The Great Lone Land by W. F. Butler

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There are many who have seen a prisoned lark sitting on its perch,
looking listlessly through the bars, from some brick wall against which
its cage was hung; but at times, when the spring comes round, and a bit
of grassy earth is put into the narrow cage, and, in spite of smoke and
mist, the blue sky looks a moment on the foul face of the city, the little
prisoner dreams himself free, and, with eyes fixed on the blue sky
and feet clasping the tiny turf of green sod, he pours forth into the dirty
street those notes which nature taught him in the never-to-be-forgotten
days of boundless freedom. So I have seen an Indian, far down
in Canada, listlessly watching the vista of a broad river whose waters
and whose shores once owned the dominion of his race; and when I told him
of regions where his brothers still built their lodges midst the
wandering herds of the stupendous wilds, far away towards that setting
sun upon 'which his eyes were fixed, there came a change over his
listless look, and when he spoke in answer there was in his voice an echo
from that bygone time when the Five Nations were a mighty power on the
shores of the Great Lakes. Nor are such as these the only prisoners of
our civilization. He who has once tasted the unworded freedom of the
Western wilds must ever feel a sense of constraint within the boundaries
of civilized life. The Russian is not the only man who has the Tartar
close underneath his skin. That Indian idea of the earth being free to
all men catches quick and lasting hold of the imagination--the mind
widens out to grasp the reality of the lone space and cannot shrink again
to suit the requirements of fenced divisions. There is a strange
fascination in the idea, "Wheresoever my horse wanders there is my
home;" stronger perhaps is that thought than any allurement of wealth, or
power, or possession given us by life. Nor can after-time ever wholly
remove it; midst the smoke and hum of cities, midst the prayer of
churches, in street or salon, it needs but little cause to recall again
to the wanderer the image of the immense meadows where, far away at the
portals of the setting sun, lies the Great Lone Land.

It is time to close. It was my lot to shift the scene of life with
curious rapidity. In a shorter space of time than it had taken to
traverse the length of the Saskatchewan, I stood by the banks of that
river whose proud city had just paid the price of conquest in blood and
ruin--yet I witnessed a still heavier ransom than that paid to German
robbers. I saw the blank windows of the Tuileries red with the light of
flames fed from five hundred years of history, and the flagged courtyard
of La Roquette running deep in the blood of Frenchmen spilt by France,
while the common enemy smoked and laughed, leaning on the ramparts of St.
Denis.

APPENDIX.'.

GOVERNOR ARCHIBALD'S INSTRUCTIONS.

Fort Garry, 10th October, 1870.

W. F. Butler, Esq., 69th Regiment.

SIR,--Adverting to the interviews between his honour the
Lieutenant-Governor and yourself on the subject of the proposed mission
to the Saskatchewan, I have it now in command to acquaint you with the
objects his honour has in view in asking you to undertake the mission,
and also to define the duties he desires you to perform.

In the first place, I am to say that representations have been made from
various quarters that within the last two years much disorder has
prevailed in the settlements along the line of the Saskatchewan, and
that the local authorities are utterly powerless for the protection of
life and property within that region. It is asserted to be absolutely
necessary for the protection, not only of the Hudson Bay Company's Forts,
but for the safety of the settlements along the river, that a small body
of troops should be sent to some of the forts of the Hudson Bay Company,
to assist the local authorities in the maintenance of peace and order.

I am to enclose you a copy of a communication on this subject from Donald
A. Smith, Esq., the Governor of the Hudson Bay Company, and also. an
extract of a letter from W. J. Christie, Esq., a chief factor stationed
at Fort Carlton, which will give you some of the facts which have been
adduced to show the representations to be well grounded.

The statements made in these papers come from the officers of the Hudson
Bay Company, whose views may be supposed to be in some measure affected
by their pecuniary interests.

It is the desire of the Lieutenant-Governor that you should examine the
matter entirely from an independent point of view, giving his honour for
the benefit of the Government of Canada your views of the state of
matters on the Saskatchewan in reference to the necessity of troops being
sent there, basing your report upon what you shall find by actual
examination.

You will be expected to report upon the whole question of the existing
state of affairs in that territory, and to state your views on what may
be necessary to be done in the interest of peace and order.

