[Inclosure 1.]
Report of a committee of the privy council for
Canada, approved by the Governor-General on the 24th of July, 1883.
The committee of the privy council have had under consideration a
dispatch dated 18th April, 1883, from the British minister at
Washington, as to alleged forays of Indians on American territory,
and transmitting correspondence from the Hon. Mr. Frelinghuysen, the
United States Secretary of State, in which counter-proposals for the
prevention of the raids complained of are made, based upon the
agreements between the United States and Mexico.
The superintendent-general of Indian affairs, to whom the dispatch in
question and correspondence were referred, submits a report, under
date April, 1883, from the Hon. Edgar Dewdney, Indian commissioner
for the Northwest Territories, and he concurs in the view by the
Indian commissioner.
The committee recemmend that your excellency be moved to transmit a
copy of this minute, when approved, together with a copy of the
Indian commissioner’s report, to the British minister at
Washington.
JOHN J. McGEE,
Cleric Privy
Council for Canada.
[Inclosure
2.—Memorandum.]
In reference to the correspondence submitted to me by his excellency
the Governor-General, conveying a counter-proposition from the
United States Government for the prevention of Indian raids into
their territories, based on an agreement between the
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United States and Mexico, providing
for the reciprocal crossing of the international boundary line by
the troops of the respective Governments in pursuit of savage
Indians, I have the honor to report that I consider it would be very
unwise for our Government to assent to such an arrangement.
I know of no circumstances which should warrant such exceptional
measure being now taken.
The incursions of war parties of British Indians into the United
States, as well as of American Indians into British territory, are
getting less frequent than heretofore, and I fancy after this winter
will have entirely ceased.
Our Crees and Assinniboines, who, up to last year, have been hunting
the buffalo south of the line, will be compelled to go north and
settle on their reserve. With these removed from the south there
will be no Indians on the boundary line who will be likely to cause
trouble in the United States territory.
During last winter a large number of our Indians wintered at Fort
Walsh, and lam informed a couple of war parties started out with the
avowed intention of recovering some horses stolen from them by the
South Piegans, and, I believe, were successful. With-this exception
I think our Indians have remained on our own territory.
Fort Walsh, a post which our worthless Indians have for some time
made a rendezvous, is about to be abandoned. The police will,
however, now that the railway runs to Maple Creek, within
twenty-eight miles of Fort Walsh, be available at short notice for
any work required on the frontier. A few men will be stationed at
Maple Creek. Any further assistance required can be drawn at short
notice from Regina, Medicine Hat, and in a month or two from
Calgarry. There is also a detachment of police at Wood Mountain.
In a very short time I expect to see the south part of our territory
pretty thickly settled. Wood Mountain has already a large settlement
of half-breeds who intend to make that district their home. It would
be very exasperating to them, who already think, rightly or wrongly,
they have been harshly treated by the United States Government, to
see American troops crossing our frontier in pursuit of Indians,
their relations. I do not think they could be controlled if such
were allowed.
The railway, which has reached Maple Creek, has opened the Fort Walsh
district to white settlers, who are already crossing in large
numbers, and as we have no desert or country that is likely to be
unpopulated for a length of time along the boundary line between
Fort Walsh and Wood Mountain, every acre almost being available for
settlement, the arrangement as agreed upon between the United States
Government and the Mexican Government would be of no effect in so
short a time that I think we should not run the risk of
complications worse than that of Indian raids. I see no objection to
the course proposed to be taken by the United States Government
towards our Indians who may be found south of the boundary line for
the future, viz: to take from them their arms, horses, carts, robes
and tents, and then put them across the boundary line.
They have now no excuse for crossing the frontier in large parties;
the buffalo are too far south and too much scattered to be hunted to
advantage by them for food; they have been warned by our agents that
should they cross the line they must take the consequences.
Section 2134 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, to which
reference is made in the dispatch of Mr. Sackville West to the
Governor-General, provides for the punishment of foreigners entering
the Indian country of the United States without a passport, and I
presume that the reference to that section is to be accepted as a
refusal on the part of the United States to entertain the
propositions contained in the order in council of the 24th April,
1882, to the effect that a system of permits might be adopted to
enable Indians of either country to cross the boundary for the
purpose of hunting, and visiting relations.
By the same order in council it was suggested that some arrangement
should be made between Her Majesty’s Government and that of the
United States, by which Indians on either side should, on complaint
under oath charging them with felonies or serious outrages against
property, be arrested and surrendered for trial in the country where
the offenses had been committed, notwithstanding that such offenses
might not come under the terms of the existing extradition
treaties.
The order in council also called attention to the statute of Canada
32, 33 Vic, cap. 21, sec. 112, which provides for the punishment of
persons bringing into Canada property stolen in any other
country.
As no reference to these suggestions is made in the papers
transmitted by Mr. West, it might possibly be deemed well to again
call the attention of the United States Government thereto.
Respectfully submitted.
E. DEWDNEY,
Indian
Commissioner.
