The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories / Including the Negotiations on Which They Were Based, and Other Information Relating Thereto

by Alexander Morris

C. SCOLLEN.

In order to effect a treaty, Lieut.-Gov. Laird, and Lieut.-Col. James F. McLeod, met the Blackfeet, at the Blackfoot crossing, on the Bow River on the 17th day of September, 1877, which day had been selected for the time of meeting. Gov. Laird proceeded from the temporary seat of the Government of the North-West Territories at Swan River, and Col. McLeod from Fort McLeod, the head quarters of the Mounted Police, to the appointed rendezvous.

The Commissioners met the Indians on that day, and after five days of tedious negotiations, the treaty was satisfactorily concluded, and signed by the Chiefs and head men present.

The total number of the Indians, represented at the making of the treaty, and who were paid the gratuity under it, was four thousand three hundred and ninety-two. The terms of the treaty, were substantially the same as those contained in the North-West Angle and Qu'Appelle treaties, except that as some of the bands were disposed to engage in pastoral pursuits, it was arranged to give them cattle instead of agricultural implements. The Minister of the Interior well observes in his report "that the conclusion of this treaty with these warlike and intractable tribes, at a time when the Indian tribes, immediately across the border, were engaged in open hostilities with the United States troops, is certainly a conclusive proof of the just policy of the Government of Canada toward the aboriginal population," and, I add, of the confidence of the Indians in the promises and just dealing of the servants of the British Crown, in Canada, a confidence that can only be kept up by the strictest observance of the stipulations of the treaties.

I now append the interesting despatch of Lieut.-Gov. Laird, giving a detailed account of the negotiation of the treaty, and a report of the speeches of the Commissioners and Indians, extracted from a report in the Globe newspaper, dated October 4th, 1877, which, though not authentic, I believe, gives a general view of what passed during the negotiations.

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
BATTLEFORD, NORTH-WEST TERRITORY.

Sir,--I have the honor to inform you that on the 4th August I received at Swan River your telegram dated on the first of that month.

It notified me that a Commission appointing Lieut.-Col. James F. McLeod, C.M.G., and myself, Commissioners to negotiate a treaty with the Blackfeet and other Indians of the unsurrendered parts of the North-West Territories adjoining the United States boundary, had been forwarded to Fort McLeod.

I immediately made preparations for the journey. These occupied me a week, as arrangements had to be made for the removal of furniture and other property to Battle River, where the Government House for the territories, in course of construction, would probably be ready for occupation on my return from the treaty negotiations. On the 11th August I left Swan River for Fort McLeod, via Battleford, proposing to go from the latter place by Cypress Hills to my destination. I took the Quill Lake trail and came to the telegraph line, about four miles from Big Stone Lake. Thence I followed that line until I came to the trail at the elbow of the North Saskatchewan leading to Battle River. Where the telegraph crosses the South Saskatchewan I found an excellent ferry scow, and a ferryman placed there by the Public Works Department. I arrived at the ferry about noon on the 20th, and though a high wind rendered it difficult to manage the scow, the horses, with the vehicles and their contents, were safely ferried before sunset. On the following evening I reached the Elbow, and the morning thereafter before leaving camp, Inspector Walker, of Battleford, drove up, on his way to Carlton, to arrange for the distribution of certain of the articles intended for the Indians of Treaty Number Six, which had not arrived when he paid the annuities at that post in the early part of the month. Some of the Indians had not dispersed since they received their payments, and interested parties were causing dissatisfaction among them by reporting that the provisions intended for them, while assembled to receive their annuities, having now arrived, should be distributed to them, as well as the agricultural implements and other articles promised.

I advised Inspector Walker to distribute to those Indians still around Carlton their share of the presents, and to give them a small quantity of provisions from the Government supplies, to enable them to proceed without delay to their hunting grounds. I then continued my journey to Battleford, which I reached on Monday, the 24th, at noon. Here I was happy to meet Major Irvine, who had come straight from Fort McLeod, across the Great Plains, to conduct me on my journey, and to inform me that for satisfactory reasons adduced by Crowfoot, the leading chief of the Blackfeet, Lieut.-Col. McLeod, my associate Commissioner, had consented that the meeting of the treaty should be held at the Blackfoot crossing of the Bow River, instead of at Fort McLeod. Major Irvine had reached Battleford only