The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories Part 25

"I will speak of what you asked yesterday and to-day. I told you yesterday that if any great sickness or general famine overtook you, that on the Queen being informed of it by her Indian agent, she in her goodness would give such help as she thought the Indians needed. You asked for help when you settled on your reserves during the time you were planting. You asked very broadly at first. I think the request you make now is reasonable to a certain extent; but help should be given after you settle on the reserve for three years only, for after that time you should have food of your own raising, besides all the things that are given to you; this a.s.sistance would only be given to those actually cultivating the soil. Therefore, I would agree to give every spring, for three years, the sum of one thousand dollars to a.s.sist you in buying provisions while planting the ground. I do this because you seem anxious to make a living for yourselves, it is more than has been done anywhere else; I must do it on my own responsibility, and trust to the other Queen's councillors to ratify it.

"I will now answer what you had written down and asked to-day. I expect you to be reasonable, none of us get all our own way. You asked first for four hoes, two spades, two scythes and whetstone, two axes, two hay forks and two reaping hooks for every family. I am willing to give them to every family actually cultivating the soil, for if given to all it would only encourage idleness. You ask a plough and harrow for every three families; I am willing to give them on the same conditions. The carpenters' tools, as well as the seed grain, were already promised. I cannot undertake the responsibility of promising provision for the poor, blind and lame.

In all parts of the Queen's dominions we have them; the poor whites have as much reason to be helped as the poor Indian; they must be left to the charity and kind hearts of the people. If you are prosperous yourselves you can help your unfortunate brothers.

"You ask for school teachers and ministers. With regard to ministers I cannot interfere. There are large societies formed for the purpose of sending the gospel to the Indians. The Government does not provide ministers anywhere in Canada. I had already promised you that when you settled down, and there were enough children, schools would be maintained. You see missionaries here on the ground, both Roman Catholic and Protestant; they have been in the country for many years. As it has been in the past, so it will be again, you will not be forgotten.

"The police force is here to prevent the selling or giving of liquor to the Indians. The Queen has made a strong law against the fire-water; and the councillors of the country have made a law against the use of poison for animals.

"You can have no difficulty in choosing your reserves; be sure to take a good place so that there will be no need to change; you would not be held to your choice until it was surveyed.

"You want to be at liberty to hunt as before. I told you we did not want to take that means of living from you, you have it the same as before, only this, if a man, whether Indian or Half-breed, had a good field of grain, you would not destroy it with your hunt. In regard to bridges and scows on which you want pa.s.sage free, I do not think it likely that the Government will build any, they prefer to leave it to private enterprise to provide these things.

"In case of war you ask not to be compelled to fight. I trust there will be no war, but if it should occur I think the Queen would leave you to yourselves. I am sure she would not ask her Indian children to fight for her unless they wished, but if she did call for them and their wives and children were in danger they are not the men I think them to be, if they did not come forward to their protection.

"A medicine chest will be kept at the house of each Indian agent, in case of sickness amongst you. I now come to two requests which I shall have to change a little, you have to think only of yourselves, we have to think of all the Indians and of the way in which we can procure the money to purchase all these things the Indians require. The Queen's Councillors will have to pay every year to help the Indians a very large sum of money.

"I offered you to each band, according to size, two or four oxen, also one bull and four cows, and now you ask for an ox and a cow for each family. I suppose in this treaty there will be six hundred families, so it would take very much money to grant these things, and then all the other Indians would want them, so we cannot do it: but that you may see it that we are anxious to have you raise animals of your own we will give you for each band four oxen, one bull, six cows, one boar and two pigs. After a band has settled on a reserve and commenced to raise grain, we will give them a hand-mill.

"At first we heard of only two Chiefs, now they are becoming many.

You ask a cooking-stove for each, this we cannot give; he must find a way of cooking for himself. And now, although I fear I am going too far, I will grant the request that each Chief be furnished with a horse, harness, and waggon.

"I have answered your requests very fully, and that there may be no mistake as to what we agree upon, it will be written down, and I will leave a copy with the two princ.i.p.al Chiefs, and as soon as it can be properly printed I will send copies to the Chiefs so that they may know what is written, and there can be no mistake.

"It now rests with you, my friends, and I ask you without any hesitation to take what I have offered you."

AH-TUCK-AH-COOP--"I never sent a letter to the Governor; I was waiting to meet him, and what we have asked we considered would be for the benefit of our children. I am not like some of my friends who have sent their messages down, even stretched out their hands to the Queen asking her to come; I have always said to my people that I would wait to see the Governor arrive, then he would ask what would benefit his children; now I ask my people, those that are in favour of the offer, to say so."

They all a.s.sented by holding up their hands and shouting.

