Governor replied : — " I fear Button Chief is asking too 

 much. He has told us of the great good the police have done 

 for him and his tribe and throughout the country by driving 

 away the whiskey traders, and now he wants us to pay the 

 Chiefs fifty dollars and others" thirty dollars per head, and to 

 pay him for the timber that has been used. Why, you 

 Indians ought to pay us for sending the Police to drive these 

 traders in fire-water away and giving you security and peace, 

 rather than we pay you for the timber used." (Here the In- 

 dians indulged in a general hearty laugh at this proposition.) 



Next day, on which the Treaty was concluded, Crowfoot 

 said : — " While I speak, be kind and patient. I have to speak 

 for my people, who are numerous, and who rely upon me to 

 follow that course which in the future will tend to their good. 

 The plains are large and wide. We are the children of the 

 plains ; it is our home, and the buffalo has been our food 

 always. I hope you look upon the Blackfeet, Bloods and 

 Sarcees as your children now, and that you will be indulgent 

 and charitable to them. They all expect me to speak now for 

 them, and I trust the Great Spirit will put into their breasts 

 to be a good people — into the minds of the men, women and 

 children and their future generations. The advice given me 

 and my people has proved to be very good. If the police had 

 not come to the country where would we be all now? Bad 

 men and whiskey were killing us so fast that very few, indeed, 

 of us would have been left to-day. The police have protected 

 us as the feathers of the bird protect it from the frosts of 

 winter. I wish them all good, and trust that all our hearts 

 will increase in goodness from this time forward. I am satis- 

 fied. I will sign the Treaty.'' 



This speech settled the matter. Crowfoot was perhaps the 

 shrewdest Indian I ever met. He was not only a Head Chief 

 in name, but one of Nature's noblemen. When he had con- 

 cluded, even Button Chief remarked : " I must say what all 

 the people say, and I agree with what they say. I cannot 

 make new laws. I will sign." 



The total number of Indians within the limits of these 

 Treaties is 27,124, of whom 165 are stragglers who have not 

 taken treaty, and 850 are Sioux, leaving 26,109 who receive 

 annuities. The Sioux, who are refugees from the United 

 States, were not given annuities as they had no title to th~ 

 lands of this country. But as they had escaped to British 

 Territory after killing a number of whites in Minnesota in 



