The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-04-18 00:00:00

REVOLT OF THE HALF-BREEDS IN

CANADA.

CRITICAL STATE OF AFFAIRS.

The telegrams from Canada are by no means reas-
suring. When first the news reached this country
that Riel and his Half-breeds had again raised the
standard of revolt in the North-West Territories, the
affair seemed comparatively trifling. The rebels were
reported to number not more than four hundred,
and, with the Pacific Railroad spanning the country,
the suppression of the rising was regarded as an easy
piece of work for the Mounted Police. Though its
ultimate extinction is certain, and the difficulties which
the military have to face small compared with those
which Colonel Wolseley and his force overcame
in 1870, the fact is not to be denied that the
Canadian authorities have undertaken a task which is
taxing their energy and resources. The revolt has
unexpectedly extended, while the police, who were
considered sufficient to cope with it, have been de-
feated with considerable loss of life on both sides. The
large number of white settlers in the Territory have
proved a cause of anxiety rather than an aid to the
Government, for it seems that Riel refuses to trust to
their neutrality, and has, in several instances, im-
prisoned them in the block houses of the Fur Com-
pany, which still dot some of the remoter parts of
their old hunting-grounds. In the district of Alberta,
indeed, the Colonists have, to a certain extent, sided
with the half-breeds, in so far that, instead of post-
poning any differences they may have with the Go-
vernment, they have, with a lack of patriotism which,
it is to be hoped, is singular in the north-west, chosen
the present crisis for pressing their claims on
the Dominion authorities. Finally, the Indians
show signs of unruliness which is a source of weigh-
tier trouble than the disloyalty of either the Half- I
breeds or of the whites. From time to time the '
various tribes have assured the officials of their
fidelity to "the great Mother," and have, under the
influence of the missionaries stationed amongst them,
declined to listen to the overtures of M. Riel's emis-
saries. After minimising as far as possible the
alarming announcements made, it is impossible not
to have cause for grave anxiety. Battleford is sur-
rounded by Indians, and at Frog Lake there has
been a terrible massacre of whites. At Fort M`Leod,
a post some sixty miles south of Calgary, and
not far from the United States border, the
Gros Ventres, Crows, Piegans, Kortenays, and
Bloods are marauding the country, killing
cattle, stealing horses, and threatening the
settlers' lives. Riel's agents have been amongst
them, and so alarming has the situation become that
the women and children have been sent into the fort,
while the settlers, who have at last got the mis-
chievousness of the agitation which they favoured
brought home to them, are arming for their defence.
From Calgary, the scene of the meeting of the dis-
contented farmers, the Blood and Stoney Indians are
moving southward to join those over the American
border; and as the tribes in question have 3000
warriors, an urgent request for troops has been des-
patched to Ottawa. At Gleichen, a station on the
railway, the Blackfeet are so restive as to call for the
attention of a detachment of volunteers, and at Swift
Current, the Crees, hitherto regarded as the mildest
of their race, have been holding a war dance and
plundering the village. The settlers are barricaded
in the railway station, while the feebler folks have
been sent east to Moosejaw for safety.
The Canadian authorities have displayed much
promptitude in the difficult circumstances in which
they have been placed. The military resources of the
Dominion are not great. and with the suspicion
of the malcontents in the North - West
receiving sympathy and succour from the
Minnesota Fenians, they have not been able
to spare more than a certain number of men for
the suppression of the rebellion. The rest guard the
settlements along the railway, and do their best to
watch the frontier for raiders. Volunteers are, how-
ever, coming forward with readiness, and troops are
pouring in with rapidity from Winnipeg and other
points, so that there is a chance of active operations
having been completed in a few weeks. The difficulty
which faces General Middleton and his officers is that
though the railway affords facilities of transportation
undreamt of during the revolt of 1870, the scene of
Riel's present outbreak is five hundred miles further
from the centre of the Government than that affair,
and in the midst of a country difficult to reach owing to
winter blasts, thawing snows, and half-frozen rivers.
At Qu'Appelle are concentrated the forces detailed
for hostilities against the Half-breeds and their
' Indian sympathisers, and General Middleton's
column, with a field battery, has reached the Touch-
wood Hills. Five thousand troops are going west-
ward along the Canadian Pacific Railroad, at various
points between Ottawa and Winnipeg. The defenders
who retired from Fort Carleton are shut up at Prince
Albert, and may not be able to hold out until the
relieving force reaches them, while Humboldt, a
small post about half-way between Qu'Appelle and
the North Saskatchewan, is so hard pressed that
unless succour soon arrives it must surrender. The
rebellion, so far as the Half-breeds are concerned,
seems at present to be concentrated in the vicinity of
33attleford and Prince Albert.
The following telegram was received through
Reuter's agency on Sunday April 12: Crowfoot, Chief
of the Blackfeet, has telegraphed to Sir John Mac-
donald, the Premier, that he will keep faith with the
Great Mother, and willnotmake war upon the whites,
The young braves, he says, shall spill no blood and will
keep on their farms. General Middleton telegraphs
that he is approaching Humboldt, having marched
ran average of twenty-one miles per day. He has
800 men, and expects to reach the river and to meet
the enemy on Wednesday or Thursday. A force of
350 men left Swift Current last night for the river,
and will embark on steamers and scows on Monday
morning, taking Gaffing guns with them. Straggling
bands of Indians from the American side Faye entered
pouthern Manitoba, pillaging and burning several
r haiies. Troops have been dispatched from Win.
nilfa3e to renulse them. . /4, .

" HOW greedy you are 4" said one little girl to another,
wbo,had taken the best Apple in the dish; "I was
going to take that myself.'
A mite of a boy standing at the outside door was
asked if it rained. "No,""he replied. " but it 4aks
a J

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