Late Lieut.-Gov. of Manitoba, the North-West Territories, and
Kee-wa-tin.

TORONTO, March, 1880.



PREFACE

The question of the relations of the Dominion of Canada to the
Indians of the North-West, is one of great practical importance The
work, of obtaining their good will, by entering into treaties of
alliance with them, has now been completed in all the region from
Lake Superior to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. As an aid to the
other and equally important duty--that of carrying out, in their
integrity, the obligations of these treaties, and devising means
whereby the Indian population of the Fertile Belt can be rescued
from the hard fate which otherwise awaits them, owing to the speedy
destruction of the buffalo, hitherto the principal food supply of
the Plain Indians, and that they may be induced to become, by the
adoption of agricultural and pastoral pursuits, a self supporting
community--I have prepared this collection of the treaties made
with them, and of information, relating to the negotiations, on
which these treaties were based, in the hope that I may thereby
contribute to the completion of a work, in which I had considerable
part, that, of, by treaties, securing the good will of the Indian
tribes, and by the helpful hand of the Dominion, opening up
to them, a future of promise, based upon the foundations of
instruction and the many other advantages of civilized life.