BUSINESS IN THE LAND OF INDIANS
Orders from Ottawa had disposed the Mounted Police into four different
locations, although, as we have seen, the fourth had become only
necessary at Dufferin, because there was neither shelter nor adequate
provision for headquarters at Fort Pelly. But, when we look back into
the situation, we can readily see that the Assistant Commissioner,
Colonel MacLeod, had the most difficult and dangerous situation of all.
They had all reached their destination after tremendous hardships, the
Edmonton detachment perhaps most of all. But the three detachments,
namely those at Edmonton under Jarvis, Fort Pelly under Garvell, and
Dufferin under the Commissioner, had shelter and reasonable provision.
But MacLeod was out in the open with the winter coming on and no shelter
from the blizzards that blow at times even across that foothill country.
He was hundreds of miles away from any possibility of help in men or
substance from Canadian sources, and he had only three troops of fifty
men each in the midst of a turbulent gang of outlaw whisky-peddlers and
horse-thieves. He was completely surrounded by thousands of the most
warlike of Western Indians, with some thousands still more warlike just
over the line. Perhaps it was well that he hailed from the land where
they say, "A stout heart to a stey brae," because, if a figure of speech
from the sea is permissible on the prairie, he and his men knew that
they had "burned their ship behind them," and that they must hold their
ground or perish. They proved equal to their task, but a sketch or two
from the reports of that period reveal the situation even to those who
do not know the country. Colonel MacLeod decided that he could not hope
to pull the horses and cattle through the winter in the locality where
he was making his headquarters, so he dispatched Inspector Walsh and the
weakest of the horses and cattle to Sun River, some 200 miles to the
south. Walsh was evidently on the look out for service, for MacLeod
says, "Walsh was anxious to be sent, and he deserves great credit for
the way in which he is performing this service." In another place
MacLeod says about November 1: "We had a severe snowstorm, with high
wind and extreme cold, the thermometer going to 10 degrees below zero.
When the storm broke I had all the horses driven into the shelter of the
woods near by; every one blanketed and fed with oats and corn. Then I
was extremely anxious about them, and glad they got through so well."
The righteous man is merciful to his beast, even though the beast is
Government property. And then we come across this fine human touch in
which the emotional nature of the Highlander breaks through: "I hope
soon to have ample accommodation for all if another storm breaks out. I
have made up my mind that not a single log of men's quarters shall be
laid until the horses are provided for, as well as a few sick men." If
the dumb animals cannot speak for themselves, the Colonel speaks for
them. If the men who are laid aside cannot plead their own cause they
will not suffer, for the Colonel does not forget them. And MacLeod is
early teaching his officers that he will have no "carpet knights," who
claim immunity from hardship because of their rank, for he goes on to
say, "Then the men's quarters will be proceeded with, and after that the
officers'." We think the officers would all say amen to this, and that
is why they always had the confidence of their men. By the time it was
20 degrees below zero they had got the men inside buildings with enough
chimney to allow a fire to be kindled. But officers were still on the
waiting list, for the report says in December, "Winder, Jackson and the
doctor are in a tent in the woods."
With officers and men of that stamp we hear no whining about being
unable to enforce the laws of the country. And it was no easy place to
enforce laws of certain kinds. The whole region around Fort MacLeod, as
the necessarily crude outpost was called, being conveniently near the
boundary line, had been for years the favourite stamping ground of the
whisky-peddler. There had been no one to interfere with his activities.
The Hudson's Bay Company regime, never very active in that locality, had
been out of commission for four years, and nothing had taken its place.
For Canadian authority, governing in a long-distance fashion, had not
yet impressed itself visibly on the vast plains. Hence the outlaw trader
had gone his riotous way, and as a result the poor Indian, who had an
insatiable thirst for stimulant, had lived riotously to his own great
detriment.
