The Livingston enterprise. [volume] (Livingston, Mont.) 1883-1914, 1886-01-23
IMPORTANT IF TRUE.
An Indian Uprising in the Canadian North
west Predicted.

St. Paul Globe says: Matters are now
shaping for general Indian uprising in
the Canadian Northwest in the spring,
and it is very doubtful if anything the
government will be able to do will arrest it.
The Southern Indian reserves, which lie
between the Canadian Pacific railway and
the international boundary line, in the
neighborhocd Of Glenchen, contain about
20, 900 natives consisting of Bloods, Black
feet and Piegans. These tribes are in fed
eral alliance, with Crowfoot as their prin-
cipal civil chief, and Three Bulls as their
commanding war chief. The latter
is now IN position to harass the coun-
try with more than 5000 braves.
Further to the north are the Crees
and Stoneys. who were, with Pound
maker and Big Bear as leaders, more or
less mixed up with the Riel troubles last
spring They number in all about $4,000
and have nearly 1000 picked fighting men.
Poundmaker, the Cree chief, who was the
first to surrender to Gen. Middleton after
the defeat of the Metis at Batoche, and
who has been sent to prison for three years
for his part in that outbreak, IS son-1n-
law of Chief Crowfoot. and that too, in
more than IN any ordinary Indian sense,
for the Blackfoot chiefs favorite daughter
is at the head of the Cree chiefs polyga-
nous household. Poundmaker is in the
penitentiary, but the principal Mrs. Pound
maker is whetting thousand scalping
knives for the Crees on the Saskatchewan,
and sending frenzled war messages to her
Blackfeet kinsfolk farther to the south.
Crowfoot has yielded to the appeals OF his
daughter, who IS now looked upon as the
queen of the Crecs, and seizing the oppor-
tunity to avenge the wrongs from which
their people have recently suffered,
has summoned council of his head
men, representing Bloods, Piegans and
Blackfeet, and after mature deliberation,
Three Bulls has been commanded to
have 5000 braves ready for the warpath
as soon as the grass is sufficiently uncov-
cred for the ponies. This tirece war chief is
already astir, and around many Blood
and Piegan fire, and in hundreds of smoky
Blackfeet teepees the scalplocks taken by
dead heroes of their race are taken down
and waved in the dim freight to the ugly
strains of tho war-dance songs of impa-
tient braves. Horses and cattle are rap
! idly disappearing, to the dismay of Cana
dian ranchmen. These, it is stated, find
their way into the possession of the more
reckless of Montana traders in exchange
for rifles and cartridges, whose deadly
crack will, before another June reaches
us, render every piece of tall grass or
clump of brush and every ravine or reed
bordered coolie things to be avoided as de-
positorics Of certain death. Among the bad
results OF the Metis rebellion is the con-
tempt with which all the Indians regard
Canadian troops The latter were wofully
beaten, with the odds in their favor, both
at Frog Lake and Fish Creek, and the So
called battle of Batochc was rather sue
ccssful retreat of the rebels than we'll
earned victory on the part of the militia.
Col. Otter's dash upon Poundmaker band
was a disorderly rout, and his almost
miraculous escape was achieved only bya
march of over forty miles in a single night,
through swamps and muskegs. Neither
Poundmaker nor Big Bear was defeated.
Both surrendered only after firing of har-
assing and cvading the volunteers. The
half-breeds will not likely join the hostile
Indians. They lost their leader on the
gallows at Regina. The government has
redressed their wrongs partially, bat they
have no heart Or courage left The rebelli-
GUS natives complain chiefly Of the too.
officious presence of Canadian militia, or
mounted police, whose number and vigil
ance have been doubled since the late dis
turbance; of the intrigues and dishonesty
of Indian agents and instructors; of the
tyranny and funkyism of Lieut.. Col. Gov
Dowdney, who is the Indian commission
er, and of the unlawful encroachments of
settlers and ranchmen. The Canadian gov
ernment is taking steps to nip the pros
pective outbreak in the bud, but prepara-
tions have already gone so far that the very
acts of the government, intended to avert
the calamity. will provo the immediate
cause of trouble. The more the Canadian
authorities make preparations to meet the
expected emergency the greater the insult
to the Indians. They are determined to
be avenged, and the coming summer will
be one of hardship and devastation in the
Canadian Northwest Settlers south of the
Canadian Pacific liue are pretty much all
preparing to leave, and to-day a delcga-
ton from the ranchmen passed through
this city for the federal capital, to urge on
the authorities the necessity of regiment
being at once sent to the neighborhood of
Calgary to put "A stop to the inroads which
Indians are making upon their horses and