[Inclosure.]
Copy of a report of a committee of the honorable the
privy council for Canada, approved by his excellency the
governor-general on the 25th August,
1879.
The committee of council have had under consideration a memorandum dated
31st July, 1879, from the honorable Sir Alexander Campbell, acting in
the absence of the minister of the interior, to whom has been referred a
dispatch dated July 5 last, from Sir Edward Thornton, transmitting a
note dated July 3, with inclosure from Mr. Seward, Acting Secretary of
State, Washington, relating to the alleged invasion of the territory of
the United States by British Indians and half-breeds.
Sir A. Campbell submits that he has been in constant receipt of advices
from the officer in command of the Northwest mounted police, and from
officials of the Indian branch of the Department of the Interior, in the
vicinity of Forts Walsh and Macleod, but that it has not come to his
knowledge, nor can he believe, that any British Indians or half-breeds
have crossed into the United States with any intention of a hostile
nature.
That he is aware that a number of our Indians and half-breeds last winter
followed the buffalo, which had deserted British territory, south of the
line.
That this course was, however, forced upon them, as the buffalo afford
their only means of living, and they would otherwise have been reduced
to a condition of starvation. That, moreover, the Indians in question,
in common with all others in the buffalo country, are nomadic in their
habits, and have always been accustomed to follow the buffalo in the
migration of the latter north or south, as the case might be,
irrespective of whether they were on British or United States soil.
Sir Alexander represents that the government is doing all in its power,
by establishing farming agencies to instruct the Indians and half-breeds
in farming and in raising cattle, in the meantime supplying those in
need with food, to render these people self-sustaining and thus do away
with any necessity for their leaving our own territory.
The committee recommend that a copy of the foregoing minute, when
approved, be transmitted to Sir Edward Thornton for the information of
the Government of the United States.
Certified:
W. A. HIMSWORTH,
Clerk Privy Council,
Canada.