And so, busy as the Police were in trying to build some shelter for
their horses and themselves, Colonel MacLeod lost no time striking a
body blow at the liquor traffic. Hearing from an Indian named Three
Bulls that a coloured man was doing business in fire-water about 50
miles away, MacLeod sent Inspector Crozier and ten men, accompanied by
the inimitable interpreter, Jerry Potts, to gather in the outfit. Two
days afterwards Crozier returned, bringing in the coloured gentleman and
four others with some wagon-loads of whisky, a small arsenal of rifles
and revolvers, as well as many bales of buffalo robes, which the
whisky-sellers had taken from the poor Indians in exchange for the drink
that was so fatal to these children of the wild. The whisky was poured
out in the snow, the robes were confiscated for the good of the country,
and the culprits given the option of a fine or jail. This process
revealed the headquarters of the traffic, for a sporting man, rejoicing
in the sobriquet of "Wavey," came up from Fort Benton, in Montana, and
paid the fines of the white men. There was an extra charge against the
coloured man, whose name was Bond, and as "Wavey" would not intervene
Mr. Bond had to go to jail. MacLeod would stand no nonsense. On one
occasion, a gentleman from the same country as Bond, who was sent to
jail without option, and who had in his own locality contracted the bad
habit of talking back to judges, said to Colonel MacLeod, "When I get
out of here, if you put me in, I will make them wires to Washington
hum." "Let them hum," sad the Colonel; "in the meantime you go to jail,
and if you say more you may have your sentence doubled."
This was a Daniel come to judgment with a vengeance. To be more modern,
it reminds one of Begbie, the great frontier judge on the west coast,
who tamed the outlaw miners who tried to start rough-house in the
gold-rush days. The dishonest extortioners on the prairie could do
nothing to frighten or flatter or tamper with men like Colonel MacLeod
and his red-coated patrols. Hence, we read the sequel in the Colonel's
report in December, 1874: "I am happy to be able to report" (happy is a
choice word--there are some things that make a good man happy)--"to be
able to report _the complete stoppage of the whisky trade throughout the
whole of this section of the country_, and that the drunken riots, which
in former years were almost a daily occurrence, are now entirely at an
end; in fact, a more peaceable community than this, with a very large
number of Indians camped along the river, could not be found anywhere.
Every one united in saying how wonderful the change is. People never
lock their doors at night and have no fear of anything being stolen
which is left lying about outside; whereas, just before our arrival,
gates and doors were all fastened at night, and nothing could be left
out of one's sight." And then Colonel MacLeod adds a testimony from the
Rev. John McDougall, of Morley, at the edge of the mountains. He and his
father, the Rev. George McDougall, who had been frozen to death on the
plains, were widely known old-time missionaries. In later years I knew
John McDougall well, missionary, scout and frontiersman, tall,
full-bearded, handsome and keenly alive to everything that affected the
welfare of the West land. And this competent witness said, "I am
delighted with the change that has been effected. It is like a miracle
wrought before our eyes." The Police were fulfilling their high,
benevolent and patriotic mission.
Colonel MacLeod felt that the first business of the Police was to thus
protect the Indians who were the wards of the nation, and so it was that
he had struck a decisive blow at the drink traffic, which was bidding
fair to exterminate these children of the plains. Once that was done the
Colonel set himself to get into touch with the various native tribes,
which from the earliest days of the explorers and fur-traders had been
looked upon as the most warlike and dangerous. It is well known that
even the Hudson's Bay Company, despite the experience and the remarkable
tact of their employees, had always found it difficult to establish
satisfactory relations with the tribes, amongst which at this period
Colonel MacLeod and his men were seeking a sphere of service for the
good of all concerned.
Accordingly, we find MacLeod reporting before the end of 1874 that he
had interviewed the chiefs of the practically confederated tribes of the
Bloods, Piegans and Blackfeet. He found them very intelligent men, and
he described in some detail the stately ceremony with which these chiefs
had conducted themselves in these interviews. They shake hands with
Colonel MacLeod, and then, receiving the pipe of peace from the
interpreter, Jerry Potts, they each smoke a few seconds and pass it
around. MacLeod then explains to them the friendly attitude of the
Canadian Government towards them, that the Police had come not to take
the country from the Indians, but to protect these Indians against men
who would despoil them and destroy them by sowing amongst them evil
practices. And he adds that the Government would send soon some of the
great men of the country to deal with the Indians and make treaty
agreements with them.
