After their names were called over, I gave the head Chiefs of the Blackfeet, Blood, Piegans, and Sarcees their flags and uniforms, and invested them with their medals.
While I was shaking hands with them, acknowledging their Chiefs in the name of the Great Mother, the band played "God Save the Queen." The payments were then immediately begun by the officers of the Mounted Police, one party taking the Blackfeet, and another the Bloods, while a third was detailed to pay the Assiniboines, or Stonies, near their encampment some two miles up the river.
The Commissioners went in the afternoon with the latter party, and before the payments were commenced, presented the Chiefs with their medals, flags and uniforms. The Stonies received us with quite a demonstration. They are a well-behaved body of Indians. The influence of the Christian missionary in their midst is apparent, polygamy being now almost wholly a thing of the past.
On Tuesday I took the adhesion of Bobtail, the Cree Chief, and his band, to Treaty Number Six, and they were paid out of the funds which I had brought with me from Swan River.
On the invitation of the Blackfeet, Blood, and kindred Chiefs, the Commissioners went on Wednesday to the Council tent to receive an address of thanks. A large number of Indians were present. Mr. L'Heureux spoke on their behalf, and expressed their gratitude to the Commissioners generally for the kind manner in which they conducted the negotiations, to me personally for having come so far to meet them, and to Lieut.-Col. McLeod for all that he and the Mounted Police had done for them since their arrival in the country.
To this address the Commissioners feelingly replied, and expressed their confidence that the Indians before them would not regret having agreed to the treaty.
The Cree Chief and his band also waited upon us in the evening at my tent, and through Father Scollen, as interpreter, thanked us for the manner in which we had treated them. The presents sent for the Indians were distributed to each band, after payment. On Wednesday also the Commissioners drove to see the coal seam about five miles east of the Blackfoot crossing. Under the guidance of Mr. French, they found an outcrop of the seam at a coulee some three miles south of the river. The seam there is from three to ten feet in thickness, and the coal, some of which was burned every day in the officers' mess tent at the treaty, is of a very fair quality.
About noon on Friday the payments were completed, and the Commissioners
proceeded to close the accounts. They found that the number of Indians paid, who had accepted the terms of the new treaty was as follows:--
Head Chiefs 10 at $25 $250
Minor Chiefs and Councillors 40 at 15 600
Men, women and children 4,342 at 12 52,104
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Total 4,392 $52,954