In reply, his excellency has transmitted to me for the information of the
Government of the United States copy of a report of a committee of the privy
council of Canada, appointed by him on the 17th instant, accompanied by a
memorandum upon the subject signed by the Canadian minister of the interior,
copy of which two documents I have the honor to inclose.
[Inclosure 1.]
Copy of a report of a committee of the honorable the
privy council for Canada, approved by his excellency the
governor-general on the 17th March,
1879.
The committee of council have had under consideration the dispatch of the
14th February last from the right honorable Sir Edward Thornton to your
excellency, on the subject of an alleged concentration of Indians of
various tribes in the Bear Paw Mountains, within the United States
territory.
They have also had before them a memorandum dated 28th February, 1879,
from the honorable the minister of the interior, to whom said dispatch
has been referred, and they concur in the views and recommendations
contained in said memorandum, and submit the same for your excellency’s
approval, and recommend that a copy of this minute, and of the
memorandum, be transmitted to Sir Edward Thornton for the information of
the United States Government.
Certified:
W. A. HIMSWORTH,
Clerk Privy Council,
Canada.
[Inclosure 2.]
Memorandum from the minister of the
interior.
Department of the Interior,
Ottawa, February 28,
1879.
In the matter of the dispatch of the 14th instant, from the right
honorable Sir Edward Thornton to his excellency the governor-general, on
the subject of an alleged concentration of Indians of various tribes
from British territory in the Bear Paw Mountains, within United States
territory, the undersigned has the honor to report for the information
of his excellency that he has caused inquiry to be made of the officer
in command of the Northwest Mounted Police at Fort Walsh as to the
facts, and has further requested, in the event of such gathering having
occurred, that all the information obtainable be furnished as to the
object of the movement.
In the mean time, pending the receipt of the information asked for, the
undersigned begs to express the conviction that the reason alleged in
the communication of Mr. Seward to Sir Edward Thornton, under date of
the 13th instant, for the general convergence of all these Indians
toward that section of country will be found to be the true one—that is
to say, the pursuit of the buffalo, which they claim is nowhere else to
be found north of the Missouri River.
The undersigned is further of opinion, should the alleged movement be
shown to have taken place, that it will prove to have been the result of
necessity on the part of the Indians to follow the buffalo across the
boundary line and into the United States territory, in order to procure
food for themselves and their families, the herds having been driven
south by the incessant warfare waged upon them for actual subsistence by
large numbers of foreign Indians at present within Canadian territory in
addition to our own Indians.
The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity to mention the anxiety
which he feels respecting the anomalous and critical condition of Indian
affairs in the southwest portion of the territories of Canada, in
consequence of the continued presence there of large bodies of Indians
who crossed the boundary for refuge from United States troops in 1876.
The formidable character of this element, and its disturbing tendencies
considered in relation to our own Indians, and its effect upon their
only source of food supply, must continue to excite serious
apprehensions as to the ultimate
[Page 490]
consequences, should such an arrangement not soon he made as will
result in the return of the foreign Indians to their own country.
The best authorities agree in representing five years as the maximum
period for which the food wants of the Indians of the plains may he to
any reasonable extent supplied from the buffalo, and the situation is
rendered all the more critical from day to day during the period, in
consequence of the risk of a collision between our own Indians and those
of the United States within our territory, increasing as that risk does
in exact proportion to the decrease of this means of sustenance.
Had it not been for the excellent temper shown throughout by our Indians
during the past two years and a half, in view of the presence among them
of such large numbers of foreign bands, whose only means of subsistence
has been drawn from their food supply,
disturbances seriously compromising the two governments might before now
have occurred.
It is only fair, however, to Sitting Bull and the other principal chiefs
of the United States Indians who took refuge in our territory to say
that their conduct has been of a character to which no exception
whatever can be taken. But it is hardly reasonable to suppose that the
next few years can be got over without, to say the least, great
inconvenience being caused to the two governments from the ebb and flow
of the Indians of both countries across the boundary. The Dominion will
be called upon immediately—indeed the question has already forced itself
upon us—to determine how our Indians of the plains are to be subsisted
when the supply of food afforded by the buffalo shall have been
exhausted. The difficulty of carrying out any policy with such view
will, it is not necessary to say, be enhanced to a serious extent by the
presence in the territories of large numbers of United States Indians
having no means of living, and who, therefore, cannot be regarded in any
other light than as a marauding element, and consequently antagonistic
to the peace of the country.
It is hardly necessary for the undersigned to remind his excellency that
the Canadian Government are in no way responsible for the condition of
affairs under discussion. The Indians in question were driven into
Canadian territory after having been worsted by United States troops,
with whom they had come into collision in consequence, it is said,
whether rightly or wrongly, of difficulties arising out of unjust
treatment they had received at the hands of agents of the government in
the matter of treaty promises. The nomadic habits of these Indians, and
the facility with which they move from place to place, render it
impossible for the Government of Canada to drive them back, and the only
way out of the difficulty, which suggests itself, is for the Government
of the United States to take such measures as may induce them to return
to their proper allegiance and their own country. It may be said that
efforts already made with that view have been unsuccessful. It is
equally true, however, that these efforts were made very shortly after
the Indians arrived in Canada, before the feeling of bitter animosity
entertained by them to the United States troops and government had had
time to be at all softened, and especially at a time when buffalo were
abundant in Canadian territory. There is some reason to believe that a
different spirit might be exhibited by Sitting Bull and the other
leading chiefs were they approached at the present time in a friendly
way by the Government of the United States with propositions of a
similar, and, if possible, more lenient character than those formerly
rejected, and the undersigned respectfully recommends that this course
be strongly urged upon the United States Government, and, should they be
willing to make another attempt to obtain the removal of these Indians
back to their own territory, the undersigned feels sure that the
Dominion Government will cheerfully cooperate, so far as can be
reasonably expected, in bringing about so desirable a consummation.
Respectfully submitted.
JOHN A. MACDONALD,
Minister of the
Interior.