At these early interviews the chiefs gave unstinted praise to the
Police, before whose coming there had been constant trouble. The Indians
said they used to be robbed and ruined by the whisky-traders, that their
horses, robes and women had been taken from them, that their young men
were constantly engaged in drunken riots and many were killed, that
their horses were stolen, so that they had no means of travelling or
hunting. All this, the chiefs said, had been changed by the coming of
the Police. One chief, in the graphic way by which they gesture in
accord with what they are saying, crouched down and moved along with
difficulty, and then stood up and walked. "Before you came," said this
chief to the Colonel, "the Indian had to creep along, not knowing what
would attack him, but now he is not afraid to walk erect."
And so that first winter wore on with steady work on the part of the
Police, who, while seeing that the Indians had every protection afforded
them, also helped them to understand that they also had to observe the
laws of the land. In view of the general situation amongst the Indians
and the proximity of part of the North-West Territory to the boundary
line, on the other side of which there was almost continuous warfare
between the Government and the Indians there, posts were established now
at several points all over the vast area that the Mounted Police had to
control and guide. In some respects perhaps the most notable event in
the spring of 1875, was the sending of Inspector Walsh with "B" Division
to the Cypress Hills country, where a fort was built, named after this
active and venturous Inspector. And this Fort Walsh became the centre
around which for several years the Indian problem, in its various
phases, surged backwards and forwards in varying force, but sometimes
within dangerous possibility of becoming a tidal wave of destruction and
death. There is no finer chapter in Canadian history than the one in
which a mere handful of officers and men of the Mounted Police, with
endless patience, unflinching courage and consummate skill in open
diplomacy, kept the peace in an area larger than several European
kingdoms, and within whose precincts thousands of warlike and well-armed
Indians composed the reckless, restless and roving population. Years
afterwards, when the first Canadian railway had crossed the continent
away to the north, and conditions were entirely changed after treaties
had been made with the Indians and reserves allotted to them, Fort Walsh
was abandoned and dismantled, as it had served its purpose. A peaceful
ranch now occupies the site, but though the debris of the old fort is
strewed on the plain, the record of the men who made their headquarters
there and in similar places is an imperishable bulwark and citadel in
the life of our Dominion. Other posts were established about this
period, such as Fort Calgary, Fort Saskatchewan, Battleford, Carlton, in
what is now Northern Saskatchewan, Qu'Appelle in Saskatchewan and Swan
River, an early post, Shoal Lake and Beautiful Plains in the northern
section of Manitoba. All of these had their influence on the progress of
the West, but none had in the pathfinding days the halo of romance that
centred around Fort Walsh.
In the year 1875 Major-General Sir E. Selby Smith, who commanded the
Militia in Canada, made a tour of inspection throughout the Dominion and
spent some months under escort of the Mounted Police travelling from
Swan River to the far West. He was most favourably impressed by the
physique and initiative of the men, commended the work that had been
done, suggested the increase of the Force and the opening of some new
posts, but there were many items in the report which revealed that a man
cannot know the life and the needs of a country by making a trip through
it. Perhaps the best thing in his report was where he said: "Too much
value cannot be attached to the North-West Police, too much attention
cannot be paid to their efficiency." The men on the ground knew the
value of the Force and were taking good care that it would be efficient
to the last degree.
It was at the time of this tour that a fort projected by Colonel MacLeod
to be erected somewhere midway between Fort MacLeod and the Red Deer
River was built by "F" troop of the Mounted Police. It was erected near
the Bow River and for a time was known as Fort Brisebois, after the
officer commanding the division at the time. The name got into orders
once or twice but without authority, and Colonel MacLeod put an end to
any controversy over it by calling it Calgarry, after his birthplace in
Scotland. Our Western mania for shortening names and thereby sometimes
breaking with the historical past led to the cutting out of a letter and
leaving the name in its present form. But the present city of Calgary,
with its great buildings and its distinctive place within sight of the
Rockies, has a definite background of early police history which has
done much to shape her destiny.
In the seventies changes were taking place in the system of government
in the North-West Territories that had pronounced influence on the
future of the country in ways closely associated with police history.
