Having in the foregoing pages briefly alluded to the time occupied in
travel, to the route followed, and to the general circumstances attending
my journey, I now propose entering upon the subjects contained in the
written instructions under which I acted, and in the first instance to
lay before you the views which I have formed upon the important question
of the existing state of affairs in the Saskatchewan.
The institutions of Law and Order, as understood in civilized
communities, are wholly unknown in the regions of the Saskatchewan,
insomuch as the country is without any executive organization, and
destitute of any means to enforce the authority of the law.
I do not mean to assert that crime and outrage are of habitual occurrence
among the people of this territory, or that a state of anarchy exists in
any particular portion of it, but it is an undoubted fact that crimes of
the most serious nature have been committed, in various places, by
persons of mixed and native blood, without any vindication of the law
being possible, and that the position of affairs rests at the present
moment not on the just power of an executive authority to enforce
obedience, but rather upon the passive acquiescence of the majority of a
scant population who hitherto have lived in ignorance of those
conflicting interests which, in more populous and civilized communities,
tend to anarchy and disorder.
But the question may be asked, If the Hudson Bay Company represent the
centres round which the half-breed settlers have gathered, how then does
it occur that that body should be destitute of governing power, and
unable to repress crime and outrage? To this question I would reply that
the Hudson Bay Company, being a commercial corporation, dependent for its
profits on the suffrages of the people, is of necessity cautious in the
exercise of repressive powers; that, also, it is exposed in the
Saskatchewan to the evil influence which free trade has ever developed
among the native races; that, furthermore, it is brought in contact with
tribes long remarkable for their lawlessness and ferocity; and that,
lastly, the elements of disorder in the whole territory of Saskatchewan
are for many causes, yearly on the increase. But before entering upon
the subject into which this last-consideration would lead me, it will be
advisable to glance at the various elements which comprise the population
of this Western region. In point of numbers, and in the power which they
possess of committing depredations, the aboriginal races claim the
foremost place among the inhabitants of the Saskatchewan. These tribes,
like the Indians of other portions of Rupert's Land and the North-west,
carry on the pursuits of hunting, bringing the produce of their hunts to
barter for the goods of the Hudson Bay Company; but, unlike the Indians
of more northern regions, they subsist almost entirely upon the buffalo,
and they carry on among themselves an unceasing warfare which has long
become traditional. Accustomed to regard murder as honourable war,
robbery and pillage as the traits most ennobling to man hood, free from
all restraint, these warring tribes of Crees, Assineboines, and Blackfeet
form some of the most savage among even the races of Western America.
Hitherto it maybe said that the Crees have looked upon the white man as
their friend, but latterly indications have not been wanting to
foreshadow a change in this respect--a change which I. have found many
causes to account for, and which, if the Saskatchewan remains in its
present condition, must, I fear, deepen into more positive enmity. The
buffalo, the red man's sole means of subsistence, is rapidly
disappearing; year by year the prairies, which once shook beneath the
tread of countless herds of bisons, are becoming denuded of animal life,
and year by year the affliction of starvation comes with an
ever-increasing intensity upon the land. There are men still living who
remember to have hunted buffalo on the shores of Lake Manitoba. It is
scarcely twelve years since Fort Ellice, on the Assineboine River, formed
one of the principal posts of supply for the Hudson Bay Company; and the
vast prairies which flank the southern and western spurs of the Touchwood
Hills, now utterly silent and deserted, are still white with the bones of
the migratory herds which, until lately, roamed over their surface.
Nor is this absence of animal life confined to the plains of the
Qu'Appelle and of the Upper Assineboine--all along the line of the North
Saskatchewan, from Carlton to Edmonton House, the same scarcity prevails;
and if further illustration of this decrease of buffalo be wanting, I
would state that, during the present winter, I have traversed the plains
from the Red River to the Rocky Mountains without seeing even one
solitary animal upon 1200 miles of prairie. The Indian is not slow to
attribute this lessening of his principal food to the presence of the
white and half-breed settlers, whose active competition for pemmican
(valuable as supplying the transport service of the Hudson Bay Company)
has led to this all but total extinction of the bison.
Nor does he fail to trace other grievances--some real, some imaginary-to
the same cause. Wherever the half-breed settler or hunter has established
himself he has resorted to the use of poison as a means of destroying the
wolves and foxes which were numerous on the prairies. This most
pernicious practice has had the effect of greatly embittering the Indians
against the settler, for not only have large numbers of animals been
uselessly destroyed, inasmuch as fully one-half the animals thus killed
are lost to the trapper, but also the poison is frequently communicated
to the Indian dogs, and thus a very important mode of winter transport is
lost to the red man. It is asserted, too, that horses are sometimes
poisoned by eating grasses which have become tainted by the presence of
strychnine; and although this latter assertion may not be true, yetits
effects are the same, as the Indian fully believes it. In consequence of
these losses a threat has been made, very generally, by the natives
against the half-breeds, to the effect that if the use of poison was
persisted in, the horses belonging to the settlers would be shot.
Another increasing source of Indian discontent is to be found in the
policy pursued by the American Government in their settlement of the
countries lying south of the Saskatchewan. Throughout the territories of
Dakota and Montana a state of hostility has long existed between the
Americans and the tribes of Sioux, Black feet, and Peagin Indians. This
state of hostility has latterly degenerated on the part of the Americans,
into a war of extermination; and the policy of "clearing out" the red man
has now become a recognized portion of Indian warfare. Some of these acts
of extermination find their way into the public records, many of them
never find publicity. Among the former, the attack made during the
spring of 1870 by a large party of troops upon a camp of Peagin Indians
close to the British boundary-line will be fresh in the recollection of
your Excellency. The tribe thus attacked was suffering severely from
small-pox, was surprised at daybreak by the soldiers, who, rushing in
upon the tents, destroyed 170 men, women, and children in a few moments.
This tribe forms one of the four nations comprised in the Blackfeet
league, and have their hunting-grounds partly on British and partly on
American territory. I have mentioned the presence of small-pox in
connexion with these Indians. It is very generally believed in the
Saskatchewan that this disease was originally communicated to the
Blackfeet tribes by Missouri traders with a view to the accumulation of
robes; and this opinion, monstrous though it may appear, has been
somewhat terrified by the Western press when treating of the epidemic
last year. As I propose to enter at some length into the question of this
disease at a later portion of this report, I now only make allusion to it
as forming one of the grievances which the Indian affirms he suffers at
the hands of the white man.
In estimating the causes of Indian discontent as bearing upon the future
preservation of peace and order in the Saskatchewan, and as illustrating
the growing difficulties which a commercial corporation like the Hudson
Bay Company have to contend against when acting in an executive capacity,
I must now allude to the subject of Free Trade. The policy of a free
trader in furs is essentially a short-sighted one-he does not care about
the future--the continuance and partial well-being of the Indian is of no
consequence to him. His object is to obtain possession of all the furs
the Indian may have at the moment to barter, and to gain that end he
spares no effort. Alcohol, discontinued by the Hudson Bay Company in
their Saskatchewan district for many years, has been freely used of late
by free traders from Red River; and, as great competition always exists
between the traders and the employees of the Company, the former have not
hesitated to circulate among the natives the idea that they have suffered
much injustice in their intercourse with the Company. The events which
took place in the Settlement of Red River during the winter of '69 and '70
have also tended to disturb the minds of the Indians--they have heard of
changes of Government, of rebellion and pillage of property, of the
occupation of forts belonging to the Hudson Bay Company, and the stoppage
of trade and ammunition. Many of these events have been magnified and
distorted--evil-disposed persons have not been wanting to spread abroad
among the natives the idea of the downfall of the Company, and the
threatened immigration of settlers to occupy the hunting-grounds and
drive the Indian from the land. All these rumours, some of them vague and
wild in the extreme, have found ready credence by camp-fires and in
council-lodge, and thus it is easy to perceive how the red man, with many
of his old convictions and beliefs rudely shaken, should now be more
disturbed and discontented than he has been at any former period.