Secondly, you are to ascertain, as far as you can, in what places and
among what tribes of Indians, and what settlements of whites, the
small-pox is now prevailing, including the extent of its ravages and
every particular you can ascertain in connexion with the rise and the
spread of the disease. You are to take with you such small supply of
medicines as shall be considered by the Board of Health here suitable and
proper for the treatment of small-pox, and you will obtain written
instructions for the proper treatment of the disease, and will leave a
copy thereof with the chief officer of each fort you pass, and with any
clergyman or other intelligent person belonging to settlements outside
the forts.

You will also ascertain, as far as in your power, the number of Indians
on the line between Red River and the Rocky Mountains; the different
nations and tribes into which they are divided and the particular
locality inhabited, and the language spoken, and also the names of the
principal chiefs of each tribe.

In doing this you will be careful to obtain the information without in
any manner leading the Indians to suppose you are acting under authority,
or inducing them to form any expectations based on your inquiries.

You will also be expected to ascertain, as far as possible, the nature of
the trade in furs conducted upon the Saskatchewan, the number and
nationality of the persons employed in what has been called the Free
Trade there, and what portion of the supplies, if any, come from the
United States territory, and what portion of the furs are sent thither;
and generally to make such inquiries as to the source of trade in that
region as may enable the Lieutenant-Governor to form an accurate idea of
the commerce of the Saskatchewan.

You are to report from time to time as you proceed westward, and forward
your communications by such opportunities as may occur. The
Lieutenant-Governor will rely upon your executing this mission with all
reasonable despatch.

(Signed) S. W. HILL, P. Secretary.

LIEUTENANT BUTLER'S REPORT.

INTRODUCTORY.

The Hon. Adams G. Archibald, Lieut.-Governor, Manitoba.

SIR,--Before entering into the questions contained in the written
instructions under which I acted, and before attempting to state an
opinion upon the existing situation of affairs in the Saskatchewvan, I
will briefly allude to the time occupied in travel, to the route
followed, and to the general circumstances attending my journey.

Starting from Fort Garry on the 25th October, I reached Fort Ellice at
junction of Qu'Appelle and Assineboine Rivers on the 30th of the same
month. On the following day I continued my journey towards Carlton, which
place was reached on the 9th November, a detention of two days having
occurred upon the banks of the South Saskatchewan River, the waters of
which were only partially frozen. After a delay of five days in Carlton,
the North Branch of the Saskatchewan was reported fit for the passage of
horses, and on the morning of the 14th November I proceeded on my western
journey towards Edmonton. By this time snow had fallen to the depth of
about six inches over the country, which rendered it necessary to
abandon the use of wheels for the transport of baggage, substituting a
light sled in place of the cart which had hitherto been used, although I
still retained the same mode of conveyance, namely the saddle, for
personal use. Passing the Hudson Bay Company Posts of Battle River, Fort
Pitt and Victoria, I reached Edmonton on the night of the 26th November.
For the last 200 miles the country had become clear of snow, and the
frosts, notwithstanding the high altitude of the region, had decreased in
severity. Starting again on the afternoon of the 1st December, I
recrossed the Saskatchewan River below Edmonton and continued in a
south-westerly direction towards the Rocky Mountain House, passing
through a country which, even at that advanced period of the year, still
retained many traces of its summer beauty. At midday on the 4th December,
having passed the gorges of the Three Medicine Hills, I came in sight of
the Rocky Mountains, which rose from the western extremity of an immense
plain and stretched their great snow-clad peaks far away to the northern
and southern horizons.

Finding it impossible to procure guides for the prosecution of my journey
south to Montana, I left the Rocky Mountain House on the 12th December
and commenced my return travels to Red River along the valley of the
Saskatchewan. Snow had now fallen to the depth of about a foot, and the
cold had of late begun to show symptoms of its winter intensity. Thus on
the morning of the 5th December my thermometer indicated 22 degrees below
zero, and again on the 13th 16 below zero, a degree of cold which in itself
was not remarkable, but which had the effect of rendering the saddle by no
means a comfortable mode of transport.