Heretofore the vast territory over which the Police had oversight had
been governed from Manitoba by the Lieutenant-Governor of that Province,
assisted by a small body of men called the North-West Council. But
government at long range is not more successful than diplomacy of the
same variety, and it was becoming evident that some visibility should be
given to control in the North-West Territories that stretched from
Manitoba to the Mountains and from the boundary to the Pole.
Accordingly, in 1876 the Hon. David Laird was appointed
Lieutenant-Governor, with a small Council to assist him consisting of
Colonel MacLeod of the Police and Matthew Ryan and Hugh Richardson,
Stipendiary Magistrates. Ryan was a man of considerable literary power,
and Richardson became prominent as one of the trial judges in the cases
of Riel and the other rebel leaders some years later.
[Illustration: SITTING BULL. Famous Sioux Indian Chief.]
[Illustration: COLONEL JAMES WALKER (CALGARY) The oldest survivor of
those who were commissioned officers during the great march of 1874.]
David Laird was a Prince Edward Islander of great stature and
gentlemanly bearing. He was of imposing appearance, and had the grace of
easy speech with a good voice. Fearless in his general attitude, he had
withal a fine genius for diplomacy, and came to have a remarkable
insight into the Indian mind. The Indians, who prefer giving men names
that describe some outstanding characteristic, christened Laird as "the
man who talks straight," or, in other words, the man who tells the truth
and sticks to it. Few people, perhaps, nowadays know the obligation this
country owes to men like Governor Alexander Morris, of Manitoba, and
Governor David Laird, of the Territories, for the extraordinary success
with which they and their faithful native interpreters, backed and
flanked by the fair-minded Mounted Police, dealt with the Indians. The
impressive scarlet uniform of the Police somehow or other came to be
recognized by the Indians as a sign royal of friendship. Once when
Inspector Walsh with several men was riding into a camp of American
Indians who had crossed to this side in the winter time, with his dark
blue overcoat lightly buttoned and the men in their great coats, the
Indians, thinking they were American cavalry, met them with levelled
rifles and angry faces. Walsh was not the kind of man to halt for that,
and would probably have paid the penalty for his devotion to duty, had
not one of the troopers, catching the situation, thrown his overcoat
open and disclosed the scarlet tunic. In a flash the Indians lowered
their rifles--they recognized their friends. Little wonder that Morris
and Laird and the other treaty-makers were grateful for the high
standing of these stalwart riders of the plains.
This matter of the Indian treaties deserved some special notice, because
it is not well understood by people outside this country and because it
is closely connected, as already intimated with the story of the Mounted
Police. It is inevitable in the progress of human history that higher
civilizations should supersede the lower. Wherever the contrary has been
the case and a lower civilization overran the higher the movement of
humanity was retrograde. Hence, if the Indian type of civilization in
Western Canada was to be superseded by the British type and this change
effected without injustice and hardship for the original dwellers in the
country, the Government of the Dominion must proceed by process of
treaty. By this we mean that the Government had at the same time to
conserve the rights of the Indian and secure to them both a place of
residence and means of subsistence by a system of reserves and money
payments, and also had to so extinguish the Indian title to all lands
outside their reserves as to enable incoming settlers to enter upon
these lands and possess them on fulfilling certain conditions. That the
Government of Canada, without regard to political party, has through all
the years been more successful in these undertakings than the Government
of any other country is generally conceded. This success has been due in
part to the wise leadership of governors and commissioners and native
interpreters. But we reiterate what every one knows who has studied the
real history of this country at first hand, namely that this success was
due in a very large degree to the presence of the Mounted Police who
became from the first in the eyes of the Indians the embodiment of
genuine friendship and British fair play.
The earliest Indian treaty in what is now Western Canada was made by
Lord Selkirk, whom the Salteaux Indians in the Red River Country called
"The Silver Chief," because for sterling gifts he obtained from the
Indians for his colonists a strip of land extending back as far as one
could see a white horse on the prairie in a clear day. That was a
primitive method of measurement and depended somewhat on the
individual's power of vision, but with a vast unpeopled land stretching
a thousand miles to the setting sun no one raised questions about a few
acres more or less. Later, when the country was beginning to fill up,
greater care had to be exercised. Indians, though apparently stoical and
unemotional, are in reality very sensitive and keenly susceptible to
anything that looks like oversight or slight of them and their rights.
