place upon their country as a great storehouse of mineral and
other wealth, enlivened otherwise by the sensible decrease of
their once unfailing resources. These events were, of course,
the Government borings for petroleum, the formation of parties
to prospect, with a view to developing, the minerals of Great Slave
Lake, but, above all, the inroad of gold-seekers by way of Edmonton.
The latter was viewed with great mistrust by the Indians, the
outrages referred to showing, like straws in the wind, the
inevitable drift of things had the treaties been delayed. For,
as a matter of fact, those now peaceable tribes, soured by
lawless aggression, and sheltered by their vast forests, might
easily have taken an Indian revenge, and hampered, if not
hindered, the safe settlement of the country for years to come.
The Government, therefore, decided to treat with them at once
on equitable terms, and to satisfy their congeners, the half-breeds,
as well, by an issue of scrip certificates such as their fellows
had already received in Manitoba and the organized Territories.
To this end adjustments were made by the Hon. Clifford Sifton,
then Minister of the Interior and Superintendent-General of
Indian Affairs, during the winter of 1898-9, and a plan of
procedure and basis of treatment adopted, the carrying out
of which was placed in the hands of a double Commission, one
to frame and effect the Treaty, and secure the adhesion of
the various tribes, and the other to investigate and extinguish
the half-breed title. At the head of the former was placed the
Hon. David Laird, a gentleman of wide experience in the early
days in the North-West Territories, whose successful treaty
with the refractory Blackfeet and their allies is but one of many
evidences of his tact and sagacity. [The Hon. David Laird is a native
of Prince Edward Island. His father emigrated from Scotland to that