Arriving at Edmonton on the 16th December, I exchanged my horses for
dogs, the saddle for a small cariole, and on the 20th December commenced
in earnest the winter journey to Red River. The cold, long delayed, now\
began in all its severity. On the 22nd December my thermometer at ten
o'clock in the morning indicated 39 degrees below zero, later in the day a
biting wind swept the long reaches of the Saskatchewan River and rendered
travelling on the ice almost insupportable. To note here the long days of
travel down the great valley of the Saskatchewan, at times on the frozen
river and at times upon the neighbouring plains, would prove only a
tiresome record. Little by little the snow seemed to deepen, day by day
the frost to obtain a more lasting power and to bind in a still more
solid embrace all visible Nature. No human voice, no sound of bird or
beast, no ripple of stream to break the intense silence of these vast
solitudes of the Lower Saskatchewan. At length, early in the month of
February, I quitted the valley of Saskatchewan at Cedar Lake, crossed the
ridge which separates that sheet of water from Lake Winnipegoosis, and,
descending the latter lake to its outlet at Waterhen River, passed from
thence to the northern extremity of the Lake Manitoba. Finally, on the
18th February, I reached the settlement of Oak Point on south shore of
Manitoba, and two days later arrived at Fort Garry.

In following the river and lake route from Carlton, I passed in
succession the Mission of Prince Albert, Forts-a-la-Corne and Cumberland,
the Posts of the Pas, Moose Lake, Shoal River and Manitoba House, and,
with a few exceptions, travelled upon ice the entire way.

The journey from first to last occupied 119 days and embraced a distance
of about 2700 miles.

I have now to offer the expression of my best acknowledgements to the
officers of the various posts of the Hudson Bay Company passed en route.
To Mr. W. J. Christie, of Edmonton, to Mr. Richard Hardistry, of
Victoria, as well as to Messrs. Hackland, Sinclair, Ballenden, Trail,
Turner, Belanger, Matheison, McBeath, Munro, and MacDonald, I am indebted
for much kindness and hospitality, and I have to thank Mr. W. J. Christie
for information of much value regarding statistics connected with his
district. I have also to offer to the Rev. Messrs. Lacombe, McDougall,
and Nisbet the expression of the obligations which I am under towards
them for uniform kindness and hospitality.

GENERAL REPORT.

Having in the foregoing pages briefly alluded to the time occupied in
travel, to the route followed, and to the general circumstances attending
my journey, I now propose entering upon the subjects contained in the
written instructions under which I acted, and in the first instance to
lay before you the views which I have formed upon the important question
of the existing state of affairs in the Saskatchewan.

The institutions of Law and Order, as understood in civilized
communities, are wholly unknown in the regions of the Saskatchewan,
insomuch as the country is without any executive organization, and
destitute of any means to enforce the authority of the law.

I do not mean to assert that crime and outrage are of habitual occurrence
among the people of this territory, or that a state of anarchy exists in
any particular portion of it, but it is an undoubted fact that crimes of
the most serious nature have been committed, in various places, by
persons of mixed and native blood, without any vindication of the law
being possible, and that the position of affairs rests at the present
moment not on the just power of an executive authority to enforce
obedience, but rather upon the passive acquiescence of the majority of a
scant population who hitherto have lived in ignorance of those
conflicting interests which, in more populous and civilized communities,
tend to anarchy and disorder.

But the question may be asked, If the Hudson Bay Company represent the
centres round which the half-breed settlers have gathered, how then does
it occur that that body should be destitute of governing power, and
unable to repress crime and outrage? To this question I would reply that
the Hudson Bay Company, being a commercial corporation, dependent for its
profits on the suffrages of the people, is of necessity cautious in the
exercise of repressive powers; that, also, it is exposed in the
Saskatchewan to the evil influence which free trade has ever developed
among the native races; that, furthermore, it is brought in contact with
tribes long remarkable for their lawlessness and ferocity; and that,
lastly, the elements of disorder in the whole territory of Saskatchewan
are for many causes, yearly on the increase. But before entering upon
the subject into which this last-consideration would lead me, it will be
advisable to glance at the various elements which comprise the population
of this Western region. In point of numbers, and in the power which they
possess of committing depredations, the aboriginal races claim the
foremost place among the inhabitants of the Saskatchewan. These tribes,
like the Indians of other portions of Rupert's Land and the North-west,
carry on the pursuits of hunting, bringing the produce of their hunts to
barter for the goods of the Hudson Bay Company; but, unlike the Indians
of more northern regions, they subsist almost entirely upon the buffalo,
and they carry on among themselves an unceasing warfare which has long
become traditional. Accustomed to regard murder as honourable war,
robbery and pillage as the traits most ennobling to man hood, free from
all restraint, these warring tribes of Crees, Assineboines, and Blackfeet
form some of the most savage among even the races of Western America.