In endeavouring to correctly estimate the present condition of Indian
affairs in the Saskatchewan the efforts and influence of the various
missionary bodies must not be overlooked. It has only been during the
last twenty years that the Plain Tribes have been brought into contact
with the individuals whom the contributions of European and Colonial
communities have sent out on missions of religion and civilization. Many
of these individuals have toiled with untiring energy and undaunted
perseverance in the work to which they have devoted themselves, but it is
unfortunately true that the jarring interests of different religious
denominations have sometimes induced them to introduce into the field of
Indian theology that polemical rancour which so unhappily distinguishes
more civilized communities.
To fully understand the question of missionary enterprise, as bearing
upon the Indian tribes of the Saskatchewan valley, I must glance for a
moment at the peculiarities in the mental condition of the Indians which
render extreme caution necessary in all inter course between him and the
white man. It is most difficult to make the Indian comprehend the true
nature of the foreigner with whom he is brought in contact, or rather, I
should say, that having his own standard by which he measures truth and
falsehood, misery and happiness, and all the accompaniments of life, it
is almost impossible to induce him to look at the white man from any
point of view but his own. From this point of view every thing is
Indian. English, French, Canadians, and Americans are so many tribes
inhabiting various parts of the world, whose land is bad, and who are not
possessed of buffalo--for this last desideratum they (the strangers) send
goods, missions, etc., to the Indians of the Plains. "Ah!" they say, "if
it was not for our buffalo where would you be? You would starve, your
bones would whiten the prairies." It is useless to tell them that such is
not the case, they answer, "Where then does all the pemmican go to that
you take away in your boats and in your carts?" With the Indian, seeing
is believing, and his world is the visible one in which his wild life is
cast. This being understood, the necessity for caution in communicating
with the native will at once be apparent-yet such caution on the part of
those who seek the Indians as missionaries is not always observed. Too
frequently the language suitable for civilized society has been addressed
to the red man. He is told of governments, and changes in the political
world, successive religious systems are laid before him by their various
advocates. To-day he is told to believe one religion, to-morrow to have
faith in another. Is it any wonder that, applying his own simple tests to
so much conflicting testimony, he becomes utterly confused, unsettled,
and suspicious? To the white man, as a white man, the Indian has no
dislike; on the contrary, he is pretty certain to receive him with
kindness and friendship, provided always that the new-comer will adopt
the native system, join the hunting-camp, and live on the plains; but to
the white man as a settler, or hunter on his own account, the Crees and
Blackfeet are in direct antagonism. Ownership in any particular portion
of the soil by an individual is altogether foreign to men who, in the
course of a single summer, roam over 500 miles of prairie. In another
portion of this report I hope to refer again to the Indian question, when
treating upon that clause in my instructions which relates exclusively to
Indian matters. I have alluded here to missionary enterprise and to the
Indian generally, as both subjects are very closely connected with the
state of affairs in the Saskatchewan.
Next in importance to the native race is the half-breed element in the
population which now claims our attention.
The persons composing this class are chiefly of French descent originally
of no fixed habitation, they have, within the last few years, been
induced by their clergy to form scattered settlements along the line of
the North Saskatchewan. Many of them have emigrated from Red River, and
others are either the discharged servants of the Hudson Bay Company or
the relatives of persons still in the employment of the Company. In
contradistinction to this latter class they bear the name of "free men"
and if freedom from all restraint, general inaptitude for settled
employment, and love for the pursuits of hunting be the characteristics
of free men, then they are eminently entitled to the name they bear. With
very few exceptions, they have preferred adopting the exciting but
precarious means of living, the chase, to following the more certain`
methods of agriculture. Almost the entire summer is spent by them upon
the plains, where they carry on the pursuit of the buffalo in large and
well organized bands, bringing the produce of their hunt to trade with
the Hudson Bay Company.
In winter they generally reside at their settlements, going to the nearer
plains in small parties and dragging the frozen buffalo meat for the
supply of the Company's posts. This preference for the wild life of the
prairies, by bringing them more in contact with their savage brethren,
and by removing them from the means of acquiring knowledge and
civilization, has tended in no small degree to throw them back in the
social scale, and to make the establishment of a prosperous colony almost
an impossibility--even starvation, that most potent inducement to toil,
seems powerless to promote habits of industry and agriculture. During
the winter season they frequently undergo periods of great privation,
but, like he Indian, they refuse to credit the gradual extinction of the
buffalo, and persist in still depending on that animal for their food.
Were I to sum up the general character of the Saskatchewan half-breed
population, I would say: They are gay, idle, dissipated, unreliable, and
ungrateful, in a measure brave, hasty to form conclusions and quick to
act upon them, possessing extra ordinary power-of endurance, and capable
of undergoing immense fatigue, yet scarcely-ever to be depended on in
critical moments, superstitious and ignorant, having a very deep-rooted
distaste to any fixed employment, opposed to the Indian, yet widely
separated from the white man--altogether a race presenting, I fear, a
hopeless prospect to those who would attempt to frame, from such
materials, a future nationality. In the appendix will be found a
statement showing the population and extent of the half-breed settlements
in the West. I will here merely remark that the principal settlements are
to be found in the Upper Saskatchewan, in the vicinity of Edmonton House,
at which post their trade is chiefly carried on.
Among the French half-breed population there exists the same political
feeling which is to be found among their brethren in Manitoba, and the
same sentiments which produced the outbreak of 1869-70 are undoubtedly
existing in the small communities of the Saskatchewan. It is no easy
matter to understand how the feeling of distrust towards Canada, and a
certain hesitation to accept the Dominion Government, first entered into
the mind of the half-breed, but undoubtedly such distrust and hesitation
have made themselves apparent in the Upper Saskatchewan, as in Red River,
though in a much less formidable degree; in fact, I may fairly close this
notice of the half-breed population by observing that an exact
counterpart of French political feeling in Manitoba may be found in the
territory of the Saskatchewan, but kept in abeyance both by the isolation
of the various settlements, as well as by a certain dread of Indian
attack which presses equally upon all classes.
The next element of which I would speak is that composed of the white
settler, European and American,` not being servants of the Hudson Bay
Company. At the present time this class is numerically insignificant,
and were it not that causes might at any moment arise which would
rapidly develop it into consequence, it would not now claim more than a
passing notice. These causes are to be found in the existence of gold
throughout a large extent of the territory lying at the eastern base of
the Rocky Mountains, and in the effect which the discovery of gold-fields
would have in inducing a rapid movement of miners from the already
over-worked fields of the Pacific States and British Columbia. For some
years back indication of gold, in more or less quantities, have been
found in almost every river running east from the mountains. On the
Peace, Athabasca, McLeod, and Pembina Rivers, all of which drain their
waters into the Arctic Ocean, as well as on the North Saskatchewan, Red
Beer, and Bow Rivers, which shed to Lake Winnipeg, gold has been
discovered. The obstacles which the miner has to contend with are,
however, very great, and preclude any thing but the most partial
examination of the country. The Blackfeet are especially hostile towards
miners, and never hesitate to attack them, nor is the miner slow to
retaliate; indeed he has been too frequently the aggressor, and the
records of gold discovery are full of horrible atrocities committed upon
the red man. It has only been in the neighbourhood of the forts of the
Hudson Bay Company that continued washing for gold could be carried on.
