THE FRENCH HALF-BREEDS OF THE NORTHWEST. 317 



first quarter of this century, imported many Canadians into this Terri- 

 tory, then the seat of an active fur trade. When Wilkes visited Oregon 

 in 1S3S he found there 700 or 800 Canadians who had preceded, by sev- 

 eral years, the American emigration. Their half-breed offspring num- 

 ber about 300, and are found at French Prairie and in its neighborhood, 

 in Marion Comity, and in the valleys of the Willamette and Kaoulis 

 Rivers. 



IV '<(sh ington Territory. — In this Territory they are also in the majority; 

 being the descendants of the Canadian employes of the fur companies 

 named above. They have a village at Cowlitz and settlements in the 

 Colville Valley, on the Okanagon River, at Tulalip, and Lummi. The 

 total for the Territory is estimated by Father Chirouse at L'50. 



Adding the numbers obtained in each State and Territory we have a 

 total of 21,691 for the Northwestern States. 



British Possessions. — The province of Manitoba, extending from the 

 boundary line to Lake Winnipeg, is the great center and rendezvous of 

 French half-breeds. They are mostly settled at the following places: 

 Winnepeg, or Fort Garry, St. Boniface, St. Vital, St, Norberf, St. Agatha, 

 St. Anne, St. Charles, and St. Francis Xavier. Their population in the 

 province is about (5,500. On the shores of Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba 

 and in the Rainy Lake district are probably 500. 



In the Saskatchewan district we find many scattered along the Sas- 

 katehawan, clustering about the Hudson Bay Company's posts. They 

 are most numerous at the base of the Rocky Mountains, near Fort 

 Edmonton, at the two missions of St. Albert and St. Anne, and num- 

 ber in all about 2,500. On little Slave Lake and vicinity are 500; on 

 Lake Labiehe and vicinity, 500: on Peace River and vicinity, 300. 



Scattered families are seen as far north as the Great Slave Lake, but 

 seldom beyond it. As early as 1778, the first employes of the North- 

 west Company who arrived on the shores of that lake found one Francois 

 Beaulieu who had been born there. On Turtle and Wood Mountains 

 are about 100^ on Cypress Mountains and head of French Creek about 80. 



In British Columbia we find half-breeds on Fraser and Okanagon 

 Rivers, Lakes Kamloops, Babine, and Stuart, in all about 250. 



Total in the British Possessions, 11,230; grand total for the North- 

 west, 32,921. 



If we could obtain the number of metis in Canada, New Brunswick, 

 Nova Scotia, Labrador, and in the northern part of New England, as 

 well as thai of the French-descended families tainted with Indian blood 

 in the States of Illinois and Missouri, 1 doubt not the total would reach 

 at least 40,000 as the strength of the population of French-Canadian 

 mixed-bloods in North America. 



IV. 



TRIBES FROM WHICH METIS DEKIVE THEIR INDIAN BLOOD. 



In a general way it may be asserted that, north of the fortiel h parallel, 

 from Quebec to Vancouver's Island, there is scarcely a native tribe, from 



