ber Eight in 1899. Strangely
enough, the Hon. David Laird, "the man who talked straight," who had as
Governor of the Territories made the famous treaties with the Indians of
the plains twenty years before, was called to head the new commission
and make this final treaty with the Crees, Beavers, Chippewyans and
other Indians of the far North. Mr. Laird, after the term of his office
as Governor had expired, had retired to his home in Prince Edward
Island, but later on was appointed to take charge of Indian affairs in
the West, with headquarters in Winnipeg. Along with this Indian Treaty
Commission was a half-breed commission, of which the frontiersman
author, Mr. Charles Mair, was secretary. The expedition took months, and
involved hard if picturesque travelling, all of which is graphically
described in Mr. Mair's narrative _Through the Mackenzie Basin_. The
treaty was made beginning first at Lesser Slave Lake, and continuing at
other points. Mr. Mair, in his book, gives us the names of the party,
describes the camp equipment and then makes the following fine reference
to the Mounted Police: "Not the least important and effective
constituent of the party was the detachment of the Royal North-West
Mounted Police which joined us at Edmonton, minus their horses of
course; picked men from a picked force; sterling fellows whose tenacity
and hard work in the tracking harness did yeoman service in many a
serious emergency. This detachment consisted of Inspector Snyder,
Sergeant Anderson, Corporals Fitzgerald and McClelland, and Constables
McLaren, Lett, Burman, Lelonde, Burke, Vernon and Kerr. The conduct of
these men, it is needless to say, was the admiration of all, and
assisted materially in the successful progress of the expedition."

Thus did these nation-building Police set their seal to the great
treaties which provided for the future of the Indian tribes and at the
same time extinguished the title of the tribes in order to open up a new
empire for higher civilization.

CHAPTER VI

HANDLING AMERICAN INDIANS

Nothing in the history of Western Canada was more charged with dynamitic
possibilities of serious trouble than the unexpected influx into our
country of thousands of battle-scarred Indians from the other side of
the boundary line. The whole period for five years, from 1876 onward,
bristled with difficulties. These Indians themselves had to be more or
less provided for while upon our soil--they had to be co