In the neighbourhood of Edmonton from three to twelve dollars of gold
have frequently been "washed" in a single day by one man; but the miner
is not satisfied with what he calls "dirt washing," and craves for the
more exciting work in the dry diggings where, if the "strike" is good,
the yield is sometimes enormous. The difficulty of procuring provisions
or supplies of any kind has also prevented "prospecting" parties from
examining the head-waters of the numerous streams which form the sources
of the North and South Saskatchewan. It is not the high price of
provisions that deters the miner from penetrating these regions, but the
absolute impossibility of procuring any. Notwithstanding the many
difficulties which I have enumerated, a very determined effort will in
all probability be made, during the coming summer, to examine the
head-waters of the North Branch of the Saskatchewan. A party of miners,
four in number, crossed the mountains late in the autumn of 1870, and are
now wintering between Edmonton and the Mountain House, having laid in
large supplies for the coming season. These men speak with confidence of
the existence of rich diggings in some portion of the country lying
within the outer range of the mountains. From conversations which I have
held with these men, as well as with others who have partly investigated
the country, I am of opinion that there exists a very strong probability
of the discovery of gold-fields in the Upper Saskatchewan at no distant
period. Should this opinion be well founded, the effect which it will
have upon the whole Western territory will be of the utmost consequence.
Despite the hostility of the Indians inhabiting the neighbourhood of such
discoveries, or the plains or passes leading to them, a general influx of
miners will take place into the Saskatchewan, and in their track will
come the waggon or pack-horse of the merchant from the towns of Benton or
Kootenais, or Helena. It is impossible to say what effect such an influx
of strangers would have upon the plain Indians; but of one fact we may
rest assured, namely, that should these tribes exhibit their usual spirit
of robbery and murder they would quickly be exterminated by the miners.
Every where throughout the Pacific States and along the central
territories of America, as well as in our own colony of British Columbia,
a war of extermination has arisen, under such circum stances, between the
miners and the savages, and there is good reason to suppose that similar
results would follow contact with the proverbially hostile tribe of
Blackfeet Indians.
Having in the foregoing remarks reviewed the various elements which
compose the scanty but widely extended population of the Saskatchewan,
outside the circle of the Hudson Bay Company, I have now to refer to that
body, as far as it is connected with the present condition of affairs in
the Saskatchewan.
As a governing body the Hudson Bay Company has ever had to contend
against the evils which are inseparable from monopoly of trade combined
with monopoly of judicial power, but so long as the aboriginal
inhabitants were the only people with whom it came in contact its
authority could be preserved; and as it centred within itself whatever
knowledge and enlightenment existed in the country, its officials were
regarded by the aboriginals as persons of a superior nature, nay, even in
bygone times it was by no means unusual for the Indians to regard the
possession of some of the most ordinary inventions of civilization on the
part of the officials of the Company as clearly demonstrating a close
affinity between these gentlemen and the Manitou, nor were these
attributes of divinity altogether distasteful to the officers, who found
them both remunerative as to trade and conducive to the exercise of
authority. When, however, the Free Traders and the missionary reached the
Saskatchewan this primitive state of affairs ceased-with the
enlightenment of the savage came the inevitable discontent of the'
Indian, until there arose the condition of things to which I have already
alluded. I am aware that there are persons who, while admitting the
present unsatisfactory state of the Saskatchewan, ascribe its evils more
to mistakes committed by officers of the Company, in their management of
the Indians, than to any material change in the character of the people;
but I believe such opinion to be founded in error. It would be
impossible to revert to the old management of affairs. The Indians and
the half-breeds are aware of their strength, and openly speak of it; and
although I am far from asserting that a more determined policy on the
part of the officer in charge of the Saskatchewan District would not be
attended by better results, still it is apparent that the great isolation
of the posts, as well as the absence of any fighting element in the class
of servants belonging to the Company, render the forts on the Upper
Saskatchewan, in a very great degree, helpless, and at the mercy of the
people of that country. Nor are the engaged servants of the Company a
class of persons with whom it is at all easy to deal. Recruited
principally from the French half-breed population, and exposed, as I
have already shown, to the wild and lawless life of the prairies, there
exists in reality only a very slight distinction between them and their
Indian brethren, hence it is not surprising that acts of insubordination
Should be of frequent occurrence among these servants, and that personal
violence towards superior officers should be by no means an unusual event
in the forts of the Saskatchewan; indeed it has only been by the exercise
of manual force on the part of the officials in charge that the semblance
of authority has sometimes been preserved. This tendency towards
insubordination is still more observable among the casual servants or
"trip men" belonging to the Company. These persons are in the habit of
engaging for a trip or journey, and-frequently select the most critical
moments to demand an increased rate of pay, or to desert en masse.
At Edmonton House, the head-quarters of the Saskatchewan District, and at
the posts of Victoria and Fort Pitt, this state of lawlessness is more
apparent than on the lower portion of the river. Threats are frequently
made use of by the Indians and half-breeds as a means of extorting
favourable terms from the officers in charge, the cattle belonging to the
posts are uselessly killed, and altogether the Hudson Bay Company may be
said to retain their tenure of the Upper Saskatchewan upon a base which
appears insecure and unsatisfactory.
In the foregoing remarks I have entered at some length into the question
of the materials comprising the population of the Saskatchewan, with a,
view to demonstrate that the condition of affairs in-that territory is
the natural result of many causes, which have been gradually developing
themselves, and which must of necessity undergo still further
developments if left in their present state. I have endeavoured to point
out how from the growing wants of the aboriginal inhabitants, from the
conflicting nature of the interests of the half-breed and Indian
population, as well as from the natural constitution of the Hudson Bay
Company, a state of society has arisen in the Saskatchewan which
threatens at no distant day to give rise to grave complications; and
which now has the effect of rendering life and property insecure and
preventing the settlement of those fertile regions which in other
respects are so admirably suited to colonization.
As matters at present rest, the region of the Saskatchewan is without
law, order, or security for life or property; robbery and murder for
years have gone unpunished; Indian massacres are unchecked even in the
close vicinity of the Hudson Bay Company's posts, and all civil and legal
institutions are entirely unknown.
I now enter upon that portion of your Excellency's instructions which has
reference to the epidemic of small-pox in the Saskatchewan. It is about
fifty years since the first great epidemic of small pox swept over the
regions of the Missouri and the Saskatchewan, committing great ravages
among the tribes of Sioux, Gros-Ventres, and Flatheads upon American
territory; and among the Crees and Assineboines of the British. The
Blackfeet Indians escaped that epidemic, while, on the other hand, the
Assineboines, or Stonies of the Qu'Appelle Plains, were almost entirely
destroyed. Since that-period the disease appears to have visited some of
the tribes at intervals of greater or less duration; but until this and
the previous year its ravages were confined to certain localities and did
not extend universally throughout the country. During the summer and
early winter of '69 and '70 reports reached the Saskatchewan of the
prevalence of small-pox of a very malignant type among the South Peagin
Indians, a branch of the great Blackfeet nation. It was hoped, however,
that the disease would be confined to the Missouri River, and the Crees
who, as usual, were at war with their traditional enemies, were warned
by Missionaries and others that the prosecution of their predatory
expeditions into the Blackfeet country would in all probability carry
the infection into the North Saskatchewan. From the South Peagin tribes,
on the head-waters of the Missouri, the disease spread rapidly through
the kindred tribes of Blood, Blackfeet, and Lucee Indians, all which new
tribes have their hunting-grounds north of the boundary-line.