Hitherto it maybe said that the Crees have looked upon the white man as
their friend, but latterly indications have not been wanting to
foreshadow a change in this respect--a change which I. have found many
causes to account for, and which, if the Saskatchewan remains in its
present condition, must, I fear, deepen into more positive enmity. The
buffalo, the red man's sole means of subsistence, is rapidly
disappearing; year by year the prairies, which once shook beneath the
tread of countless herds of bisons, are becoming denuded of animal life,
and year by year the affliction of starvation comes with an
ever-increasing intensity upon the land. There are men still living who
remember to have hunted buffalo on the shores of Lake Manitoba. It is
scarcely twelve years since Fort Ellice, on the Assineboine River, formed
one of the principal posts of supply for the Hudson Bay Company; and the
vast prairies which flank the southern and western spurs of the Touchwood
Hills, now utterly silent and deserted, are still white with the bones of
the migratory herds which, until lately, roamed over their surface.

Nor is this absence of animal life confined to the plains of the
Qu'Appelle and of the Upper Assineboine--all along the line of the North
Saskatchewan, from Carlton to Edmonton House, the same scarcity prevails;
and if further illustration of this decrease of buffalo be wanting, I
would state that, during the present winter, I have traversed the plains
from the Red River to the Rocky Mountains without seeing even one
solitary animal upon 1200 miles of prairie. The Indian is not slow to
attribute this lessening of his principal food to the presence of the
white and half-breed settlers, whose active competition for pemmican
(valuable as supplying the transport service of the Hudson Bay Company)
has led to this all but total extinction of the bison.

Nor does he fail to trace other grievances--some real, some imaginary-to
the same cause. Wherever the half-breed settler or hunter has established
himself he has resorted to the use of poison as a means of destroying the
wolves and foxes which were numerous on the prairies. This most
pernicious practice has had the effect of greatly embittering the Indians
against the settler, for not only have large numbers of animals been
uselessly destroyed, inasmuch as fully one-half the animals thus killed
are lost to the trapper, but also the poison is frequently communicated
to the Indian dogs, and thus a very important mode of winter transport is
lost to the red man. It is asserted, too, that horses are sometimes
poisoned by eating grasses which have become tainted by the presence of
strychnine; and although this latter assertion may not be true, yetits
effects are the same, as the Indian fully believes it. In consequence of
these losses a threat has been made, very generally, by the natives
against the half-breeds, to the effect that if the use of poison was
persisted in, the horses belonging to the settlers would be shot.

Another increasing source of Indian discontent is to be found in the
policy pursued by the American Government in their settlement of the
countries lying south of the Saskatchewan. Throughout the territories of
Dakota and Montana a state of hostility has long existed between the
Americans and the tribes of Sioux, Black feet, and Peagin Indians. This
state of hostility has latterly degenerated on the part of the Americans,
into a war of extermination; and the policy of "clearing out" the red man
has now become a recognized portion of Indian warfare. Some of these acts
of extermination find their way into the public records, many of them
never find publicity. Among the former, the attack made during the
spring of 1870 by a large party of troops upon a camp of Peagin Indians
close to the British boundary-line will be fresh in the recollection of
your Excellency. The tribe thus attacked was suffering severely from
small-pox, was surprised at daybreak by the soldiers, who, rushing in
upon the tents, destroyed 170 men, women, and children in a few moments.
This tribe forms one of the four nations comprised in the Blackfeet
league, and have their hunting-grounds partly on British and partly on
American territory. I have mentioned the presence of small-pox in
connexion with these Indians. It is very generally believed in the
Saskatchewan that this disease was originally communicated to the
Blackfeet tribes by Missouri traders with a view to the accumulation of
robes; and this opinion, monstrous though it may appear, has been
somewhat terrified by the Western press when treating of the epidemic
last year. As I propose to enter at some length into the question of this
disease at a later portion of this report, I now only make allusion to it
as forming one of the grievances which the Indian affirms he suffers at
the hands of the white man.