OO-PEE-TOO-KORAH-HAIR-AP-EE-WEE-YIN (The Pond-maker)--"I do not differ from my people, but I want more explanation. I heard what you said yesterday, and I thought that when the law was established in this country it would be for our good. From what I can hear and see now, I cannot understand that I shall be able to clothe my children and feed them as long as sun shines and water runs. With regard to the different Chiefs who are to occupy the reserves, I expected they would receive sufficient for their support, this is why I speak. In the presence of G.o.d and the Queen's representative I say this, because I do not know how to build a house for myself, you see how naked I am, and if I tried to do it my naked body would suffer; again, I do not know how to cultivate the ground for myself, at the same time I quite understand what you have offered to a.s.sist us in this."

JOSEPH THOMA proposed to speak for The Red Pheasant, Chief of Battle River Indians--"This is not my own desire that I speak now, it is very hard we cannot all be of one mind. You know some were not present when the list of articles mentioned was made, there are many things overlooked in it; it is true that what has been done this morning is good. What has been overlooked I will speak about.

The one that is next to the Chief (first head man) should have had a horse as well. I want the Governor to give us somebody to build our houses, we cannot manage it ourselves, for my own part you see my crippled hand. It is true the Governor says he takes the responsibility on himself in granting the extra requests of the Indians, but let him consider on the quality of the land he has already treated for. There is no farming land whatever at the north-west angle, and he goes by what he has down there. What I want, as he has said, is twenty-five dollars to each Chief and to his head men twenty dollars. I do not want to keep the lands nor do I give away, but I have set the value. I want to ask as much as will cover the skin of the people, no more nor less. I think what he has offered is too little. When you spoke you mentioned ammunition, I did not hear mention of a gun; we will not be able to kill anything simply by setting fire to powder. I want a gun for each Chief and head man, and I want ten miles around the reserve where I may be settled. I have told the value I have put on my land."

GOVERNOR--"I have heard what has been said on behalf of the Red Pheasant. I find fault that when there was handed me a list from the Indians, the Red Pheasant sat still and led me to believe he was a party to it. What I have offered was thought of long before I saw you; it has been accepted by others more in number than you are. I am glad that so many are of our mind. I am surprised you are not all. I hold out a full hand to you, and it will be a bad day for you and your children if I have to return and say that the Indians threw away my hand. I cannot accede to the requests of the Red Pheasant. I have heard and considered the wants of Mist-ow-asis and Ah-tuck-ah-coop, and when the people were spoken to I understood they were pleased. As for the little band who are not of one mind with the great body, I am quite sure that a week will not pa.s.s on leaving this before they will regret it. I want the Indians to understand that all that has been offered is a gift, and they still have the same mode of living as before."

Here the princ.i.p.al Chiefs intimated the acceptance of the proposal of the Commissioners, the Red Pheasant repudiating the demands and remarks of Joseph Thoma.

GOVERNOR--"I am happy at what we have done; I know it has been a good work; I know your hearts will be glad as the days pa.s.s. This will be the fourth time that I have done what we are going to do to-day. I thank you for your trust in me. I have had written down what I promised. For the Queen and in her name I will sign it, likewise Mr. McKay and Mr. Christie. Then I will ask the Chiefs and their head men to sign it in the presence of the witnesses, whites and Metis, around us, some of whom I will also ask to sign. What we have done has been done before the Great Spirit and in the face of the people.

"I will ask the interpreter to read to you what has been written, and before I go away I will have a copy made to leave with the princ.i.p.al Chiefs. The payments will be made to-morrow, the suits of clothes, medals and flags given also, besides which a present of calicoes, shirts, tobacco, pipes and other articles will be given to the Indians."

MIS-TOW-ASIS--"I wish to speak a word for some Half-breeds who wish to live on the reserves with us, they are as poor as we are and need help."

GOVERNOR--"How many are there?"

MIS-TOW-ASIS--"About twenty."

GOVERNOR--"The Queen has been kind to the Half-breeds of Red River and has given them much land; we did not come as messengers to the Half-breeds, but to the Indians. I have heard some Half-breeds want to take lands at Red River and join the Indians here, but they cannot take with both hands. The Half-breeds of the North-West cannot come into the Treaty. The small cla.s.s of Half-breeds who live as Indians and with the Indians, can be regarded as Indians by the Commissioners, who will judge of each case on its own merits as it comes up, and will report their action to the Queen's Councillors for their approval."

The treaty was then signed by the Lieutenant-Governor, Hon. James McKay, Hon. W. J. Christie, Mist-ow-asis, Ah-tuck-ah-coop, and the remainder of the Chiefs and the Councillors.

August 24th.