The year 1876 witnessed the retirement of Colonel French from the
Commissionership of the Mounted Police. He had wrought hard in the
critical tasks that fall to the lot of the foundation builder, but
desired to return to his duty in the regular artillery service in
England, where his eminent contributions to the Empire have been duly
recognized. Colonel French, who retained to the end a warm interest in
the Police, was succeeded in the Commissionership by Colonel James
Farquharson MacLeod, who had already done such outstanding work during
the long trek to the West and in getting to definite police duty at the
key-position of the whole work in the foothill country. It was a tribute
to MacLeod's work that he was appointed also to aid Governor Laird in
the delicate work of making the treaty with the most difficult tribes in
the North-West to handle. Treaties had been made with the Indians who
had been most in contact with civilization in the more easterly
districts of the Lake of the Woods, Lake Winnipeg and the Qu'Appelle
Lakes. But the most imposing spectacles and the most difficult situation
began to arise when the Governors, flanked by the brilliant scarlet of
the Mounted Police, came to the farther North-West where the Indians
retained much of their native dignity and barbaric splendour.
This point was reached when Commissioners Governor Morris, Hon. W. J.
Christie and the Hon. James McKay came to Fort Carlton to negotiate with
Mistawasis, the great chief of the Crees, and his friend Ahtukahcoop. An
interesting preface to this treaty was a threat made by a rascally
Indian, Chief Beardy, of Duck Lake, who said that he would not allow the
Commissioners to cross the south branch of the Saskatchewan River to
come to Carlton. This information was imparted by Lawrence Clark,
Hudson's Bay Factor at Carlton, to Inspector James Walker, who had
arrived from Battleford with fifty Mounted Police the day before that on
which the Commissioners were to arrive. Walker (now Colonel Walker, of
Calgary), a man of commanding stature and strong determination, at once
decided to take a hand in the proceedings. Initiative has always been
characteristic of the Police. They were often miles away in distance
from and worlds away in chance of communication with, any superior
officer, and so they early developed the powers of resource which had to
come into play in emergencies. Hence Walker, seeing the situation, swung
out with his troop, in the small hours of next morning and hit the trail
for Batoche. On the way he overtook the band of Indians with Chief
Beardy. Walker paid no attention to them, but simply passed them and
continued on the way. These Indians rarely indicate surprise, but this
was the surprise of their lives, and they showed it in spite of
themselves. They evidently did not calculate on the presence of the
force in that part of the world, and to have these stalwart red-coated
riders come up from the unexpected direction was too much even for their
impassiveness. When Walker met the Commissioners farther on, he told
Governor Morris of the situation and then, wheeling his men, formed a
scarlet escort around the carriage. When they met Beardy he was in a
repentant mood and shook hands with the Governor. But this disorderly
Chief would only sign the treaty in his own camp. Not long afterwards
Inspector Walker with two constables had to go to Duck Lake and face
this same chief and a band of his insolent warriors and prevent them
from looting a store at that point. Still later we shall find the
incorrigible Beardy on the war-path with the rebels Riel and Gabriel
Dumont.
The treaty, known generally as "Number Six," was duly made at Carlton by
Governor Morris and the other Commissioners, with a noted half-breed,
Peter Erasmus, as the capable interpreter. Those present who had not
been accustomed to the plains witnessed a spectacle of wild splendour,
as preceding the treaty, over a thousand Indians, brilliantly and
fantastically painted, chanting a weird song, firing rifles, exhibiting
marvellous horsemanship, beating drums and giving strange yells,
advanced in a semi-circle near to the Commissioner's tent. All this was
preparatory to the famous dance of the stem, where the chiefs,
councillors and medicine men seated themselves on buffalo robes and a
beautifully decorated pipe with a long stem was produced. This was
carried around the semi-circle, then raised towards the heavens and the
stem pointed in turn north, south, east and west. With more stately
motion the Indians moved towards the Council tent, where they were met
by the Commissioners who took the pipe and one after the other stroked
it gently to indicate that they reciprocated the peaceful approach of
the Indians.