Unfortunately for the Crees, they failed to listen to the advice of those
persons who had recommended a suspension of hostilities. With the opening
of spring the war-parties commenced their raids; a band of seventeen
Crees penetrated, in the month of April, into the Blackfeet country, and
coming upon a deserted camp of their enemies in which a tent was still
standing, they proceeded to ransack it, This tent contained the dead
bodies of some Blackfeet, and although these bodies presented a very
revolting spectacle, being in an advanced stage of decomposition, they
were nevertheless-subjected to the usual process of mutilation, the
scalps and clothing being also carried away.
For this act the Crees paid a terrible penalty; scarcely had they
reached their own country before the disease appeared among them, in its
most virulent and infectious form. Nor were the consequences of this raid
less disastrous to the whole Cree nation. At the period of the-year to
which I allude, the early summer, these Indians usually assemble together
from different directions in large numbers, and it was towards one of
those numerous assemblies that the returning war-party, still carrying
the scalps and clothing of the Blackfeet, directed their steps. Almost
immediately upon their arrival the disease broke out amongst them in its
most malignant form. Out of the seventeen men who took part in the raid,
it is asserted that not one escape the infection, and only two of the
number appear to have survived. The disease, once-introduced into the
camp, spread with the utmost rapidity; numbers of men, women, and
children fell victims to it during the month of June; the cures of the
medicine-men were found utterly-unavailing to arrest it, and, as a last
resource, the camp broke up into small parties, some directing their
march towards Edmonton, and others to Victoria, Saddle Lake, Fort Pitt,
and along the whole line of the North Saskatchewan. Thus, at the same
period, the beginning of July, small-pox of the very worst description
was spread throughout some 500 miles of territory, appearing almost
simultaneously at the Hudson Bay Company's posts from the Rocky Mountain
House to Carlton.
It is difficult to imagine, a state of pestilence more terrible than
that which kept pace with these moving parties of Crees during the summer
months of 1870. By streams and lakes, in willow copses,'! and upon bare
hill-sides, often shelterless from the fierce rays of the summer sun and
exposed to the rains and dews of night, the poor plague-stricken wretches
lay down to die--no assistance of any kind, for the ties of family were
quickly loosened, and mothers abandoned their helpless children upon the
wayside, fleeing onward to some fancied place of safety. The district
lying between Fort Pitt and Victoria, a distance of about 140 miles, was
perhaps the scene of the greatest suffering.
In the immediate neighbourhood of Fort Pitt two camps of Crees
established themselves, at first in the hope of obtaining medical
assistance, and failing in that--for the officer in charge soon exhausted
his slender store--they appear to have endeavoured to convey the
infection into the fort, in the belief that by doing so they would cease
to suffer from it themselves. The dead bodies were left unburied close to
the stockades, and frequently Indians in the worst stage of the disease
might be seen trying to force an entrance into the houses, or rubbing
portions of the infections matter from their persons against the
door-handles and window-frames of the dwellings. It is singular that only
three persons within the fort should have been infected with the disease,
and I can only attribute the comparative immunity enjoyed by the
residents at that post to the fact that Mr. John Sinclair had taken the
precaution early in the summer to vaccinate all the persons residing
there, having obtained the vaccine matter from a Salteaux Indian who had
been vaccinated at the Mission of Prince Albert, presided over by Rev.
Mr. Nesbit, sometime during the spring. In this matter of vaccination a
very important difference appears to have existed between the Upper and
Lower Saskatchewan. At the settlement of St. Albert, near Edmonton, the
opinion prevails that vaccination was of little or no avail to check-the
spread of the disease, while, on the contrary, residents on the lower
portion of the Saskatchewan assert that they cannot trace a single case
in which death had ensued after vaccination had been properly performed.
I attribute this difference of opinion on the benefits resulting from
vaccination to the fact that the vaccine matter used at St. Albert and
Edimonton was of a spurious description, having been brought from Fort
Benton, on the Missouri River, by traders during the early summer, and
that also it was used when the disease had reached its height, while, on
the other hand, the vaccination carried on from Mr. Nesbit's Mission
appears to have been commenced early in the spring, and also to have been
of a genuine description.
At the Mission of St. Albert, called also "Big Lake," the disease
assumed a most malignant form; the infection appears to have been
introduced into the settlement from two different sources almost at the
same period. The summer hunting-party met the Blackfeet on the plains and
visited the Indian camp (then infected with small-pox) for the purpose of
making peace and trading. A few days later the disease appeared among
them and swept off half their number in a very short space of time. To
such a degree of helplessness were they reduced that when the prairie
fires broke out in the neighbourhood of their camp they were unable to do
any thing towards arresting its progress or saving their property. The
fire swept through the camp, destroying a number of horses, carts, and
tents, and the unfortunate people returned to their homes at Big Lake
carrying the disease with them. About the same time some of the Crees
also reached the settlement, and the infection thus communicated from
both quarters spread with amazing rapidity. Out of a total population
numbering about 900 souls, 600 caught the disease, and up to the date of
my departure from Edmonton (22nd December) 311 deaths had occurred. Nor
is this enormous percentage of deaths very much to be wondered at when we
consider the circumstances attending this epidemic. The people, huddled
together in small hordes, were destitute of medical assistance or of even
the most ordinary requirements of the hospital. During the period of
delirium incidental to small-pox, they frequently wandered forth at night
into the open air, and remained exposed for hours to dew or rain; in the
latter stages of the disease they took no precautions against cold, and
frequently died from relapse produced by exposure; on the other hand,
they appear to have suffered but little pain after the primary fever
passed away. "I have frequently," says Père André, "asked a man in the
last stages of small pox,-whose end was close at hand, if he was
suffering much pain; and the almost invariable reply was, None
whatever." They seem also to have died without suffering, although the
fearfully swollen appearance of the face, upon which scarcely a feature
was visible, would lead to the supposition that such a condition must of
necessity be accompanied by great pain.
The circumstances attending the progress of the epidemic at Carlton House
are worthy of notice, both on account of the extreme virulence which
characterized the disease at that post, and also as no official record
of this visitation of small-pox would be complete which failed to bring
to the notice of your Excellency the undaunted: heroism displayed by a
young officer of the Hudson Bay Company who was in temporary charge of
the station. At the breaking out of the disease, early in the month of
August, the population of Carlton: numbered about seventy souls. Of these
thirty-two persons caught the infection, and twenty-eight persons died.
Throughout the entire period of the epidemic the officer already alluded
to, Mr. Wm. Traill, laboured with untiring perseverance in ministering to
the necessities of the sick, at whose bedsides he was to be found both
day and night, undeterred by the fear of infection, and undismayed by the
unusually loathsome nature of the disease. To estimate with any thing
like accuracy the losses caused among the Indian tribes is a matter of
considerable difficulty. Some tribes and portions of tribes suffered much
more severely than others. That most competent authority, Père Lacombe,
is of opinion that neither the Blood nor Blackfeet Indians had, in
proportion to their numbers, as many casualties as the Crees, whose
losses may be safely stated at from 600 to 800 persons. The Lurcees, a
small tribe in close alliance with the Blackfeet, suffered very severely,
the number of their tents being reduced from fifty to twelve. On the.'
other hand, the Assineboines, or Stonies of the Plains, warned by the
memory of the former epidemic, by which they were almost annihilated,
fled at the first approach of the disease, and, keeping far out in the
south-eastern prairies, escaped the infection altogether. The very heavy
loss suffered by the Lurcees to which I have just alluded was, I
apprehend, due to the fact that the members of this tribe have long been
noted as persons possessing enfeebled constitutions, as evidenced by the
prevalence of goitre almost universally amongst them. As a singular
illustration of the intractable nature of these Indians, I would mention
that at the period when the small-pox was most destructive among them
they still continued to carry on their horse-stealing raids against the
Crees and half-breeds in the neighbourhood of Victoria Mission. It was
not unusual to come upon traces of the disease in the corn-fields around
the settlement, and even the dead bodies of some Lurcees were discovered
in the vicinity of a river which they had been in the habit of swimming
while in the prosecution of their predatory attacks. The Rocky Mountain
Stonies are stated to have lost over fifty souls. The losses sustained by
the Blood, Blackfeet, and Peagin tribes are merely conjectural; but, as
their loss in leading men or chiefs has been heavy, it is only reasonable
to presume that the casualties suffered generally by those tribes have
been proportionately severe. Only three white persons appear to have
fallen victims to the disease, one an officer of the Hudson Bay Company
service at Carlton, and two members of the family of the Rev. Mr.
