The Treaties of Canada with The Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories | Page 2

the North-West Territories and Rupert's Land, was entrusted
by the Empire of Great Britain and Ireland to her rule, was the securing
the alliance of the Indian tribes, and maintaining friendly relations with
them. The predecessors of Canada--the Company of Adventurers of
England trading into Hudson's Bay, popularly known as the Hudson's
Bay Company--had, for long years, been eminently successful in
securing the good-will of the Indians--but on their sway, coming to an
end, the Indian mind was disturbed. The events, that transpired in the
Red River region, in the years 1869-1870, during the period when a
provisional government was attempted to be established, had perplexed
the Indians. They, moreover, had witnessed a sudden irruption into the
country of whites from without. In the West, American traders poured
into the land, and, freighted with fire-water, purchased their peltries and
their horses, and impoverished the tribes. In the East, white men took
possession of the soil and made for themselves homes, and as time
went on steamboats were placed on the inland waters--surveyors passed
through the territories--and the "speaking wires," as the Indian calls the
telegraph, were erected. What wonder that the Indian mind was
disturbed, and what wonder was it that a Plain chief, as he looked upon
the strange wires stretching through his land, exclaimed to his people,
"We have done wrong to allow that wire to be placed there, before the
Government obtained our leave to do so. There is a white chief at Red
River, and that wire speaks to him, and if we do anything wrong he will
stretch out a long arm and take hold of us before we can get away." The
government of Canada had, anticipating the probabilities of such a state
of affairs, wisely resolved, that contemporaneously with the formal
establishment of their rule, there should be formed alliances with the
Indians. In 1870 the Parliament of Canada created the requisite
machinery for the Government of the Province of Manitoba and of the
North-West Territories respectively, giving to the former a

Lieutenant-Governor and Legislature, and to the latter, a
Lieutenant-Governor and Council, Executive and Legislative--the
Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba being ex officio
Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Territories. Subsequently the
North-West Territories were erected into a distinct government, with a
Lieutenant-Governor and Executive, and Legislative Council. The
District of Kee-wa-tin, "the land of the north wind," was also
established, comprising the eastern and northern portions of the
Territories, and placed under the control of the Lieutenant-Governor of
Manitoba, and an Executive and Legislative Council. Since 1870, no
less than seven treaties have been concluded, with the Indian tribes, so
that there now remain no Indian nations in the North-West, inside of
the fertile belt, who have not been dealt with.
It is the design of the present work to tell the story of these treaties, to
preserve as far as practicable, a record of the negotiations on which
they were based, and to present to the many in the Dominion and
elsewhere, who take a deep interest in these sons of the forest and the
plain, a view of their habits of thought and speech, as thereby presented,
and to suggest the possibility, nay, the certainty, of a hopeful future for
them.
Prior to proceeding to deal, with the treaties of the Dominion of Canada,
it will render this book more complete to present the reader, with
information as to three treaties which preceded those of the Dominion,
viz., the treaty made by the Earl of Selkirk in the year 1817, those
popularly known as the Robinson Treaties, made by the late Hon.
William B. Robinson, of the City of Toronto, with the Indians of the
shores and islands of Lakes Superior and Huron in the year 1850, and
that made by the Hon. William Macdougall, for the surrender of the
Indian title, to the great Manitoulin Island, both acting for and on
behalf of the Government of the late Province of Canada.
Ere however entering upon an explanation of these two first-mentioned
treaties, I submit a few brief observations.
The Indians inhabiting the region covered by the treaties in question,
extending in Canadian territory from Lake Superior to the foot of the
Rocky Mountains, are composed of distinct tribes having different
languages.
The Ojibbewas, Chippawas, or Saulteaux as they now call themselves,

are found in numbers in the District of Kee-wa-tin and the Province of
Manitoba. In the North-West Territories they are not numerous except
within the limits of Treaty number Four. These Indians migrated from
the older Provinces of Quebec and Ontario many years ago.
The Crees, inhabit the North-West Territories and are divided into
Plain, Wood and Swampy Crees, according to the region of the country
they dwell in. The Swampy Crees reside in Manitoba and Kee-wa-tin.
The Black Feet nation are to