The Commissioners present with Governor Morris at this treaty and others
deserve special notice. The Hon. W. J. Christie was a famous Hudson's
Bay Company Factor. When in January, 1873, the Ottawa Government
appointed a North-West Council to act with Governor Morris in governing
the far hinterland towards the mountains, Mr. Christie, who had a very
wide knowledge of conditions and who had education and judgment, was one
of the men chosen. An interesting fact in that connection was that when
the first meeting of that Council was held, on March 8 in that year,
Mr. Christie travelled 2,000 miles by dog-train from Fort Simpson to
Winnipeg to attend it. It was a good opportunity for collecting mileage
and perquisites, but the probability is that this public-spirited man
and the great Company he served made the contribution to the country.
His usefulness was so apparent at the meeting that he was asked to help
the Government in the great task of treaty-making which had baffled so
many other countries.
The other Commissioner whose name is found to nearly all the treaties
was the Hon. James McKay, one of the most picturesque figures the
western plains, amid all their unique characters, ever saw. I remember
him in his later years. His father was a Scot, who had been on one of
the Arctic expeditions in search of Sir John Franklin and had married in
the Saskatchewan country one of the tall, stately and handsome daughters
of the land. Their sons were all of distinguished appearance. The
following description given by the Earl of Southesk, who had come on a
hunting tour and a search for health in the great out-of-doors of the
North-West years ago, is true to the subject. He says: "James McKay met
me in St. Paul. His appearance greatly interested me, both from his own
personal advantages and because he was the first Red River man I had
seen. Immensely broad-chested and muscular, though not tall, he weighed
18 stone: yet in spite of his stoutness, he was exceedingly hardy and
active, and a wonderful horseman. His face is very handsome--short,
aquiline, delicate nose; piercing dark grey eyes; skin tanned to red
bronze by exposure to the weather. He was dressed in Red River style, a
blue cloth capote (hooded frock coat) with brass buttons; red and black
flannel shirt, which served for waistcoat; black belt around the waist;
trousers of brown and white striped home-made stuff, buff leather
moccasins on his feet. I had never come across a wearer of moccasins
before, and it amused me to see this grand and massive man pacing the
hotel corridors with noiseless footfall, while excitable little men in
shiny boots creaked and stamped about like so many busy steam engines."
It was this splendid man who was present to assist Governor Laird and
Mr. Christie in making treaties with the Cree Indians at Carlton on
August 23 and at Fort Pitt on September 9. The last time I saw James
McKay was when a number of us schoolboys rode up to Silver Heights to
see some western sports and buffalo running in honour of the
Governor-General, Lord Dufferin. And as the magnificent frontiersman
drove about with his famous cream horse and buckboard, the great Irish
diplomat realized what such men had done to make the great North-West
peacefully into being a part of Canada.
Soon after these treaties, the headquarters of the Mounted Police were
moved from Swan River, which had never been satisfactory, to Fort
MacLeod, where they arrived on October 22. Apart from Swan River being
unsuitable, it was evident that the centre of interest was gravitating
towards that part of the territories where the names of Forts MacLeod
and Walsh, Wood Mountain and Cypress Hills and other points were being
printed indelibly on the map of Western history. This portion of the
territory was close up against the international boundary line across
which might be heard the roar of fighting between the Sioux Indians and
the United States soldiery. To discuss that is not part of our story,
but the Indians there vehemently declared that they had been for years
robbed by swindling government agents and driven off their land by
unscrupulous gold-hunters and lawless speculators. And, as in many other
cases, soldiers who were themselves innocent of these things had to be
called on to fight the Indians who had grown savage under a sense of
wrong and who, savage-like, had taken revenge by killing whenever they
could. That very year, only a few months before the headquarters of the
Police were moved to Fort MacLeod, occurred the tragedy of the "Custer
Massacre," when that gallant soldier and his no less gallant men,
attempting the impossible, were wiped out completely by superior numbers
of Sioux under the redoubtable chiefs Sitting Bull and Spotted Eagle.
"The Long Hair," as General Custer was called by the Indians who always
admired his dash and courage, fought desperately to the end, and was
said to be the last man to fall. Only the arrival later of General
Terry, with whom Custer was to have co-operated, prevented still greater
disaster to the balance of the American force.