McDougall, at Victoria. Altogether, I should be inclined to estimate the
entire loss along the North Saskatchewan, not including Blood, Blackfeet,
or Peagin Indians, at about 1200 persons. At the period of my departure
from the Saskatchewan, the beginning of-the present year, the disease
which committed such terrible havoc among the scanty population of that
region still lingered in many localities. On my upward journey to the
Rocky Mountains I had found the forts of the Hudson Bay Company free from
infection: On my return journey I found cases of small-pox in the Forts,
of Edmonton, Victoria, and Pitt--cases which, it is true, were of a
milder description than those of the autumn and summer, but which,
nevertheless, boded ill for the hoped for disappearance of the plague
beneath the snows and cold of winter. With regard to the supply of
medicine sent by direction of the Board of Health in Manitoba to the
Saskatchewan, I have only to remark that I conveyed to Edmonton the
portion of the supply destined for that station. It was found, however,
that many of the bottles had been much injured by frost, and I cannot in
any way favourably notice either the composition or general selection of
these supplies.
Amongst the many sad traces of the epidemic existing in the Upper
Saskatchewan I know of none so touching as that which is to be found in
an assemblage of some twenty little orphan children gathered together
beneath the roof of the sisters of charity at the settlement of St.
Albert. These children are of all races, and even in some instances the
sole survivors of what was lately a numerous family. They are fed,
clothed, and taught at the expense of the Mission; and when we consider
that the war which is at present raging in France has dried up the
sources of charity from whence the Missions of the North-west derived
their chief support, and that the present winter is one of unusual
scarcity and distress along the North Saskatchewan, then it will be
perceived what a fitting object for the assistance of other communities
is now existing in this distant orphanage of the North.
I cannot close this notice of the epidemic without alluding to the danger
which will arise in the spring of introducing the infection into
Manitoba. As soon as the prairie route becomes practicable there will be
much traffic to and from the Saskatchewan--furs and robes will be
introduced into the settlement despite the law which prohibits their
importation. The present quarantine establishment at Rat Creek is
situated too near to the settlement to admit of a strict enforcement of
the sanitary regulations. It was only in the month of October last year
that a man coming direct from Carlton died at-this Rat Creek, while his
companions, who were also from the same place, and from whom he caught
the infection, passed on into the province. If I might suggest the course
which appears to me to be the most efficacious, I would say that a
constable stationed at Fort Ellice during the spring and summer months
who would examine freighters and others, giving them bills of health to
enable them to enter the province, would effectually meet the
requirements of the situation. All persons coming from the West are
obliged to pass close to the neighbourhood of Fort Ellice. This station
is situated about 170 miles west of the provincial boundary, and about
300 miles south-east of the South Saskatchewan, forming the only post of
call upon the road between Carlton and Portage la-Prairie. I have only to
add that, unless vaccination is made compulsory among the half-breed
inhabitants, they will, I fear, be slow to avail themselves of it. It
must not be forgotten that with the disappearance of the snow from the
plains a quantity of infected matter--clothing, robes, and portions of
skeletons--will again be come exposed to the atmosphere, and also that
the skins of wolves, etc., collected during the present winter will be
very liable to contain infection of the most virulent description.
The portion of-your Excellency's instructions which has reference to the
Indian tribes of the Assineboine and Saskatchewan regions now claims my
attention.
The aboriginal inhabitants of the country lying between Red River and
the Rocky Monntains are divided into tribes of Salteaux, Swampies, Crees,
Assineboines, or Stonies of the Plains, Blackfeet and Assineboines of the
Mountains. A simpler classification, and one which will be found more
useful when estimating the relative habits of these tribes, is to divide
them into two great classes of Trairie Indians and Thickwood Indians--the
first comprising the Blackfeet with their kindred tribes of Bloods,
Lurcees, and Peagins, as also the Crees of the Saskatchewan and the
Assineboines of the Qu'Appelle; and the last being composed of the Rocky
Mountain Stonies, the Swampy Crees, and the Salteaux of the country lying
between Manitoba and Fort Ellice. This classification marks in reality
the distinctive characteristics of the Western Indians. On the one hand,
we find the Prairie tribes subsisting almost entirely upon the buffalo,
assembling together in large camps, acknowledging the leadership and
authority of men conspicuous by their abilities in war or in the chase,
and carrying on a perpetual state\of warfare with the other Indians of
the plains. On the other hand, we find the Indians of the woods
subsisting by fishing and by the pursuit of moose and deer, living
together in small parties, admitting only a very nominal authority on
the part of one man, professing to entertain hostile feelings towards
certain races, but rarely developing such feelings into positive
hostilities--altogether a much more peacefully disposed people, because
less exposed to the dangerous influence of large assemblies.
Commencing with the Salteaux, I find that they extend westward from
Portage-la-Prairie to Fort Ellice, and from thence north to Fort Pelly
and the neighbourhood of Fort-à-la-Corne, where they border and mix with
the kindred race of Swampy or Muskego Crees. At Portage-la-Prairie and in
the vicinity of Fort Ellice a few Sioux have appeared since the outbreak
in Minnesota and Dakota in 1862. It is probable that the number of this
tribe on British territory will annually increase with the prosecution of
railroad enterprise and settlement in the northern portion of the United
States. At present, however, the Sioux are strangers at Fort Ellice, and
have not yet assumed those rights of proprietorship which other tribes,
longer resident, arrogate to themselves. The Salteaux, who inhabit the
country lying west of Manitoba, partake partly of the character of
Thickwood, and partly of Prairie Indians--the buffalo no longer exists in
that portion of the country, the Indian camps are small, and the
authority of the chief merely nominal. The language spoken by this tribe
is the same dialect of the Algonquin tongue which is used in the
Lac-la-Pluie District and throughout the greater portion of the
settlement.
Passing north-west from Fort Ellice, we enter the country of the Cree
Indians, having to the north and east the Thickwood Crees, and to the
south and west the Plain Crees. The former, under the various names of
Swampies or Muskego Indians, inhabit the country west of Lake Winnipeg,
extending as far as Forts Pelly and à-la-Corne, and from, the latter
place, in a north-westerly direction, to Carlton and Fort Pitt. Their
language, which is similar to that spoken by their cousins, the Plain
Crees, is also a dialect of the Algonquin tongue. They are seldom found
in large numbers, usually forming camps of from four to ten families.
They carry on the pursuit of the moose and red deer, and are, generally
speaking, expert hunters and trappers.
