258 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. IV. 



was allowed to be borne. After reaching the camp, it was taken into 

 the lodge, being carried around on the right hand side of the lodge, never 

 deposited in its place from the left hand side. Besides this pipe, of 

 which there was one for each camp, there were sacred medicine pipes 

 possessing great healing powers, of which we shall speak when we treat 

 of the medical priesthood. 



The Blood Indian Reservation is the largest Indian reserve in the 

 Dominion. It is located between the Belly and St. Mary's rivers near 

 Macleod, Provisional District of Alberta, the southern boundary of the 

 reserve being about fourteen miles from the international boundary line. 

 It is approximately sixty miles long by eighteen miles wide, and contains 

 four hundred and seventeen thousand acres, or five hundred and forty- 

 seven square miles. It was surveyed in August, 1883, in accordance 

 with the amended treaty of July 2nd, 1883, by J. C. Nelson, Dominion 

 Land Surveyor. The Indians have a timber limit in the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, concerning which tho.se interested will find full information in the 

 *' Descriptions and Plans of Certain Indian Reserves in the Province of 

 Manitoba and the North- West Territories, TSSg!' 



In September, 1888, the Indian population on the reserve was two 

 thousand one hundred and thirty-five. There was at that time one head 

 chief and eighteen minor chiefs. There were twenty-one bands or 

 gentes. So we have nineteen chiefs and twenty-one bands, but there 

 were two bands without a chief One of the.se contained nearly forty 

 persons and the other nearly seventy, and a large majority of them were 

 females. The number of children between six and sixteen years of age 

 was about six hundred. The number of deaths during the year was as 

 follows : forty-one boys, twenty-three girls, fifty-one adults. The adults' 

 ages were chiefly from forty to forty-five years, but there were .some of an 

 extremely old age. The number of births was fifty-one boys and thirty- 

 four girls. The amount of treaty money paid was ten thousand eight 

 hundred and seventy-five dollars. The Indians are fed by the Govern- 

 ment, and the daily ration averaged per capita 1.09 pounds of beef and 

 .37 of a pound of flour. The number of acres broken on the reserve was 

 two hundred and forty, and the number under fencing three hundred and 

 thirty-five acres. The number of houses on the reserve was two hundred 

 and sixteen. Several of the old houses had been rebuilt and improved 

 by the Indians during the year, and fifty new ones had been erected. 

 The Indians owned from fifteen hundred to two thousand horses and an 

 innumerable company of dogs. During that year there were grown by 

 the natives nine hundred and eighty-six bushels of potatoes from thirty- 

 three acres. Owing to the dry rot the crop was not a good one. They 



