No Surrender by Sheldon Krasowski

Author:Sheldon Krasowski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Regina Press
Published: 2018-11-21T20:09:59+00:00

The Treaty Four Negotiations

When the Canadian government finally approved the negotiation of Treaty Four, Alexander Morris instructed Pascal Breland to “inform the Indians that they will be visited next summer and that their rights will be respected and all things connected to the lands arranged to their satisfaction.”54 Breland was a member of the North West Council and a prominent Métis politician and farmer. Like James McKay, he had married into a prosperous family. His success as a trader was guaranteed with his marriage to Marie Grant, the daughter of Cuthbert Grant. Marie inherited her father’s exemption from the HBC trade monopoly, so Breland was free to trade with the Cree and Nakoda in the Qu’Appelle area.55 Morris had relied on Breland to visit the Sioux who had crossed the international border, and his subsequent report was well received by both Morris and the governor general.56 According to his report on the Treaty Four preparations, Breland left Fort Garry on September 18, 1873, with three wagons of presents to distribute to the Chiefs. He sent a messenger to Vermillion Hills asking the Cree, Saulteaux, and Nakoda in the vicinity to meet with him. Breland met the “assembly of forty Indians, more Crees than Sau[l]teaux,” on October 29 and read out the dispatch from Morris and distributed the presents. Apparently, “there was great excitement among them, they fearing that by accepting the said presents they would compromise their lands and their rights, but after considerable explanation I was able to convince them and to dispel their distrust.” Breland stated that Chief Ka-ku-shi-way accepted the presents, “but he accepted them as presents only and not in any other light.” Ka-ku-shi-way stated that “you will thank him [Morris] in my name and that of all my men who are here for the magnificent presents which he has sent us, that we will always keep him in kind remembrance, and we hope that he will continue to assist us in our deep distress.”57 This “distress” was likely the result of increased competition with the Métis and Euro-Canadian settlers combined with decreased numbers of bison on the plains.

Breland added that the Saulteaux Chief present (not identified) made a similar speech. Chief Ka-ku-shi-way’s reference to continued assistance was in connection to Breland’s explanation that “during the summer of 1874, Indian commissioners will visit them and renew the presents given them this year and be authorized to assure them that they will not be interfered with in their hunting grounds without treaties being made with them to their satisfaction.”58 Unfortunately, Breland’s meeting at Vermillion Hills was the only one documented, which probably explains why the Cree, Saulteaux, and Nakoda Nations were slow to gather at Fort Qu’Appelle for the Treaty Four negotiations and why Chief Piapot and other Cree Chiefs hunting bison in the Cypress Hills were absent. The absent Chiefs did not concern Morris. His experience at Lake of the Woods illustrated the benefit of holding the main treaty negotiations with a smaller number of Chiefs and relying on commissioners to negotiate adhesions to the treaty at a later date.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.