Alexander Morris

“ I think you are forgetting one thing, that what I offer you is to be while the water flows and the sun rises. You know that in the United States they only pay the Indian for twenty years, and you come here to-day and ask for ever more than they get for twenty years. Is that just? I think you ought to accept my offer, and make a treaty with me as I ask you to do. I only ask you to think for yourselves, and for your families, and for your children and children's children, and I know that if you do that you will shake hands with me to-day. ”

“ I can say this, that when a band settles down and actually commences to farm on their lands, the Government will agree to give two hoes, one spade, one scythe, and one axe for every family actually settled; one plough for every ten families, five harrows for every twenty families, and a yoke of oxen, a bull and four cows for every band; and enough barley, wheat and oats to plant the land they have actually broken up. ”

“ This is the first time you have had white chiefs, officers of the Queen, so high in her Councils, so trusted by her among you. We have no object but your good at heart, and therefore we ask you to speak out to us, to open your minds to us, and believe that we are your true and best friends, who will never advise you badly, who will never whisper bad words in your ears, who only care for your good and that of your children. I have told you the truth, the whole truth, and now we expect to hear from the two nations and any other tribe who may be represented here. ”

“ I see the Queen's Councillors taking the Indian by the hand saying we are brothers, we will lift you up, we will teach you, if you will learn, the cunning of the white man. All along that road I see Indians gathering, I see gardens growing and houses building; I see them receiving money from the Queen's Commissioners to purchase clothing for their children; at the same time I see them enjoying their hunting and fishing as before, I see them retaining their old mode of living with the Queen's gift in addition. ”

“ I have offered as we have done to the other Indians. Tell me now whether you will take my hand and accept it; there is nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to be afraid of; think of the good of your children and your children's children. Stand up now like wise men and tell me if you will take what I offered. I cannot believe it to be possible that you would throw my hand back. Speak and do not be afraid or ashamed."
WEE-KAS-KOO-KEE-SAY-YIN (Sweet Grass) --"I thank you for this day, and also I thank you for what I have seen and heard, I also thank the Queen for sending you to act for our good. ”

“ We have understood you yesterday that Her Majesty has given you the same power and authority as she has, to act in this business; you said the Queen gave you her goodness, her charitableness in your hands. This is what we think, that the Great Spirit has planted us on this ground where we are, as you were where you came from. We think where we are is our property. I will tell you what he said to us when he planted us here; the rules that we should follow--us Indians--He has given us rules that we should follow to govern us rightly. ”

“ I speak openly, as brother to brother, as a father to his children, and I would give you a last advice, hear my words, come and join the great band of Indians who are walking hand-in-hand with us on the road I spoke of when I began--a road, I believe in my heart, will lead the Indian on to a much more comfortable state than he is in now. ”

“ CHIEF--"One thing I did not say that is most necessary--we want a cross-cut saw, a whip saw, grindstone and files."
GOVERNOR--"We will do that, and I think we ought to give a box of common tools to each Chief of a Band."
CHIEF--"Depending upon the words you have told us, and stretched out your hands in a friendly way, I depend upon that. One thing more we demand--a suit of clothes to all of us." ”

“ We were glad to hear what you had to say and have gathered together in council and thought the words over amongst us, we were glad to hear you tell us how we might live by our own work. When I commence to settle on the lands to make a living for myself and my children, I beg of you to assist me in every way possible--when I am at a loss how to proceed I want the advice and assistance of the Government; the children yet unborn, I wish you to treat them in like manner as they advance in civilization like the white man. ”

“ What is good for you, what you think will be good for you will be good for them. It is for you to say, not for us; we have done all that men who love their red brothers can do, it is for you now to act, on you rests the duty of saying whether you believe our message or not, whether you want the Queen to help you or not, whether or not you will go away and let the days and the years go on, and let the food grow scarcer, and let your children grow up and do nothing to keep off the hunger and the cold that is before them. ”

“ The Great Spirit has made the white man and the red man brothers, and we should take each other by the hand. The Great Mother loves all her children, white man and red man alike; she wishes to do them all good. The bad white man and the bad Indian she alone does not love, and them she punishes for their wickedness. The good Indian has nothing to fear from the Queen or her officers. You Indians know this to be true. When bad white men brought you whiskey, robbed you, and made you poor, and, through whiskey, quarrel amongst yourselves, she sent the Police to put an end to it. ”

“ I was most particular, therefore, in causing it to be explained, generally and to individuals, that any person now electing to be classed with Indians, and receiving the Indian pay and gratuity, would, I believed, thereby forfeit his or her right to another grant as a half-breed; and in all cases where it was known that a man was a half-breed, the matter, as it affected himself and his children, was explained to him, and the choice given him to characterize himself. A very few only decided upon taking their grants as half-breeds. ”

“ You can understand very well; for instance, one of your great chiefs asks a brave to deliver a message, he represents you, and that is how I stand with the Queen's Government."
CHIEF--"It is your charitableness that you spoke of yesterday--Her Majesty's charitableness that was given you. It is our chiefs, our young men, our children and great grand-children, and those that are to be born, that I represent here, and it is for them I ask for terms. The white man has robbed us of our riches, and we don't wish to give them up again without getting something in their place." ”

