The Treaties of Canada with The Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories | Page 3

be found towards the slope of the Rocky
Mountains, in the region comprised within the limits of the Treaty
number Seven.
A few Chippawayans, or Northerners, dwell within the North-West
Territories.
The once powerful nation of the Assiniboines, or Stonies--a kindred
tribe to the Sioux--are greatly reduced in numbers, and are now only to
be met with in the North-West Territories.
The Sioux in the Dominion are refugees from the United States, the
first body having come over some fourteen years ago. A large influx of
similar refugees, have recently fled to the Dominion from, the same
country, as the issue of the recent war between the United States and
the Sioux.

CHAPTER I
THE SELKIRK TREATY
In the year 1811, the Earl of Selkirk purchased [Footnote: Vide
Appendix for copy of the agreement in question.] from the Governor
and Company of Adventurers trading into Hudson's Bay, in
consideration of ten shillings and certain agreements and
understandings contained in the Indenture, a large tract of territory
within Rupert's Land described in the Indenture as follows:
"All that tract of land or territory being within and forming part of the
aforesaid lands and territories of the said Governor and Company,
bounded by an imaginary line running as follows, that is to say,
beginning on the western shore of the Lake Winnipic, otherwise
Winnipeg, at a point in fifty-two degrees and thirty north latitude and

thence running due west to the Lake Winnipegoos, otherwise called
Little Winnipeg, then in a southerly direction through the said Lake so
as to strike its western shore in latitude fifty-two degrees, then due west
to the place where the parallel of fifty-two degrees north latitude
intersects the western branch of Red River, otherwise called
Assiniboine River, then due south from that point of intersection to the
height of land which separates the waters running into Hudson's Bay
from those of the Missouri and Mississippi, then in an easterly direction
along the said height of land to the source of the River Winnipic, or
Winnipeg (meaning by such last named river the principal branch of the
waters which unite in Lake Sagenagos), thence along the main stream
of these waters and the middle of the several lakes through which they
flow to the mouth of the Winnipic River and thence in a northerly
direction through the middle of Lake Winnipic to the place of
beginning." The deed is accompanied by a map intended to show the
tract of country, and there is an endorsement on the map that as the
surveys were not sufficient to ascertain with precision whether, latitude
52 degrees does intersect the river called Red or Assiniboine River, it
was agreed, that in case the waters of of Red River, shall on more
accurate survey be found, not to extend so far north as latitude 52
degrees, then the west boundary of the tract of land intended to be
within the grant, should be a line drawn due north and south, through
the post upon the Red River, marked on the plan is "Carlton House."
The Company reserved the right to call upon the Earl to set off
one-tenth, however, of the tract for the use of the servants of the
Company--and the Earl covenanted, within ten years, to settle within
the tract one thousand families, each of them consisting of one married
couple at the least, on pain of revocation of the grant, if on receipt of
notice to that effect from the Company he did not, within three years
after the receipt of the notice, complete the settlement of the one
thousand families.
In pursuance of his obligations, Lord Selkirk, in the autumn of the year
1811, sent out a number of families from the County of Sutherland, in
Scotland, who spent the winter at Fort Churchill on the western shore
of Hudson's Bay. On the arrival of spring, they travelled thence to the

confluence of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers, and thus was
commenced the interesting settlement of the Red River, which is now
included in the Province of Manitoba. It is not my purpose to notice
here the eventful history of the Selkirk colonists, and I will only note
the fact that in 1836, the Company bought back the whole tract, from
the heirs of Lord Selkirk, for the sum of L84,000, the rights of colonists
who had purchased land between 1811 and 1836, being respected.
In the year 1817 the Earl of Selkirk, visited his wide domain, and
entered into negotiations with the Indian tribes, for the extinction of
their title, to a tract of land described as follows:
[Footnote: A large portion of the ceded territory is now comprehended
in the Territory of Dakota, United States.] "All that tract of land
adjacent to Red River and Assiniboine River, beginning