While the authorities were thus successfully dealing with the problem of how to provide a future for these wandering Sioux, a grave difficulty presented itself by the incursion into the North-West Territories of a large body of American Sioux (supposed to be under the lead of what is now an historic name, the Sitting Bull), who had fled from the American troops. The
Minister of the Interior, the Hon. David Mills, in 1877, thus alluded to this difficult subject:
"The presence of Sitting Bull and his warriors in Canada is a source of anxiety both to the Government of Canada and the United States. These Indians harbor feelings of fierce hostility towards, and thorough distrust of, the United States people and Government. These feelings may be traced to two principal causes, the dishonesty of Indian agents and the failure of the Federal authorities to protect the Indian reservations from being taken possession of by an adventurous and somewhat lawless white population. The officers of the North-West Mounted Police have been instructed to impress upon Sitting Bull and his warriors the necessity of keeping the peace towards the people of the United States, and there is no reason for supposing they will not heed the warnings which have been given them. It is not, however, desirable to encourage them to remain on Canadian territory, and Col. McLeod has been accordingly instructed to impress them with their probable future hardships after the failure of the buffalo, should they elect to remain in Canada; that the President of the United States and his Cabinet are upright men, willing and anxious to do justice to the Indians; and should they return peacefully they will be properly cared for, and any treaty made with them will be honestly fulfilled. It is desirable that as wards of the United States they should return to that country, upon the Government of which morally devolves the burden and the responsibility of their civilization."
The Sioux have since continued within the borders of Canada, and the Minister of the Interior, Sir John Macdonald, reported in 1878, "That it is only just to them to say, that they have behaved remarkably well ever since they crossed into Canada." Their presence in the North-West Territories has, however, been attended and will be followed, in any event, by serious consequences. The natural food supply of our Canadian
Indians, the Crees, Chippewas, Assiniboines and Blackfeet, of the Plain Country, viz., the buffalo, was rapidly diminishing, and the advent of so large a body of foreign Indians has precipitated its diminution, so that the final extinction of the buffalo is fast drawing near. Already the Government of Canada, in the discharge of a national obligation, which has ever been recognized by all civilized authorities, has been obliged to come to the aid of the Blackfeet and other Indians to avert the danger and suffering from famine. The Sioux are already feeling the hardships of their position, and it will tax the skill and energies of the Government of Canada to provide a remedy. Already, at the instance of the Hon. David Mills, then Minister of the Interior (who visited Washington for the purpose), an effort was made by the American Government to induce the Sioux to return to their homes. Envoys were sent to them from the United States, but they declined to accept the overtures made to them. On the previous occasion of the flight into our territories of the Sioux, the American Government, as has been before recited, after an interval of nearly four years, offered them protection on their return journey from British territory to their homes in the United States and "entire absolution for all past offences". This forms a precedent which should be invoked and would doubtless be accepted by the Sioux if they can be induced to believe in the good faith of the American Government towards them. Every effort should be made to bring about so desirable a result, and the subject will doubtless engage in the future, as it has done in the past, the anxious consideration and wise action of the Canadian Government, who have a right to appeal to the President of the United States and his advisers, to relieve them from the incubus of the presence in our territories of so many of the wards of that Government, and who are without the means or opportunities of obtaining a livelihood for themselves.
CHAPTER XII
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE TREATIES--THE HALF-BREEDS--THE FUTURE OF THE INDIAN TRIBES
Having placed before my readers, a history of the treaties of Canada with the Indian tribes, of Manitoba, the North-West Territories and Kee-wa-tin, I now proceed, in conclusion, to deal with the administration of these treaties and to consider the future of these interesting aboriginal races. I remark in the first place that the provisions of these treaties must be carried out with the utmost good faith and the nicest exactness. The Indians of Canada have, owing to the manner in which they were dealt with for generations by the Hudson's Bay Company, the former rulers of these vast territories, an abiding confidence in the Government of the Queen, or the Great Mother, as they style her. This must not, at all hazards, be shaken. It can be easily and fully maintained. The treaties are all based upon the models of that made at the Stone Fort in 1871 and the one made in 1873 at the north-west angle of the Lake of the Woods with the Chippewa tribes, and these again are based, in many material features, on those made by the Hon. W. B. Robinson with the Chippewas dwelling on the shores of Lakes Huron and Superior in 1860.
These may be summarized thus:
1. A relinquishment, in all the great region from Lake Superior to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, of all their right and title to the lands covered by the treaties, saving certain reservations for their own use, and
2. In return for such relinquishment, permission to the Indians