The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company: Including that of the French Traders of North-Western Canada and of the North-West, XY, and Astor Fur CompaniesBryce, George
History
The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company: Including that of the French Traders of North-Western Canada and of the North-West, XY, and Astor Fur Companies
Bryce, George
Fur trade -- Northwest, Canadian; Hudson's Bay Company; North West Company; Northwest, Canadian -- History; XY Company
Within three weeks of his arrival at Red River Lord Selkirk carried
out his promise of making a treaty with the Indians. All the Indians
were most willing to do this, as on many occasions during the troubles
they had, by giving early information as to the movements of the
Nor'-Westers, and by other means, shown their sympathy and feeling
toward the settlers. The object of the treaty was simply to do what
has since been done all over the north-west territories--to extinguish
the Indian title. The treaty is signed alike by Ojibway, Cree, and
Assiniboine chiefs, the last mentioned being a tribe generally
considered to belong to the Sioux stock. Lord Selkirk afterwards made
a treaty, on leaving the Red River, with the other Sioux nations
inhabiting his territory. The chiefs were met at Red River by his
Lordship, and those whose names are attached to the treaty are, giving
their French names in some cases as shorter than the Indian, Le Sonent,
Robe Noire, Peguis, L'Homme Noir, and Grandes Oreilles. His Lordship
seems to have had a most conciliatory and attractive manner. It is worth
while closing this chapter by giving extracts from the speeches of these
Indian chiefs, taken down at the grand council at which Lord Selkirk
smoked the pipe of peace with the assembled warriors.
Peguis, the Saulteaux chief, always the fast friend of the colonists,
said, "When the English settlers first came here we received them with
joy. It was not our fault if even the stumps of the brushwood were
too rough for their feet; but misfortunes have since overtaken them.
Evil-disposed men came here, calling themselves great chiefs, sent from
our Great Father across the big lake, but we believe they were only
traders, pretending to be great chiefs on purpose to deceive us. They
misled the young men who are near us (a small party of Bois Brûlés
encamped in the neighbourhood), and employed them to shed the blood of
your children and to drive away the settlers from this river. We do not
acknowledge these men as an independent tribe. They have sprung up here
and there like mushrooms and we know them not.
"At the first arrival of the settlers we were frequently solicited by
the North-West Company to frighten them away; but we were pleased to see
that our Great Father had sent some of his white children to live among
us, and we refused to do or say anything against them. The traders even
demanded our calumets, and desired to commit our sentiments to paper,
that they might send to our Great Father; but we refused to acknowledge
the speeches which they wished to put into our mouths. We are informed
that they have told a tale that it was the Indians who drove away and
murdered the children of our Great Father, but it is a falsehood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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