Bordering the Thickwood Crees on the south and west lies the country of
the Plain Crees--a land of vast treeless expanses, of high rolling
prairies, of wooded tracts lying in valleys of many-sized streams, in a
word, the land of the Saskatchewan. A line running direct from the
Touchwood Hills to Edmonton House would measure 500 miles in length, yet
would lie altogether within the country of the Plain Crees. They inhabit
the prairies which extend from the Qu'Appelle to the South Saskatchewan,
a portion of territory which was formerly the land of the Assineboine,
but which became the country of the Crees through lapse of time and
chance of war. From the elbow of the South Branch of the Saskatchewan the
Cree nation extends in a west and north-west direction to the vicinity
of the Peace Hills, some fifty miles south of Edmonton. Along the entire
line there exists a state of perpetual warfare during the months of
summer and autumn, for here commences the territory over which roams the
great Blackfeet tribe, whose southern boundary lies be yond the Missouri
River, and whose western limits are guarded by the giant peaks of the
Rocky Mountains. Ever since these tribes became known to the fur-traders
of the North-west and Hudson Bay Companies there has existed this state
of hostility amongst them. The Crees, having been the first to obtain
fire-arms from the white traders, quickly-extended their boundaries, and
moving from the Hudson Bay and the region of the lakes overran the
plains of the Upper Saskatchewan. Fragments of other tribes scattered at
long intervals through the present country of the Crees attest this
conquest, and it is-probable that the whole Indian territory lying
between the Saskatchewan and the American boundary-line would have been
dominated over by this tribe had they not found themselves opposed by the
great Blackfeet nation, which dwelt along the sources of the Missouri.
Passing west from Edmonton, we enter the country of the Rocky Mountain
Stonies, a small tribe of Thickwood Indians dwelling along the source of
the North Saskatchewan and in the outer ranges of the Rocky Mountains,-a
fragment, no doubt, from the once-powerful Assineboine nation which has
found a refuge amidst the forests and mountains of the West. This tribe
is noted as possessing hunters and mountain guides of great energy and
skill. Although at war with the Blackfeet, collisions are not frequent
between them, as the Assineboines never go upon war-parties; and the
Blackfeet rarely venture into the wooded country.
Having spoken in detail of the Indian tribes inhabiting the line of
fertile country lying between Red River and the Rocky Mountains, it only
remains for me to allude to the Blackfeet with the confederate tribes of
Blood, Lurcees and Peagins. These tribes inhabit the great plains lying
between the Red Deer River and the Missouri, a vast tract of country
which, with few exceptions, is treeless, and sandy--a portion of the
true American desert, which extends from the fertile belt of the
Saskatchewan to the borders of Texas. With the exception of the Lurcees,
the other confederate tribes speak the same language--the Lurcees, being
a branch of the Chipwayans of the North, speak a language peculiar to
themselves, while at the same time understanding and speaking the
Blackfeet tongue. At war with their hereditary enemies, the Crees, upon
their northern and eastern boundaries--at war with Kootanais and
Flathead tribes on south and west--at war with Assineboines on the
south-east and north-west--carrying on predatory excursions against the
Americans on the Missouri, this Blackfeet nation forms a people of whom
it may truly be said that they are against every man, and that every man
is against them. Essentially a wild, lawless, erring race, whose natures
have received the stamps of the region in which they dwell; whose
knowledge is read from the great book which Day, Night, and the Desert
unfold to them; and who yet possess a rude eloquence, a savage pride,
and a wild love of freedom of their own. Nor are there other indications
wanting to lead to the hope that this tribe may yet be found to be
capable of yielding to influences to which they have heretofore been
strangers, namely, Justice and Kindness.
Inhabiting, as the Blackfeet do, a large extent of country which, from
the arid nature of its soil mist ever prove useless for purposes of
settlement and colonization, I do not apprehend that much difficulty will
arise between them and the whites, provided always that measures are
taken to guard against certain possibilities of danger, and that the
Crees are made to unnderstand that the forts and settlements along the
Upper Saskatchewan must be considered as neutral ground upon which
hostilities cannot be waged against the Black feet. As matters at present
stand, whenever the Blackfeet venture in upon a trading expedition to the
forts of the Hudson Bay Company they are generally assaulted by the
Crees, and savagely murdered. Pèe Lacombe estimates the nunber of
Blackfeet killed in and around Edmonton alone during his residence in the
West, at over forty men, and he has assured me that to his knowledge the
Blackfeet have never killed a Cree at that place, except in self-defence.
Mr. W. J. Christie, chief factor at Edmonton house, confirms this
statement. He says, "The Blackfeet respect the whites more than the Crees
do, that is, a Blackfoot will never attempt the life of a Cree at our
forts, and bands of them are more easily controlled in an excitement,
than Crees. It would be easier for one of us to save the life of a Cree
among a band of Blackfeet than it would be to save a Blackfoot in a band
of Crees." In consequence of these repeated assaults in the vicinity of
the forts, the Blackfeet can with difficulty be persuaded that the whites
are not in active alliance with the Crees. Any person who studies the
geographical position of the posts of the Hudson Bay Company cannot fail
to notice the immense extent of country intervening between the North
Saskatchewan and the American boundary-line in which there exists no fort
or trading post of the Company. This blank space upon the maps is the
country of the Blackfeet. Many years ago a post was established upon the
Bow River, in the heart of the Blackfeet country, but at that time they
were even more lawless than at present, and the position had to be
abandoned on account of the expenses necessary to keep up a large
garrison of servants. Since that time (nearly forty years ago) the
Blackfeet have only had the Rocky Mountain House to depend on for
supplies, and as it is situated far from the centre of their country it
only receives a portion of their trade. Thus we find a very active
business carried on by the Americans upon the Upper Missouri, and there
can be little doubt that the greater portion of robes, buffalo leather,
etc. traded by the Blackfeet finds its way down the waters of the
Missouri. There is also another point connected with Americau trade
amongst the Blackfeet to which I desire to draw special attention.
Indians visiting the Rocky Mountain House during the fall of 1870 have
spoken of the existence of a trading post of Americans from Fort Benton,
upon the Belly River, sixty miles within the British bounndary-line. They
have asserted that two American traders, well-known on the Missouri,
named Culverston and Healy, have established themselves at this post for
the purpose of trading alcohol, whiskey, and arms and ammunition of the
most improved description, with the Blackfeet Indians; and that an active
trade is being carried on in all these articles, which, it is said, are
constantly smuggled across the boundary-line by people from Fort Benton.
This story is apparently confirmed by the absence of the Blackfeet from
the Rocky Mountain House this season, and also from the fact of the arms
in question (repeating rifles) being found in possession of these
Indians. The town of Benton on the Missouri River has long been noted for
supplying the Indians with arms and ammunition; to such an extent has
this trade been carried on, that miners in Montana, who have suffered
from Indian attack, have threatened on some occasions to burn the stores
belonging to the traders, if the practice was continued. I have already
spoken of the great extent of the Blackfeet country; some idea of the
roamings of these Indians may be gathered from a circumstance connected
wit the trade of the Rocky Mountain House. During the spring and summer
raids which the Blackfeet make upon the Crees of the Middle Saskatchewan,
a number of horses belonging to the Hudson Bay Company and to settlers
are yearly carried away. It is a general practice for persons whose
horses have been stolen to send during the fall to the Rocky Mountain
House for the missing animals, although that station is 300 to 600 miles
distant from the places where the thefts have been committed. If the
horse has not perished from the ill treatment to which he has been
subjected by his captors, he is usually found at the above-named station,
to which he has been brought for barter in a terribly worn out condition.
In the Appendix marked B will be found information regarding the
localities occupied by-the Indian tribes, the names of the principal
chiefs, estimate of numbers in each tribe, and other information
connected with the aboriginal inhabitants, which for sake of clearness I
have arranged in a tabular form.
It now only remains for me to refer to the last clause in the
instructions under which I acted, before entering into an expression of
the views which I have formed upon the subject of what appears necessary
to be done in the interests of peace and order in the Saskatchewan.
