b'Lawman continued from page 31by Alexander Morris (Lieutenant Governor), William J.Then the sagacious Crowfoot, leader of the Blackfootpolicemen, trying to provoke them into a fight. The two Christie (Indian Commissioner), the Cree and SaulteauxConfederacy, a warrior and medicine man of many years andyoung men in the pillbox hats and scarlet tunics quietly Tribes of Indians, and all Indians inhabiting the districtmany battles rose to speak. Addressing the British Governorsit on their horses. The minutes tick by. Birds wheel in the hereafter. First Nations receives limited reserve land,General David Laird, his friend, the Mountie administratorsky. The chief remains impassive. The young Crees gallop and monetary compensation, farming tools, a monetaryJames McLeod, known to the chief as Stamix Otokan, andabout. Finally, the sergeant speaks again. "Time\'s up!" he allowance for gunpowder, shot, bale, and fishing net twinethe assembled chiefs and tribes, Crowfoot said, "We aresays, and, throwing his reins to the constable, he springs totaling $750/year, the right to hunt and fish on succeededthe children of the plains, it is our home, and the buffalofrom his steed, strides to the tepee, and kicks down the land except that already used by Canada for resourcehas been our food always, I hope you will look upon thetentpoles. The painted buffalo skin collapses. Other tepees extraction or settlement and schools on reserves. CanadaBlackfeet, Bloods, and Sarcees as your children now, and thattopple under the kicks of his polished boot. "Now git," says obtains land rights, protection for land used for resourceyou will be indulgent and charitable to them. If the Policethe sergeant and astonishingly the Indians obey. Piapot has extraction or settlement from indigenous hunting/fishing,had not come to the country where would we be now? Badbeen stripped of his dignity. This incident, told and retold and restricted alcohol use on reserves. men and whiskey were killing us so fast that very few, indeed,in most of the books about the early days of the North of us would have been left today. I wish them all good andWest Mounted Police, helped to bolster the tradition of the Treaty Five was signed on September 20, 1875, (adhesionstrust that all our hearts will increase in goodness from thisRedcoats as fearless upholders of the law. Yet, in the light of in February 1889) at Beren\'s River, Norway House, Grandtime forward. I am satisfied. I will sign the treaty" (Tanner,the Indians\' tragedy, it is inexpressibly sad, and the day was Rapids by Alexander Morris(Lieutenant Governor),The Canadians, p. 176). swiftly approaching when no mounted police would again James McKay(Indian Commissioner), the Saulteauxand dare to act in such a fashion. The Indians, already beginning SwampyCree Tribes of Indians, and all other IndiansThe treaties would have kept peace on the plains for most ofto feel that they had nothing to lose, were growing bolder" inhabiting the district hereafter. First Nations receivesthe following decade and might have assured lasting peace(Berton, Pierre, The Last Spike: The Great Railway 1881-limited reserve land, and monetary compensation,had the Canadian authorities followed the Mountie way in1885, 2001, Random House of Canada, p. 234).farming tools, monetary allowance for gunpowder, shot,both establishing trust and keeping the promises with thebale, and fishing net twine totaling $300/year, the righttribes and with the increasingly dissatisfied Metis. But it wasThe new Lieutenant Governor, another MacDonald crony to hunt and fish on succeeded land except that alreadynot meant to be. As the buffalo died off, the tribes becamenamed Edgar Dewdney, did nothing at all to reassure used by Canada for resource extraction or settlementincreasingly restless, even the great Crowfoot disillusionedboth the Indian and the Metis of Ottawa\'s good intention. and schools on reserves when desired by First Nations,and at times angry over Ottawa\'s lack of concern and theDewdney, a former British civil servant sent out west and deemed appropriate by Canada. Canada obtains landsporadic food deliveries. Increasingly the white settlers wereby MacDonald to administer the territories, had, like rights, protection for land used for resource extractionmoving onto lands promised to be set aside for the Indian.McDougall before, an intense dislike for the west, for or settlement from indigenous hunting/fishing, restrictedEven more so was the anger of the Metis, kicked off theirthe people who lived there, and the rudimentary living alcohol use on reserves, and full control ofconditions so far removed from the elegance schooling on reserves. of Ottawa. Short-tempered and cantankerous, Dewdney drastically curtailed food deliveries to Treaty Six was signed on August 28, 1876,the tribes and dismissed the anguished outcries of (adhesion 9 September 1876, and Februarythe dispossessed Metis.1889) at Fort Carlton, Fort Pitt by Alexander Morris(Lieutenant Governor), JamesMcKay(Indian Commissioner), William J.Besides noting some of Dewdney\'s least desirable Christie (Indian Commissioner), the Plaincharacter traits, Canadian Journalist Mary and Wood Cree Tribes of Indians, and allJanigan commented: "History had not treated him other Indians inhabiting the district hereafter.