TREATY NUMBER TWO
Articles of a treaty made and concluded this twenty-first day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, between Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, by Her Commissioner, Wemyss M. Simpson, Esquire, of the
one part, and the Chippewa tribe of Indians, inhabitants of the country within the limits hereinafter defined and described by their Chiefs, chosen and named as hereinafter mentioned, of the other part:
Whereas, all the Indians inhabiting the said country have, pursuant to an appointment made by the said Commissioner, been convened at a meeting at Manitoba Post, to deliberate upon certain matters of interest to Her Most Gracious Majesty of the one part, and to the said Indians of the other; and whereas the said Indians have been notified and informed by Her Majesty's said Commissioner, that it is the desire of Her Majesty to open up to settlement and immigration a tract of country bounded and described as hereinafter mentioned, and to obtain the consent thereto of her Indian subjects inhabiting the said tract, and to make a treaty and arrangement with them, so that there may be peace and good will between them and Her Majesty, and that they may know and be assured of what allowance they are to count upon and receive from Her Majesty's bounty and benevolence.
And whereas the Indians of the said tract, duly convened in Council as aforesaid, and being requested by Her Majesty's said Commissioner to name certain Chiefs and head men who should be authorized on their behalf to conduct such negotiations and sign any treaty to be founded thereon, and to become responsible to Her Majesty for the faithful performance by their respective bands of such obligations as shall be assumed by them, the said Indians have thereupon named the following persons for that purpose, that is to say:
For the Swan Creek and Lake Manitoba Indians, Sou-sonse, or Little Long Ears; for the Indians of Fairford and the neighboring localities, Ma-sah-kee-yash, or, He who flies to the bottom, and Richard Woodhouse, whose Indian name is Ke-wee-tah-quun-na-yash, or, He who flies round the feathers; for the Indians of Waterhen River and Crane River and the neighboring localities, François, or, Broken Fingers; and for the Indians of Riding Mountains and Dauphin Lake, and the remainder of the territory hereby ceded, Mekis (the Eagle), or, Giroux. And thereupon, in open Council, the different bands have presented their respective Chiefs to His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba and of the North-West Territory, being present at such Council, and to the said Commissioner, as the Chiefs and head men for the purposes aforesaid of the respective bands of Indians inhabiting the said district hereinafter described; and whereas the said Lieutenant-Governor and the said Commissioner then and there received and acknowledged the persons so presented as Chiefs and head men, for the purpose aforesaid, of the respective bands of Indians inhabiting the said district hereinafter described; and whereas the said Commissioner has proceeded to negotiate a treaty with the said Indians, and the same has finally been agreed upon and concluded as follows, that is to say:--
The Chippewa tribe of Indians, and all other the Indians inhabiting the district hereinafter described and defined, do hereby cede, release, surrender
and yield up to Her Majesty the Queen, and her successors forever, all the lands included within the following limits, that is to say:--All that tract of country lying partly to the north and partly to the west of a tract of land ceded to Her Majesty the Queen by the Indians inhabiting the Province of Manitoba, and certain adjoining localities, under the terms of a treaty made at Lower Fort Garry, on the third day of August last past, the land now intended to be ceded and surrendered, being particularly described as follows, that is to say:--Beginning at the mouth of Winnipeg River, on the north line of the lands ceded by said treaty, thence running along the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg, northwardly as far as the mouth of Berens River; thence across said lake to its western shore at the north bank of the mouth of the Little Saskatchewan or Dauphin River; thence up said stream and along the northern and western shores thereof, and of St. Martin's Lake and along the north bank of the stream flowing into St. Martin's Lake from Lake Manitoba by the general course of such stream to such last mentioned lake; thence by the eastern and northern shores of Lake Manitoba to the mouth of the Waterhen River; thence by the eastern and northern shores of said river up stream to the northernmost extremity of a small lake known as Waterhen Lake; thence in a line due west to and across Lake Winnepegosis; thence in a straight line to the most northerly waters forming the source of the Shell River; thence to a point west of the same, two miles distant from the river, measuring at right angles thereto; thence by a line parallel with the Shell River to its mouth and then crossing the Assiniboine River and running parallel thereto and two miles distant therefrom and to the westward thereof to a point opposite Fort Ellice; thence in a southwesterly course to the northwestern point of the Moose Mountains; thence by a line due south to the United States frontier; thence by the frontier eastwardly to the westward line of said tract ceded by treaty as aforesaid; thence bounded thereby, by the west, north-west and north lines of said tract to the place of beginning at the mouth of Winnipeg River; to have and to hold the same to Her Majesty the Queen and her successors for ever, and Her Majesty the Queen hereby agrees and undertakes to lay aside and reserve, for the sole and exclusive use of the Indians inhabiting the said tract, the following lots of land, that is to say:
For the use of the Indians belonging to the band of which Mekis is Chief, so much land between Turtle River and Valley River on the south side of Lake Dauphin as will make one hundred and sixty acres for each family of five persons, or in the same proportion for a greater or smaller number of persons. And for the use of the Indians belonging to the band of which François, or Broken Fingers, is Chief, so much land on Crane River running into Lake Manitoba as will make one hundred and sixty acres for each family of five persons, or in the same proportion for a greater or smaller number of persons. And for the use of the band of Indians belonging to the bands of which Ma-sah-kee-yash and Richard Woodhouse are Chiefs, so much
land on the river between Lake Manitoba and St. Martin's Lake,--known as "Fairford River," and including the present Indian Mission grounds,--as will make one hundred and sixty acres for each family of five persons, or in the same proportion for a greater or smaller number of persons. And for the use of the Indians of whom Son-sense is Chief, so much land on the east side of Lake Manitoba to be laid off north of the creek near which a fallen elm tree now lies, and about half-way between Oak Point and Manitoba Post, so much land as will make one hundred and sixty acres for each family of five persons, or in the same proportion for a greater or smaller number of persons. Saving, nevertheless, the rights of any white or other settler now in occupation of any land within the lines of any such reserve.