The fur trade of the Saskatchewan District has long been in a declining
state, great scarcity of the richer descriptions of furs, competition of
free traders, and the very heavy expenses incurred in the maintenance of
large establishments, have combined to render the district a source of
loss to the Hudson Bay Company. This loss has, I believe, varied annually
from 2000 to 6000 pounds, but heretofore it has been somewhat
counter-balanced by the fact that the Inland Transport Line of the
Company was dependent for its supply of provisions upon the buffalo meat,
which of late years has only been procurable in the Saskatchewan. Now,
however; that buffalo can no longer be procured in numbers, the Upper
Saskatchewan becomes more than ever a burden to the Hudson Bay Company;
still the abandonment of it by the Company might be attended by more
serious loss to the trade than that which is incurred in its retention,
Undoubtedly the Saskatchewan, if abandoned by the Hudson Bay Company,
would be speedily occupied by traders from the Missouri, who would also
tap the trade of the richer fur-producing districts of Lesser Slave Lake
and the North. The products-of the Saskatchewan proper principally
consists of provisions, including pemmican and dry meat, buffalo robes
and leather, linx, cat, and wolf skins. The richer furs; such as otters,
minks, beavers, martins, etc., are chiefly procured in the Lesser Slave
Lake Division of the Saskatchewan District. With regard to the subject of
Free Trade in the Saskatchewan, it is at present conducted upon
principles quite different from those existing in Manitoba. The free men
or "winterers" are, strictly speaking, free traders, but they dispose of
the greater portion of their furs, robes, etc., to the Company. Some, it
is true, carry the produce of their trade or hunt (for they are both
hunters and traders) to Red River, disposing of it to the merchants in
Winnipeg, but I do not imagine that more than one-third of their trade
thus finds its way into the market. These free men are nearly all French
half-breeds, and are mostly outfitted by the Company. It has frequently
occurred that a very considerable trade has been carried on with alcohol,
brought by free men from the Settlement of Red River; and distributed to
Indians and others in the Upper Saskatchewan. This trade has been
productive of the very worst consequences, but the law prohibiting the
sale or possession of liquor is now widely known throughout the Western,
territory, and its beneficial effects have already been experienced.
I feel convinced that if the proper means are taken the suppression of
the liquor traffic of the West can be easily accomplished.
A very important subject is that which has reference to the communication
between the Upper Saskatchewan and Missouri Rivers.
Fort Benton on the Missouri has of late become a place of very
considerable importance as a post for the supply of the mining districts
of Montana. Its geographical position is favourable. Standing at the head
of the navigation of the Missouri, it commands: the trade of Idaho and
Montana.-'A steamboat, without breaking bulk, can go from New Orleans to
Benton, a distance of 4000 miles. Speaking from the recollection of
information obtained at Omaha three years ago, it takes about thirty days
to ascend the river from that town to Benton, the distance being about
2000 miles. Only boats drawing two or three feet of water can perform the
journey, as there are many shoals and shifting sands to obstruct heavier
vessels. It has been estimated that between thirty or forty steamboats
reached Benton during the course of last summer. The season, for
purposes of navigation, may be reckoned as having a duration of about
four months. Let us now travel north of the American boundary-line, and
see what effect Benton is likely to produce upon the trade of the
Saskatchewan. Edmonton lies N.N.W. from Benton about 370 miles. Carlton
about the same distance north-east. From both Carlton and Edmonton to
Fort Benton the country presents no obstacle whatever to the passage of
loaded carts or waggons, but the road from Edmonton is free from
Blackfeet during the summer months, and is better provided with wood and
water. For the first time in the history of the Saskatchewan, carts
passed safely from Edmonton to Benton during the course of last summer.
These carts, ten in number, started from Edmonton in the month of May,
bringing furs, robes, etc., to the Missouri. They returned in the month of
June with a cargo consisting of flour and alcohol.
The furs and robes realized good prices, and altogether the journey was
so successful as to hold out high inducements to other persons to attempt
it during the coming summer. Already the merchants of Benton are bidding
high for the possession of the trade of the Upper Saskatchewan, and
estimates have been received by missionaries offering to deliver goods at
Edmonton for 7 (American currency) per 100 lbs., all risks being insured.
In fact it has only been on account of the absence of a frontier custom
house that importations of bonded goods have not already been made via
Benton.
These facts speak for themselves.
Without doubt, if the natural outlet to the trade of the Saskatchewan,
namely the River Saskatchewan itself, remains in its present neglected
state, the trade of the Western territory will seek a new source, and
Benton will become to Edmonton what St. Paul in Minnesota is to Manitoba.
With a view to bringing the regions of the Saskatchewan into a state of
order and security, and to establish the authority and jurisdiction of
the Dominion Government, as well as to promote the colonization of the
country known as the "Fertile Belt," and particularly to guard against
the deplorable evils arising out of an Indian war, I would recommend the
following course for the consideration of your Excellency. 1st--The
appointment of a Civil Magistrate or Commissioner, after the model of
similar appointments in Ireland and in India. This official would be
required to make semi-annual tours through the Saskatchewan for the
purpose of holding courts; he would be assisted in the discharge of his
judicial functions by the civil magistrates of the Hudson Bay Company who
have been already nominated, and by others yet to be appointed from
amongst the most influential and respected persons of the French and
English half-breed population. This officer should reside in the Upper
Saskatchewan.
2nd. The organization of a well-equipped force of from 100 to 150 men,
one-third to be mounted, specially recruited and engaged for service in
the Saskatchewan; enlisting for two or three years service, and at
expiration of that period to become military settlers, receiving grants
of land, but still remaining as a reserve force should their services be
required.
3rd. The establishment of two Government stations, one on the Upper
Saskatchewan, in the neighbourhood of Edmonton, the other at the
junctions of the North and South Branches of the River Saskatchewan,
below Carlton. The establishment of these stations to be followed by the
extinguishment of the Indian title, within certain limits, to be
determined by the geographical features of the locality; for instance,
say from longitude of Carlton House eastward to junction of-two
Saskatchewans, the northern and southern limits being the river banks.
Again, at Edmonton, I would recommend the Government to take possession
of both banks of the Saskatchewan River, from Edmonton House to Victoria,
a distance of about 80 miles, with a depth of, say, from six to eight
miles. The districts thus taken possession of would immediately become
available for settlement, Government titles being given at rates which
would induce immigration. These are the three general propositions, with
a few additions to be mentioned hereafter, which I believe will, if
acted upon, secure peace and order to the Saskatchewan, encourage
settlement, and open up to the influences of civilized man one of the
fairest regions of the earth. For the sake of clearness, I have em
bodied these three suggestions in the shortest possible forms. I will now
review the reasons which recommend their adoption and the benefits likely
to accrue from them.
With reference to the first suggestion, namely, the appointment of a
resident magistrate, or civil commissioner. I would merely observe that
the general report which I have already made on the subject of the state
of the Saskatchewan, as well as the particular statement to be found in
the Appendix marked D, will be sufficient to prove the necessity of that
appointment. With regard, however, to this appointment as connected with
the other suggestion of military force and Government stations or
districts, I have much to advance. The first pressing necessity is the
establishment, as speedily as possible, of some civil authority which
will give a distinct and tangible idea of Government to the native and
half-breed population, now so totally devoid of the knowledge of what law
and civil government may pertain to. The establishment of such an
authority, distinct from, and independent of, the Hudson Bay Company, as
well as from any missionary body situated in the country, would
inaugurate a new series of events, a commencement, as it were, of
civilization in these vast regions, free from all associations connected
with the former history of the country, and separate from the rival
systems of missionary enterprise, while at the same time lending
countenance and support to all. Without some material force to render
obligatory the ordinances of such an authority matters would, I believe,
become even worse than they are at present, where the wrong-doer does not
appear to violate any law, because there is no law to violate. On the
other hand, I am strongly of opinion that any military force which would
merely be sent to the forts of the Hudson Bay Company would prove only a
source of useless expenditure to the Dominion Government, leaving matters
in very much the same state as they exist at present, affording little
protection outside the immediate circle of the forts in question, holding
out no inducements to the establishment of new settlements, and liable to
be mistaken by the ignorant people of the country for the-hired defenders
of the Hudson Bay Company. Thus it seems to me that force without
distinct civil government would be useless, and that civil government
would be powerless without a material force. Again, as to the purchase of
Indian rights upon certain localities and the formation of settlements,
it must be borne in mind that no settlement is possible in the
Saskatchewan until some such plan is adopted.