All this had its effect on our side of the border. It made our Indians,
Blackfeet, Bloods, Piegans and others, restless, and it became known
that the Sioux on the south of the line were making overtures to the
Indians on the Canadian side either to go over and fight the Americans
or to join with the Indians in the United States to drive all the whites
out of the country on both sides. Inspector Denny, who did much valuable
work in those early days and who made an arrest in a Blackfoot camp,
reported in August of 1876 that he had been consulted by the Blackfeet
Council and told of the efforts made by the Sioux to get the Indians on
this side with them. However, the Blackfeet remained loyal mainly
because they had learned to trust the Mounted Police. But shortly
afterwards, matters were complicated by bands of Sioux crossing over the
line into Canadian territory. We shall deal with this Sioux invasion in
the next chapter, but in the meantime, as this is a chapter on treaties,
shall record how the Canadian Government, being fully aware of all these
events, took special steps at once to make treaties with the warlike
tribes which inhabited that vast area from the North Saskatchewan River
towards the boundary line. For this purpose the Commissioners appointed
were Governor David Laird and Colonel MacLeod, of the Mounted Police. No
better men could be chosen to make this famous Treaty Number Seven with
the Indians at a very critical hour.
Accordingly, on September 19, 1877, at the Blackfeet Crossing of the
Bow River, less than a 100 miles from Fort MacLeod, the Chiefs of the
Blackfeet, Blood, Piegan, Stony and Sarcee tribes and some 5,000 of
their men, women and children met to hear the Great Mother's chiefs. Mr.
Laird's address was full of dignity and impressiveness, and couched in
the picturesque language which, interpreted by the inimitable Jerry
Potts, found its way to the hearts of his audience. Mr. Laird opened by
saying, "The Great Spirit has made all things, the sun, the moon, the
stars, the earth, the forests and the swift-running rivers. It is by the
Great Spirit that the Queen rules over this great country and other
great countries. The Great Spirit has made the white man and the red man
brothers, and we should take each other by the hand. The Great Mother
loves all her children, white men and red men alike. She wishes to do
them all good." Then Mr. Laird made special reference to the Police
which was good diplomacy, for the Indians had known the Police for three
years and the wise Governor saw the advantage of linking up the Police
with the Queen's government. He said, "When bad white men brought you
whisky, robbed you and made you poor, and through whisky made you
quarrel amongst yourselves, she sent the Mounted Police to put an end to
it. You know how they stopped this and punished the offenders, and how
much good this has done. I have to tell you how much pleased the Queen
is that you have taken the Mounted Police by the hand and helped them
and obeyed her laws since their arrival. She hopes you will continue to
do so and you will always find the Mounted Police on your side if you
keep the Queen's laws." Then Mr. Laird explained the terms of the treaty
and asked the Indians to go to their Council tents if they wished to
consider the matter.
Next day the Commissioners again met the chiefs and made all the points
clear, and on the third day the treaty was concluded amid great
satisfaction on all sides. There were some remarkable tributes to the
Police by the Chiefs. Crowfoot, the head chief, said, "The advice given
to me and my people has proved to be good. If the Police had not come to
this country where would we all be now? Bad men and whisky were indeed
killing us so fast that very few of us indeed would have been left
to-day. The Mounted Police have protected us as the feathers of the bird
protect it from the frosts of winter. I wish them all good and trust
that all our hearts will increase in goodness from this time forward. I
am satisfied, I will sign the treaty." Red Crow, head chief of the
Bloods, the most powerful tribe of the Blackfeet Confederacy, said,
"Three years ago, when the Mounted Police came to this country, I met
and shook hands with Stamix-oto-kan (Colonel MacLeod) at Belly River.
Since that time he made me many promises, he kept them all; not one of
them was broken. Everything that the Mounted Police have done has been
good. I entirely trust Stamix-oto-kan (Colonel MacLeod) and will leave
everything to him. I will sign with Crowfoot." Many others spoke in the
same strain, and after this great treaty was signed, on September 21,
1877, there was a salute of guns and general jubilation. The point to be
specially recalled in connection with this treaty is that it was
practically accomplished upon the splendid record that Colonel MacLeod
and his men had made amongst these powerful tribes in the most difficult
part of the West.