Immediately on meeting at ten a.m., the Governor called up Mis-tow-asis and Ah-tuck-ah-coop, the two princ.i.p.al Chiefs, and presented their uniforms, medals and flags; after them the lesser Chiefs, their medals and flags, and told them they and their Councillors would get their uniforms in the evening from the stores. The Governor then told them that Mr. Christie would commence payments as soon as he had finished talking with the few Saulteaux; he expected the Chiefs and Councillors to a.s.sist in every way possible; if any of the Chiefs had decided where they would like to have their reserves, they could tell Mr. Christie when they went to be paid. "Now, I have only to say farewell; we have done a good work; we will never all of us meet again face to face, but I go on to my other work, feeling that I have, in the Queen's hands, been instrumental to your good. I pray G.o.d's blessing upon you to make you happy and prosperous, and I bid you farewell."

The Indians intimated their pleasure by a general shout of approval, and thus broke up the conference which resulted in the Treaty with the Carlton Crees.

The Lieutenant-Governor then met the few Chippewas who came forward, and told them that they must be paid at the place where they belonged, that they could not be paid at Fort Pitt, and said, "If what I have heard is true I shall not be well pleased. I am told you are of a bad mind; you proposed to prevent me from crossing the river; [Footnote: South Saskatchewan.] if you did it was very foolish; you could no more stop me than you could the river itself. Then I am told you tried to prevent the other Indians from making the treaty. I tell you this to your faces so if it is not true you can say so; but whether it is or not it makes no difference in my duty. The Queen has made treaties with the whole Chippewa nation except two or three little wandering bands such as you; you have heard all that has been said and done these many days; I would like to see you helped as well as the other Indians; I do not think you are wiser than the Chippewas from Lake Superior to the North-West Angle; I went there with Mr. McKay, and we made a treaty with twenty Chiefs and four thousand Chippewas."

NUS-WAS-OO-WAH-TUM--"When we asked the Cree bands what they intended to do with regard to the treaty they would not come to us; it is true we told them 'do not be in a hurry in giving your a.s.sent;' you ought to be detained a little while; all along the prices have been to one side, and we have had no say. He that made us provided everything for our mode of living; I have seen this all along, it has brought me up and I am not tired of it, and for you, the white man, everything has been made for your maintenance, and now that you come and stand on this our earth (ground) I do not understand; I see dimly to-day what you are doing, and I find fault with a portion of it; that is why I stand back; I would have been glad if every white man of every denomination were now present to hear what I say; through what you have done you have cheated my kinsmen."

GOVERNOR--"I will not sit here and hear such words from the Chippewas. Who are you? You come from my country and you tell me the Queen has cheated you; it is not so. You say we have the best of the bargains; you know it is not so. If you have any requests to make in a respectful manner I am ready to hear."

CHIPPEWA--"The G.o.d that made us and who alone is our master, I am afraid of Him to deviate from his commandment."

The Chippewas, about half a dozen in all, being from Quill Lake chiefly, left, and Mr. Christie proceeded with the payments, which occupied the remainder of the 24th and all the 25th. He paid in all, Chiefs, 13; head men, 44; men, 262; women, 473; boys, 473; girls, 481; from Treaty Number Four, 41; total, 1,787. A large number of the tribe absent at the hunt will be paid next year.

Next morning, the 26th, the whole Cree camp, headed by their Chiefs and head men, wearing their uniforms and medals, came to Carlton House and a.s.sembled in the square to pay their farewell visit to the Governor; the Chiefs came forward in order and shook hands, each one making a few remarks expressive of their grat.i.tude for the benefits received and promised, and of their good will to the white man.

The Governor briefly replied, telling them that he was much gratified with the manner in which they had behaved throughout the treaty; he had never dealt with a quieter, more orderly and respectful body of Indians; he was pleased with the manner in which they had met him and taken his advice; he was glad to hear that they were determined to go to work and help themselves: he hoped their Councils would always be wisely conducted, and that they would do everything in their power to maintain peace amongst themselves and with their neighbors; he hoped the Almighty would give them wisdom and prosper them. They then gave three cheers for the Queen, the Governor, the mounted police and Mr. Lawrence Clarke, of Carlton House.

On the 27th a message was received from Duck Lake from the Willow Indians, the band which had hitherto held aloof, in reply to a message sent to them by the Governor, that they would meet the Governor and Commissioners at the place designated by the Governor, the camp of the Hon. James McKay, about five miles from Carlton House. Accordingly, the next morning the Commissioners met them, and after the usual ceremonial hand-shaking,

SAY-SWAY-PUS--"G.o.d has given us a beautiful day for which I feel very grateful. In grasping your hand I am grasping that of our Mother, the Queen. If it is your intention to honor me with a Chief's clothing, I wish you would give me one that would correspond with the sky above. I hope we will be able to understand each other."