“ I have every confidence in the desire and ability of the present administration, as of any succeeding one, to carry out the provisions of the treaties, and to extend a helping hand to this helpless population. That, conceded, with the machinery at their disposal, with a judicious selection of agents and farm instructors, and the additional aid of well-selected carpenters, and efficient school teachers, I look forward to seeing the Indians, faithful allies of the Crown, while they can gradually be made an increasing and self-supporting population. ”

“ Of course, if when a reserve is chosen, a white man had already settled there, his rights must be respected. The rights and interests of the whites and half-breeds are as dear to the Queen as those of the Indians. ”

“ The Great King, our Father, is now looking upon us this day, He regards all the people equal with one another; He has mercy on the whole earth; He has opened a new world to us. I have pity on all those who have to live by the buffalo. ”

“ I want the Governor to give us somebody to build our houses, we cannot manage it ourselves, for my own part you see my crippled hand. It is true the Governor says he takes the responsibility on himself in granting the extra requests of the Indians, but let him consider on the quality of the land he has already treated for. There is no farming land whatever at the north-west angle, and he goes by what he has down there. What I want, as he has said, is twenty-five dollars to each Chief and to his head men twenty dollars. ”

“ The North-West Council is considering the framing of a law to protect the buffaloes, and when they make it, they will expect the Indians to obey it. The Government will not interfere with the Indian's daily life, they will not bind him. They will only help him to make a living on the reserves, by giving him the means of growing from the soil, his food. The only occasion when help would be given, would be if Providence should send a great famine or pestilence upon the whole Indian people included in the treaty. ”

“ I saw them understanding that they had no right to wrap themselves up in a cold mantle of selfishness, that they had no right to turn away and say, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' On the contrary, I saw them saying, the Indians are our brothers, we must try to help them to make a living for themselves and their children. I tell you, you must think of those who will come after you. ”

“ On Sunday afternoon the Indians fought a sham battle on horseback. They only wore the breech-cloths. They fired off their rifles in all directions, and sent the bullets whistling past the spectators in such close proximity as to create most unpleasant feelings. I was heartily glad when they defiled past singly on the way back to their lodges, and the last of their unearthly yells had died away in the distance.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were occupied in paying off the different tribes. ”

“ We further request, that a law be made, equally applicable to the Half-breed and Indian, punishing all parties who set fire to our forest or plain. Not many years ago we attributed a prairie fire to the malevolence of an enemy, now every one is reckless in the use of fire, and every year large numbers of valuable animals and birds perish in consequence. We would farther ask that our chiefships be established by the Government. Of late years almost every trader sets up his own Chief and the result is we are broken up into little parties, and our best men are no longer respected. ”

“ Frequently the Indians have exhibited to me with pride, old medals issued, with the likeness of the King before the American war of Independence, and which have passed down as heirlooms of their families. On one occasion a young Chief, who had come of age and aspired to be recognized as a Chief, was decorated in my presence with the old King George silver medal, by one of the band, to whom it had been entrusted for safe keeping by the young man's father, who was a Chief, with the charge that on the boy's coming of age, it would be delivered over to him. ”

“ He saw red-coats, they were here to protect Indians and whites.
"If a man tried to kill you, you have a right to defend; but no man has a right to kill another in cold blood, and we will do all we can to punish such. The good Indian need never be afraid; their lives will be safer than ever before. Look at the condition of the Blackfeet. Before the red-coats went, the Americans were taking their furs and robes and giving them whiskey--we stopped it, they have been able to buy back two thousand horses--before that, robes would have gone to Americans for whiskey." ”

“ THE GAMBLER--"I am telling you and reporting what I had to tell. The Company have no right to this earth, but when they are spoken to they do not desist, but do it in spite of you. He is the head and foremost. These Indians you see sitting around report that they only allowed the store to be put up. That is the reason I was very glad when I heard you were coming. The Indians were not told of the reserves at all. I hear now, it was the Queen gave the land. The Indians thought it was they who gave it to the Company, who are now all over the country. ”

“ Let us have Christianity and civilization to leaven the mass of heathenism and paganism among the Indian tribes; let us have a wise and paternal Government faithfully carrying out the provisions of our treaties, and doing its utmost to help and elevate the Indian population, who have been cast upon our care, and we will have peace, progress, and concord among them in the North-West ”

“ LIEUT.-GOVERNOR MORRIS--"The Company have a right to have certain lands granted them by the Queen, who will do what is fair and just for the Company, for the Indians, for the Half-breeds, and for the whites. She will make no distinction. Whatever she promises she will carry out. The Company are are nothing to her except that they are carrying on trade in this country, and that they are subjects to her just as you are. You ask then why I went to the Company's house? I came here not at my own pleasure. I am not so strong as you are. ”

“ I ask you once more to think what you are doing, and of those you have left at home, and also of those that may be born yet, and I ask you not to turn your backs on what is offered to you, and you ought to see by what the Queen is offering you that she loves her red subjects as much as her white. ”

“ Your Great Mother wishes the good of all races under her sway. She wishes her red children to be happy and contented. She wishes them to live in comfort. She would like them to adopt the habits of the whites, to till land and raise food, and store it up against a time of want. She thinks this would be the best thing for her red children to do, that it would make them safer from famine and distress, and make their homes more comfortable. ”