The annual money payment to the Indians under the treaties required
careful and honest handling. And at the conclusion of his report to the
Government in regard to this most famous of all the treaties, Governor
Laird made this remarkable witness-bearing recommendation: "I would urge
that the officers of the Mounted Police be entrusted to make the annual
payments to the Indians under this treaty. The chiefs themselves
requested this, and I said I believed the Government would gladly
consent to the arrangement. The Indians have confidence in the Police,
and it might be some time before they would acquire the same respect for
strangers." That this suggestion was carried out, is attested the next
year by that well-known officer, Superintendent Winder, who in his
report says: "Inspector Macdonnell and party arrived from Fort Walsh
with money for the Indian payments. Inspector McIllree paid the Bloods
at MacLeod, Inspector Dickens the Piegans on their reserve, Inspector
Frechette the Stoneys at Morley-ville, and I accompanied the agent to
the Blackfeet Crossing to assist in paying the Indians there." All this
requires no comment further than to say that when the fighting Sioux
across the line tried to inveigle these warlike tribes into a war of
extermination against the whites, and later when the fiercely magnetic
Louis Riel sought to get them to join his revolt, the great work in the
consummation of Treaty Number Seven stood Canada in good stead.
One more great treaty had still to be made, and though it is
anticipating a date twenty years after the famous Number Seven Treaty,
we record it here before closing the chapter of treaties with the
Indians of the North-West. A vast region away northward from Edmonton,
known generally as the Athabasca, Peace River and Mackenzie River
region, had so far not been brought under treaty conditions. This was
mainly due to the fact that settlement had not been making its way into
that region. It was considered the home of the fur-trader and the hunter
more than that of the farmer or the stock-raiser. But the investigations
brought about by the Senate Committee at Ottawa on the motion and under
the leadership of Senator (Sir John) Schultz, had called so much
attention to the great agricultural possibilities of the country that,
despite the total absence of railways, settlers were percolating slowly
into that great northern area. Then the gold-rush to the Klondike began
midway in the nineties, and as some of this rush was either going
through the Peace River country to the Yukon or scattering down the
northern rivers, it became necessary, in the view of the Mounted Police,
who made recommendations to the Government, to make a treaty as early
as possible, in order to prevent trouble. Accordingly, the Hon. Clifford
Sifton, then Superintendent-General of Indian affairs in the Laurier
Government, began arrangements in 1898 which led to the appointment of a
Commission and the making of Treaty Number Eight in 1899. Strangely
enough, the Hon. David Laird, "the man who talked straight," who had as
Governor of the Territories made the famous treaties with the Indians of
the plains twenty years before, was called to head the new commission
and make this final treaty with the Crees, Beavers, Chippewyans and
other Indians of the far North. Mr. Laird, after the term of his office
as Governor had expired, had retired to his home in Prince Edward
Island, but later on was appointed to take charge of Indian affairs in
the West, with headquarters in Winnipeg. Along with this Indian Treaty
Commission was a half-breed commission, of which the frontiersman
author, Mr. Charles Mair, was secretary. The expedition took months, and
involved hard if picturesque travelling, all of which is graphically
described in Mr. Mair's narrative _Through the Mackenzie Basin_. The
treaty was made beginning first at Lesser Slave Lake, and continuing at
other points. Mr. Mair, in his book, gives us the names of the party,
describes the camp equipment and then makes the following fine reference
to the Mounted Police: "Not the least important and effective
constituent of the party was the detachment of the Royal North-West
Mounted Police which joined us at Edmonton, minus their horses of
course; picked men from a picked force; sterling fellows whose tenacity
and hard work in the tracking harness did yeoman service in many a
serious emergency. This detachment consisted of Inspector Snyder,
Sergeant Anderson, Corporals Fitzgerald and McClelland, and Constables
McLaren, Lett, Burman, Lelonde, Burke, Vernon and Kerr. The conduct of
these men, it is needless to say, was the admiration of all, and
assisted materially in the successful progress of the expedition."
Thus did these nation-building Police set their seal to the great
treaties which provided for the future of the Indian tribes and at the
same time extinguished the title of the tribes in order to open up a new
empire for higher civilization.