(Dewdney) kindly. Dewdney followed Ottawa\'sFirst Nations receives limited reserve land,instructions and denied food to Aboriginals who and monetary compensation, farming tools,would not grow crops on their reserves. He also monetary allowance for gunpowder, shot,paid too little attention to Metis land claims. In bale, and fishing net twine totaling $1500/year,mid-1884 Saskatchewan Metis asked Louis Riel the right to hunt and fish on succeeded landto ease their plight. It was an unfortunate strategy except that already used by Canada for resourceif only now Riel now considered himself to be extraction or settlement, schools on reservesa divine prophet. But the times were ripe for when desired by First Nations, and deemedprotest. Many westerners, not just the Metis, were appropriate by Canada, a medicine chest clauseoffended by the federal government\'s absentee implemented, and additional assistance forChiefs Big Bear and Poundmaker of the Plains Cree decrees and resented federal officials, who knew pestilence or famine relief. Canada obtains landalmost nothing about local conditions. By the rights, protection for land used for resourceown land through a combination of land mismanagementtime Dewdney finally acknowledged native extraction or settlement from indigenous hunting/fishing,and outright lies. This period, roughly 1881-1884, thatstarvation and Metis unrest in early 1885, it was too late" restricted alcohol use on reserves and control of healthcarecoincided with the end of the teeming buffalo herds and the(Janigan, Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark, p.76).on reserves through the medicine chest initiative. incompetence and lack of vision of Canadian officials wouldlead to the third reason for that second Riel Rebellion. ThisThe desperate Metis called upon the legendary buffalo Treaty Seven was signed on September 22, 1877, at thewas the period of Canadian "benign neglect," a period wherehuntsman and sharpshooter Gabriel Dumont, to go find "Blackfoot Crossing" of the Bow River, Fort Macleod byMounties and friendly priests would issue warning afterRiel, fetch him and bring him home to lead his people. Riel David Laird(Government Official), James Macleod(Indianwarning to the authorities, only to be ignored or dismissedhad spent most of the last 14 years in exile in Montana, Commissioner),the Blackfoot, Blood, Piegan, Sarcee, Stony,until it was way too late. becoming an American citizen, a family man having and all other Indians inhabiting the district hereafter. married a local American Half-Breed woman, and was First Nations receives limited reserve land, and monetaryThe disappearance and destruction of the buffalo had ateaching children at a missionary school. While still revered compensation, farming tools, monetary allowance forprofound effect on the morale and well-being of all theby the general Metis populace, Riel himself was not a ammunition totaling $2000/year, the right to hunt andtribes, but most particularly the Plains Cree, led by theirmetally well man. He had begun to suffer from delusions fish on succeeded land except that already used by Canadachiefs Big Bear and Poundmaker. Big Bear, in particular,of grandeur, a "messiah complex" if you will. Agreeing for resource extraction or settlement, to have the right towas offended by the terms of Treaty Number Six andto return with Dumont, he saw himself as a modern-day build and maintain infrastructure on reserves, and a salaryrefused to sign it until December 1882. Other Cree leaders,Moses, leading his Metis people back to their promised allocated to hire a school teacher for reserve school. Canadadesperate and angry, took matters into their own handsland of the Plains and of their river land grants, either not obtains land rights, protection for land used for resourceenraged by the lack of compliance of the promise of landcomprehending or refusing to acknowledge that things had extraction or settlement from indigenous hunting/fishing,reserves, reserves where tracks for the coming Canadianchanged in the Northwest territory. He was also a fatalist, and restricted alcohol use on reserves. Pacific Railroad were already being laid by the summer ofwith a premonition of his own violent, early death. Staring1882. One Cree chief, Piapot, took matters into his ownat a hillside near Fort Benton on his way home to Canada, Perhaps the most important of the Numbered Treatieshands by informing the railroad not to move any further onRiel gloomily told an American minister acquaintance: was the last one, hurriedly put into place as a new, serioushis hunting grounds. Two Mounties then rode to the scene"Father, I see a gallows on top of that hill, and I am swinging equation entered into the already tense relations between theof Piapot\'s intransigence.from it" (Tanner, The Canadians, p.198).Canadians and the Tribes, after the arrival from across the American border of Sitting Bull and the Sioux, fresh fromNoted Canadian Historian Pierre Berton explains: TheWith Riel\'s return to Canada in July 1884, and with the wiping out Custer at the Little Big Horn and determined tosergeant tells the chief that he must make way for theconditions for conflict between the Metis and Native Tribes get away from the "long knives." Many of the tribal leaders,railway. The brown old man refuses to budge. The sergeantand Canada increased, it was the local priests - and those in spite of the promises of land reserves, money, hunting ontakes out his watch. "I will give you just fifteen minutes," hestalwart young men in their redcoats whose word had been government land, and farm training, were emboldened bysays. "By the end of that time you haven\'t begun to complytrusted by the people of the west, and whose promises, the arrival of the Sioux and balked at signing the agreements.with the order, we shall make you." The braves jostle theif not Ottawa\'s, had been kept, that futilely sounded the 32 October 2019'