In estimating the causes of Indian discontent as bearing upon the future
preservation of peace and order in the Saskatchewan, and as illustrating
the growing difficulties which a commercial corporation like the Hudson
Bay Company have to contend against when acting in an executive capacity,
I must now allude to the subject of Free Trade. The policy of a free
trader in furs is essentially a short-sighted one-he does not care about
the future--the continuance and partial well-being of the Indian is of no
consequence to him. His object is to obtain possession of all the furs
the Indian may have at the moment to barter, and to gain that end he
spares no effort. Alcohol, discontinued by the Hudson Bay Company in
their Saskatchewan district for many years, has been freely used of late
by free traders from Red River; and, as great competition always exists
between the traders and the employees of the Company, the former have not
hesitated to circulate among the natives the idea that they have suffered
much injustice in their intercourse with the Company. The events which
took place in the Settlement of Red River during the winter of '69 and '70
have also tended to disturb the minds of the Indians--they have heard of
changes of Government, of rebellion and pillage of property, of the
occupation of forts belonging to the Hudson Bay Company, and the stoppage
of trade and ammunition. Many of these events have been magnified and
distorted--evil-disposed persons have not been wanting to spread abroad
among the natives the idea of the downfall of the Company, and the
threatened immigration of settlers to occupy the hunting-grounds and
drive the Indian from the land. All these rumours, some of them vague and
wild in the extreme, have found ready credence by camp-fires and in
council-lodge, and thus it is easy to perceive how the red man, with many
of his old convictions and beliefs rudely shaken, should now be more
disturbed and discontented than he has been at any former period.

In endeavouring to correctly estimate the present condition of Indian
affairs in the Saskatchewan the efforts and influence of the various
missionary bodies must not be overlooked. It has only been during the
last twenty years that the Plain Tribes have been brought into contact
with the individuals whom the contributions of European and Colonial
communities have sent out on missions of religion and civilization. Many
of these individuals have toiled with untiring energy and undaunted
perseverance in the work to which they have devoted themselves, but it is
unfortunately true that the jarring interests of different religious
denominations have sometimes induced them to introduce into the field of
Indian theology that polemical rancour which so unhappily distinguishes
more civilized communities.

To fully understand the question of missionary enterprise, as bearing
upon the Indian tribes of the Saskatchewan valley, I must glance for a
moment at the peculiarities in the mental condition of the Indians which
render extreme caution necessary in all inter course between him and the
white man. It is most difficult to make the Indian comprehend the true
nature of the foreigner with whom he is brought in contact, or rather, I
should say, that having his own standard by which he measures truth and
falsehood, misery and happiness, and all the accompaniments of life, it
is almost impossible to induce him to look at the white man from any
point of view but his own. From this point of view every thing is
Indian. English, French, Canadians, and Americans are so many tribes
inhabiting various parts of the world, whose land is bad, and who are not
possessed of buffalo--for this last desideratum they (the strangers) send
goods, missions, etc., to the Indians of the Plains. "Ah!" they say, "if
it was not for our buffalo where would you be? You would starve, your
bones would whiten the prairies." It is useless to tell them that such is
not the case, they answer, "Where then does all the pemmican go to that
you take away in your boats and in your carts?" With the Indian, seeing
is believing, and his world is the visible one in which his wild life is
cast. This being understood, the necessity for caution in communicating
with the native will at once be apparent-yet such caution on the part of
those who seek the Indians as missionaries is not always observed. Too
frequently the language suitable for civilized society has been addressed
to the red man. He is told of governments, and changes in the political
world, successive religious systems are laid before him by their various
advocates. To-day he is told to believe one religion, to-morrow to have
faith in another. Is it any wonder that, applying his own simple tests to
so much conflicting testimony, he becomes utterly confused, unsettled,
and suspicious? To the white man, as a white man, the Indian has no
dislike; on the contrary, he is pretty certain to receive him with
kindness and friendship, provided always that the new-comer will adopt
the native system, join the hunting-camp, and live on the plains; but to
the white man as a settler, or hunter on his own account, the Crees and
Blackfeet are in direct antagonism. Ownership in any particular portion
of the soil by an individual is altogether foreign to men who, in the
course of a single summer, roam over 500 miles of prairie. In another
portion of this report I hope to refer again to the Indian question, when
treating upon that clause in my instructions which relates exclusively to
Indian matters. I have alluded here to missionary enterprise and to the
Indian generally, as both subjects are very closely connected with the
state of affairs in the Saskatchewan.

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