No. 288.
Mr. West to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Washington, March 15, 1883.
(Received March 16)
Sir: Referring to your note of the 26th of
January last, I have the honor to inclose copy of an approved report of
a committee of the privy council of Canada, to which is appended an
article from the Benton Record on the subject of the alleged incursions
of British Indians into Montana Territory.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosuue l.]
Report of a committee of the privy council for
Canada, approved by the Governor-General on the 6th of
March, 1883.
The committee of the privy council have had under consideration a
dispatch from his excellency Her Majesty’s minister at Washington,
of the 30th January ultimo, inclosing a communication from the
United States Government concerning certain alleged incursions of
British Indians into Montana Territory.
The right honorable Sir John MacDonald, to whom this dispatch was
referred, reports that the lieutenant-governor of the Northwest
Territories states that the reports of such incursions are not based
upon good authority, and that he is informed and believes that very
few, if any, Canadian Indians have crossed into the United States
territory this winter.
[Page 496]
That in connection with ibis subject he, the lieutenant-governor, has
transmitted to the right honorable the first minister an article
which appeared in the Benton Record of the 12th January last, copy
of which is herewith annexed.
The committee advise that a copy of this minute, when approved, be
transmitted to Her Majesty’s minister at Washington, for the
information of the United States Government.
JOHN J. McGEE,
Cleric Privy
Council, Canada.
[Inclosure 2.—Extract from the Benton
Record of January 12, 1883.]
indian depredations.
“The Indian Office has received advices that Canadian Indians are
overrunning Northern Montana. They are mostly hostile Sioux; they
have obtained arms, ammunition and whisky in unlimited quantities,
and a collision between them and the troops is imminent.”
The above from the Washington World of the 30th ultimo will be news
for the residents of this section.
We are not aware that Canadian Indians are at present raiding or
overrunning Northern Montana, but the cattle-men of this section are
suffering continually from American agency Indians, who are
slaughtering cattle because they are mostly in a starving condition
and unable to obtain from the agencies the food that they have been
given to understand properly belongs to them. It looks very much as
though The Interior Department had been notified that Canadian
Indians were overrunning the northern border in order to counteract
the effect of Montana newspaper reports that the agency Indians were
causing the trouble.
True, it is not a great while ago that the Sitting Bull Sioux were a
standing menace to the whole of Northern Montana, and the Cree
Indians and the Canadian half-breeds have, when they saw fit, taken
possession of Northern Montana and used it for hunting and trading
at will; but when this state of affairs existed there was nothing
more difficult in the world than to convince the Washington
authorities that there were Canadian subjects taking unlawful
privileges on American soil, and now that no one is troubled with
either half-breeds or Indians from the other side of the boundary
line we find that the Department is receiving repoits to the
contrary. The truth probably is that the Montana newspaper reports
of Piegan cattle thieves are likely to cause trouble if it cannot be
shown that the agency Indians are not to blame; hence the agent with
his usual shrewdness has started the report that the Canadian
Indians are overrunning Northern Montana.
