LETTER FROM PEGUIS ON TPIE TITLE OF HIS TRIBE. 175 



"I Peguis, X (his mark), Salteaiix Chief of the Indian Settlement at 

 Ked River, wish to make my statement to the Great House across the great 

 waters. 



" I and my people have our minds much disturbed by the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, because the said Company have never arranged with me for our 

 lands. We never sold our lands to the said Company, nor to the Earl of 

 Selkirk j and yet the said Company mark out and sell our lands without 

 our permission. Is this right ? I and my people do not take their property 

 from them, without giving them great value for it, as furs and other things, 

 and is it right that the said Company should take our landed property from 

 us without our permission, and without our receiving payment for the same ? 

 I have asked the said Company for payment, through their agents, and I 

 asked Mr. Mactavish for the same thing, last spring, but I got nothing for 

 my lands. 



" If I were nearer the Great House, I would speak much and loud. I 

 and my people are disturbed, and will the Great House approve of another 

 Fur Company being chartered from Canada ? Will there be another Com- 

 pany for the North, and another for the South ? Will the Great House 

 sanction more hostilities as before, when there were two Fur Companies 

 trading in our country ? And will another Company take in land for five 

 miles on each side of the great road to be made between this place and 

 Canada, without consulting me and my brother chiefs ? I speak loud : 

 listen ! We have had enough of all Fur Companies. Please send us out 

 rather mechanics and implements to help our families in forming settle- 

 ments, and to secure as reserves, &c. 



" I, Peguis, X (his mark), moreover, hereby agree with the letters which 

 my brother chiefs, Makasis, Kes-kisimakurs and Wa-was-ka-sis, 3ent across 

 the great waters to Mr. Isbister, and to the Aborigines' Protection Society 

 last spring about our lands, and pray the great Mother to take us all under 

 her own protection, and to rule the country for us herself. 



" PEGUIS, x (his mark). 



u Given under my hand this 21st day of March, 1859. 



" Signed by Peguis, Saulteaux Chief of the Indian Settlement, in the 

 presence of the undersigned, 



" Joseph Monkman, 

 "Joh^ Hope." 



In reply to this " statement to the Great House," Mr. 

 Andrew McDermott, a well-known, influential, and wealthy 

 Eed Eiver trader, who has been in the country since 

 1812, refers to the treaty with Lord Selkirk, stating that 

 since the date of the treaty, the Indians, or their descendants 

 named therein, have received an annual payment of SI. 



