look well to leave them so."
GOVERNOR--"I do not know what has been left undone!"
BIG BEAR said he would like to see his people before he acted. "I have told you what I wish, that there be no hanging."
GOVERNOR--"What you ask will not be granted, why are you so anxious about bad men?
"The Queen's law punishes murder with death, and your request cannot be granted."
BIG BEAR--"Then these Chiefs will help us to protect the buffalo, that there may be enough for all. I have heard what has been said, and I am glad we are to be helped; but why do these men not speak?"
The Chief of the Chippewayans said, "We do not speak, because Sweet Grass has spoken for us all. What he says, we all say."
GOVERNOR--"I wish the Bear to tell Short Tail and See-yah-kee-maht, the other Chiefs, what has been done, and that it is for them, as if they had been here. Next year they and their people can join the treaty and they will lose nothing. I wish you to understand fully about two questions, and tell the others. The North-West Council is considering the framing of a law to protect the buffaloes, and when they make it, they will expect the Indians to obey it. The Government will not interfere with the Indian's daily life, they will not bind him. They will only help him to make a living on the reserves, by giving him the means of growing from the soil, his food. The only occasion when help would be given, would be if Providence should send a great famine or pestilence upon the whole Indian people included in the treaty. We only looked at something unforseen and not at hard winters or the hardships of single bands, and this, both you and I, fully understood.
"And now I have done, I am going away. The country is large, another Governor will be sent in my place; I trust you will receive him as you have done me, and give him your confidence. He will live amongst you. Indians of the plains, I bid you farewell. I never expect to see you again, face to face. I rejoice that you listened to me, and when I go back to my home
beyond the great lakes, I will often think of you and will rejoice to hear of your prosperity. I ask God to bless you and your children. Farewell."