People will not build houses, rear stock, or cultivate land in places
where their cattle are liable to be killed and their crops stolen. It
must also be remembered that the Saskatchewan offers at present not only
a magnificent soil and a fine climate, but also a market for all farming
produce at rates which are exorbitantly high. For instance, flour sells
from 2 pounds 10 shillings to 5 pounds per 100 lbs.; potatoes from 5
shillings to 7 shillings a bushel; and other commodities in proportion.
No apprehension need be entertained that such settlements would remain
isolated establishments. There are at the present time many persons
scattered through the Saskatchewan who wish to become farmers and
settlers, but hesitate to do so in the absence of protection and
security. These persons are old servants of the Hudson Bay Company who
have made money, or hunters whose lives have been passed in the great
West, and who now desire to settle down. Nor would another class of
settler be absent. Several of the missionaries in the Saskatchewan have
been in correspondence with persons in Canada who desire to seek a home
in this western land, but who have been advised to remain in their
present country until matters have become more settled along the
Saskatchewan. The advantages of the localities which I have specified,
the junction of the branches of the Saskatchewan River and the
neighbourhood of Edmonton, may be stated as follows:--Junction of north
and south branch--a place of great future military and commercial
importance, commanding navigation of both rivers; enjoys a climate
suitable to the production of all cereals and roots, and a soil of
unsurpassed fertility; is situated about midway between Red River and the
Rocky Mountains, and possesses abundant and excellent supplies of timber
for building and fuel; is below the presumed interruption to steam
navigation on Saskatchewan River known as "Coal Falls," and is situated
on direct cart-road from Manitoba to Carlton.
Edmonton, the centre of the Upper Saskatchewan, also the centre of a
large population (half-breed)-country lying between it and Victoria very
fertile, is within easy reach of Blackfeet, Cree, and Assineboine
country; summer frosts often injurious to wheat, but all other crops
thrive well, and even wheat is frequently a large and productive crop;
timber for fuel plenty, and for building can be obtained in large
quantities ten miles distant; coal in large quantities on bank of river
and gold at from three to ten dollars a day in sand bars.
Only one other subject remains for consideration (I presume that the
establishment of regular mail communication and steam navigation would
follow the adoption of the course I have recommended, and, therefore,
have not thought fit to introduce them), and to that subject I will now
allude before closing this Report, which has already reached proportions
very much larger than I had anticipated. I refer to the Indian question,
and the best mode of dealing with it. As the military protection of the
linq of the Saskatchewan against Indian attack would be a practical
impossibility without a very great expenditure of money, it becomes
necessary that all precautions should be taken to prevent the outbreak of
an Indian war, which, if once commenced, could not fail to be productive
of evil consequences. I would urge the advisability of sending a
Commissioner to meet the tribes of the Saskatchewan during their summer
assemblies.
It must be borne in mind that the real Indian Question exists many
hundred miles west of Manitoba, in a region where the red man wields a
power and an influence of his own. Upon one point I would recommend
particular caution, and that is, in the selection of the individual for
this purpose. I have heard a good deal of persons who were said to
possess great knowledge of the Indian character, and I have seen enough
of the red man to estimate at its real worth the possession of this
knowledge. Knowledge of Indian character has too long been synonymous
with knowledge of how to cheat the Indian--a species of cleverness which,
even in the science of chicanery, does not require the exercise of the
highest abilities. I fear that the Indian has already had too many
dealings with persons of this class, and has now got a very shrewd idea
that those who possess this knowledge of his character have also managed
to possess themselves of his property.
With regard to the objects to be attended to by a Commission of the kind
I have referred to, the principal would be the establishment of peace
between the warring tribes of Crees and Blackfeet. I believe that a peace
duly entered into, and signed by the chiefs of both nations, in the
presence and under the authority of a Government Commissioner, with that
show of ceremony and display so dear to the mind of the Indian, would be
lasting in its effects. Such a peace should be made on the basis of
restitution to Government in case of robbery. For instance, during time
of peace a Cree steals five horses from a Black-foot. In that case the
particular branch of the Cree nation to which the thief belonged would
have to give up ten horses to Government, which would be handed over to
the Black-feet as restitution and atonement. The idea of peace on some
such understanding occurred to me in the Saskatchewan, and I questioned
one of the most influential of the Cree chiefs upon the subject. His
answer to me-was that his band would agree to such a proposal and abide
by it, but that he could not speak for the other bands. I would also
recommend that medals, such as those given to the Indian chiefs of Canada
and Lake Superior many years ago, be distributed among the leading men of
the Plain Tribes. It is astonishing with what religious veneration these
large silver medals have been preserved by their owners through all the
vicissitudes of war and time, and with what pride the well-polished
effigy is still pointed out, and the words "King George" shouted by the
Indian, who has yet a firm belief in the present existence of that
monarch. If it should be decided that a body of troops should be
despatched to the West, I think it very advisable that the officer in
command of such body should make himself thoroughly acquainted with the
Plain Tribes, visiting them at least annually in their camps, and
conferring with them on points connected with their interest. I am also
of opinion that if the Government establishes itself in the Saskatchewan,
a third post': should be formed, after the lapse of a year, at the
junction of the Medicine and Red Deer Rivers in latitude 52.18 north, and
longitude 114.15 west, about 90 miles south of Edmonton. This position is
well within the Blackfeet country, possesses a good soil, excellent
timber, and commands the road to Benton. This post need not be the centre
of a settlement, but merely a military, customs, missionary, and trading
establishment.
Such, Sir, are the views which I have formed upon the whole question of
the existing state of affairs in the Saskatchewan. They result from the
thought and experience of-many long days of travel through a large
portion of the region to which they have reference. If I were asked
from what point of view I have looked upon this question, I would answer
From that point which sees a vast country lying, as it were, silently
awaiting the approach of the immense wave of human life which rolls
unceasingly from Europe to America. Far off as lie the regions of the
Saskatchewan from the Atlantic sea-board on which that wave is thrown,
remote as are the fertile glades which fringe the eastern slopes of the
Rocky Mountains, still that wave of human life is destined to reach those
beautiful solitudes, and to convert the wild luxuriance of their now
Useless vegetation into all the requirements of civilized existence. And
If it-be matter for desire that across this immense continent, resting
upon the two greatest oceans of the world, a powerful nation should.
arise with the strength and the manhood which race and climate and
tradition would assign to it--a nation which would look with no evil eye
upon the old mother land from whence it sprung, a nation which, having no
bitter memories to recall would have no idle prejudices to perpetuate
then surely it is worthy of all toil of hand and brain, on the part of
those who to-day rule, that this great link in the chain of such a future
nationality should no longer remain undeveloped, a prey to the conflicts
of savage races, at once the garden and the wilderness of the Central
Continent.
W. F. BUTLER, Lieutenant, 69th Regiment. Manitoba, 10th March, 1871.