CHIN-UN-US-KUT (The Stump)--"I feel very grateful that I am spared by the Great Spirit to see this day of his, may we be blessed in whatever we do this day."

GOVERNOR--"Crees, my brother children of the Great Queen, I am glad to meet you here to-day. I say as you said the first day I saw you, 'it is a bright day and I hope G.o.d will bless us.' I have been sorry for you for many days. I took you by the hand on the first day, but a wall rose up between us, it seemed as if you were trying to draw away but I would not let your hand go. I talked for many days with the great body of the Indians here but you refused to meet me; the others and I understood each other. I was going away to-day, but I thought pity of you who had not talked with me. I was sent here to make you understand the Queen's will. I received your letter last night and was glad to learn that you wanted to accept the terms I had offered, and which had been accepted by the other Indians. Before I received your letter I had sent you one asking you to meet me here where we are now, and I am glad you have come, as I could not otherwise have met you.

"One of you made a request that if he were accepted as a Chief, he should have a blue coat. I do not yet know who the Chiefs are. To be a Chief he must have followers. One man came forward as a Chief and I had to tell him unless you have twenty tents you cannot continue as a Chief.

"The color of your Chief's coat is perhaps a little thing; red is the color all the Queen's Chiefs wear. I wear this coat, but it is only worn by those who stand as the Queen's Councillors; her soldiers and her officers wear red, and all the other Chiefs of the Queen wear the coats we have brought, and the good of this is that when the Chief is seen with his uniform and medal every one knows he is an officer of hers. I should be sorry to see you different from the others, and now that you understand you would not wish it."

KAH-MEE-YIS-TOO-WAYS (The Beardy)--"I feel grateful for this day, and I hope we will be blessed. I am glad that I see something that will be of use; I wish that we all as a people may be benefitted by this. I want that all these things should be preserved in a manner that they might be useful to us all; it is in the power of man to help each other. We should not act foolishly with the things that are given us to live by. I think some things are too little, they will not be sufficient for our wants. I do not want very much more than what has been promised, only a little thing. I will be glad if you will help me by writing my request down; on account of the buffalo I am getting anxious. I wish that each one should have an equal share, if that could be managed; in this I think we would be doing good. Perhaps this is not the only time that we shall see each other. Now I suppose another can say what he wishes."

SAY-SWAY-KUS--"What my brother has said, I say the same, but I want to tell him and our mother the Queen, that although we understand the help they offer us, I am getting alarmed when I look at the buffalo, it appears to me as if there was only one. I trust to the Queen and to the Governor, it is only through their aid we can manage to preserve them. I want to hear from the Governor himself an answer to what I have said, so I may thoroughly understand."

THE BEARDY--"Those things which the Almighty has provided for the sustenance of his children may be given us as well; where our Father has placed the truth we wish the same to be carried out here, I do not set up a barrier to any road that my children may live by: I want the payment to exist as long as the sun shines and the river runs: if we exercise all our good, this surely will happen: all of our words upon which we agree, I wish to have a copy written on skin as promised; I want my brother to tell me where I can get this. He has said, 'what I have done with the others I will do with you:' I accept the terms, no doubt it will run further according to our number. When I am utterly unable to help myself I want to receive a.s.sistance. I will render all the a.s.sistance I can to my brother in taking care of the country. I want from my brother a suit of clothing in color resembling the sky so that he may be able when he sees me to know me; I want these two (sitting by him) to be Chiefs in our place with me and to have six Councillors (two each) in all."

GOVERNOR--"I will speak to you in regard to food as I have spoken to the other Indians; we cannot support or feed the Indians every day, further than to help them to find the means of doing it for themselves by cultivating the soil. If you were to be regularly fed some of you would do nothing at all for your own support; in this matter we will do as we have agreed with the other Indians, and no more. You will get your share of the one thousand dollars' worth of provisions when you commence to work on your reserves.

"In a national famine or general sickness, not what happens in every day life, but if a great blow comes on the Indians, they would not be allowed to die like dogs.

"What occurred in Red River last year from the destruction of crops by the gra.s.shoppers, affected our whole people, and without being bound to do anything, the charity and humanity of the Government sent means to help them.

"I cannot give the Chief a blue coat: he must accept the red one and he must not suffer so small a matter as the color of a coat to stand between us. I accept the three Chiefs with two Councillors for each. With regard to the preservation of the buffalo, it is a subject of great importance, it will be considered by the Lieutenant-Governor and Council of the North-West Territories to see if a wise law can be pa.s.sed, one that will be a living law that can be carried out and obeyed. If such a law be pa.s.sed it will be printed in Cree as well as in English and French; but what the law will be I cannot tell--you held councils over the treaty, you did not know before the councils closed what you would decide as to the treat--no more can I tell what the North-West Council will decide."