h outstanding work during
the long trek to the West and in getting to definite police duty at the
key-position of the whole work in the foothill country. It was a tribute
to MacLeod's work that he was appointed also to aid Governor Laird in
the delicate work of making the treaty with the most difficult tribes in
the North-West to handle. Treaties had been made with the Indians who
had been most in contact with civilization in the more easterly
districts of the Lake of the Woods, Lake Winnipeg and the Qu'Appelle
Lakes. But the most imposing spectacles and the most difficult situation
began to arise when the Governors, flanked by the brilliant scarlet of
the Mounted Police, came to the farther North-West where the Indians
retained much of their native dignity and barbaric splendour.

This point was reached when Commissioners Governor Morris, Hon. W. J.
Christie and the Hon. James McKay came to Fort Carlton to negotiate with
Mistawasis, the great chief of the Crees, and his friend Ahtukahcoop. An
interesting preface to this treaty was a threat made by a rascally
Indian, Chief Beardy, of Duck Lake, who said that he would not allow the
Commissioners to cross the south branch of the Saskatchewan River to
come to Carlton. This information was imparted by Lawrence Clark,
Hudson's Bay Factor at Carlton, to Inspector James Walker, who had
arrived from Battleford with fifty Mounted Police the day before that on
which the Commissioners were to arrive. Walker (now Colonel Walker, of
Calgary), a man of commanding stature and strong determination, at once
decided to take a hand in the proceedings. Initiative has always been
characteristic of the Police. They were often miles away in distance
from and worlds away in chance of communication with, any superior
officer, and so they early developed the powers of resource which had to
come into play in emergencies. Hence Walker, seeing the situation, swung
out with his troop, in the small hours of next morning and hit the trail
for Batoche. On the way he overtook the band of Indians with Chief
Beardy. Walker paid no attention to them, but simply passed them and
continued on the way. These Indians rarely indicate surprise, but this
was the surprise of their lives, and they showed it in spite of
themselves. They evidently did not calculate on the presence of the
force in that part of the world, and to have these stalwart red-coated
riders come up from the unexpected direction was too much even