West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1885-05-22

sion 10y sending Hon. William Me
Dougall to Winnipeg To enter upon tho
duties OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS had its
natural result, and the hal(-brccds
under the lead of Louis Ricl. resolved
TO prevent his entrance into the settle
meat uutil some guarantee was re-.
ccNcd Tor the rights of the inhabitants.
and the rebellion of 1869 was the result
Al the time of the transfer of the ter
rtoy TO the Dominion. saws a writer.
the log-hutS 81 the French half-hrCeds
lined both sides OF the Red and Assina.
BONE rivers for many miles up and
down the streams from Winu peg. They
cultivated each man few acres over a
large proportion of the broken land,
and Tor many years their largc-whcolc I
oN-carls were the only vehicles that
brought produce at all in large quanti-
ties To the settlements Their fathers
had come To the Northwest many wears
before rs servants of the Hudson BAY
Company They had married Indian
women, and many of the half-brCcds.
at the time of the transfer. had been
living in undisturbcd possession Of their
httle farms for thirty or forty years and
some for half a century Hitherto they
had known no one but the great corpo-
ration whose employees they were.
Rome was their church and the Hudson
Bay Company their STATE.
Suddenly word cameup the river that
the land upon which they had lived
for so many years had been transferred
to tno Dominion of Canada Their In
dian blood took fright and they pict-
ured their lands in the hands of strau-
gers, themselves turned out of doors
and their homes gone The arbitrary
course of Mr. McDouglll bore it, lc,it-
innate fruit in Ricls rebellion The re-
bellion did not keep the stranger, out
bat it had its effect i'm the half breed
Land act, which was soon after passed.
by the Dominion Parliament I'm the
nrst place there were 10000 acres oil
land set apart for the half breed infants;
subsequent grant, were made of land
aud scrip to the half-hrced heads of
families. Aftcrward came an order i'm
council dividing the | 100, 600 acres Of
land among the infants per capita, and
granting 2i) acres TO each child Com
mlSsioncrs were sent about To take q
census of the families. and children
were at a premium; each child WAS
worth 2AO acres OF good land TO It's
parents and tradition says that children
were lent from one family to auoih-
cr, those already counted 10y thr COM
missloncrs being sent abroad 10 hc
counted over again in the interest of
another family further on.
Children ten, eleven and twelve wears
of age wee examined with the utmost
gravity, and tho farce was again and
again enacted by obtaining their con
sent TO the sale of their lands Strange
IT was that these youngsters never VITA
held their consent Lands were taken
out of chancery and sold with such
rapidly that to keep up with the times
printed aldavits had TO be struck OF i'm
great numbers uniformly dcposing that
the doponcnt was the father OF such and
such an infant; that he was hopcless'y
Ill or disabled, that he was destitute and
unable TO keep his children; for some
time after all effects of the Baic ST. Paul
foods had entirely passed away, injury
from the Hoods remained an invarabl ,
clause i'm e cry affidavit that was in
tended TO fetch" the Judge
The custom st.ll prevails very wide v
among haif-brec Is i'm Manitoba II
swearing interest out OF court The
money That remained in chanccrv on
the sale of infants lands is not and has
not been allowed to lie and accumulate @
interest The alfbrcrds know O. ut
inte est is accu nuating. Some Of them
are not remarkable for industry. Whio
there is the certainty Of few dollars
being paid out of court 10 them in a few
weeks or months they will live in utter
idlcness and exist on almost nothing
rather than work When the interest
IS due they show great activity They
may be seen, hale, strong men, looking
for their lawyers TO make them draft
ailidav,ts for them. telling la Jugo" at
the "p3lai3 de Justice that they are all
sick untO dying, that they can support
their families that they are destitute.
From this state Of affairs IL is evident
that the granting Of lands TO the French
half-brecds OF Manitoba has no secured
for them the great benefit that Riel eN-
peCtcd. On the contrary, the little
money that IL has placed ia their hands
has made many OF them idle, shftlcss
and inactive - Detroit POSI-