“The cause of these pale people is our cause; their interests are our interests; they have mingled their flesh and blood with ours; we shall be their faithful brothers to the death.”  It was this fact, not the wisdom of government Indian agents, nor the heaven-born insight of government itself into the management of tribes that so long preserved peace and good will throughout our North-West Territories.  It was for this reason that enemies of government in the Republic could say after they had revealed the corruption of Red Cloud and Black Rock agents: 

“Observe the Canadian tribes, mighty in number, and warlike in their nature.  They fight not, because they have been managed with wisdom and humanity.  There is no corruption among the accredited officials; there is no sinister dealing towards them by the government.”  We do not charge our officials with corruption, neither do we believe that their administration has been feeble;—­on the whole our attitude towards the Indian people has been fair; our policy has revealed ordinary sense,—­and not much brilliancy.  Probably half a dozen level-headed wood-choppers, endowed with authority to deal with the tribes, could have acquitted themselves as well; perhaps they might not have done so well, and it is probable that they might have exhibited a better showing.

It was in this settlement that in after years appeared Louis Riel pere.  For some generations the Hudson Bay Company had carried on an extensive trade in peltry, and numbers of their employes were French peasants or coureurs de bois.  Thousands of these people were scattered here and there over the territories; and they began to turn loving eyes toward the rich meadows along the banks of the Red River.  Some of these had for wives squaws whom they had wooed and won during their engagement in the peltry trade.  These finding that other whites had taken Indian girls for brides, felt drawn towards the new settlement by sentiments stronger than those of mere interest.  Numbers of unmarried French took up farms in the new colony, and soon fell captive to the charms of the Cree girls.  Now and again the history of the simple-hearted Scots was repeated; and a coureur was presently seen to bring a shy, witching Saulteux maiden from the tents of the Jumping Indians.  But the French, it must be said, were not so dilettante in their taste for beauty as were their Scottish brethren; yet, as a rule, their wives were the prettiest girls in the tribes —­after, of course, “braw John” had been satisfied—­for an ugly maiden was content to have an Indian for her lord; and she tried no arts, plucked no bouquets from the prairie flowers, beaded no moccasins, and performed no tender little offices to catch the heart of the white man.

“Pale face gets all the pretty squaws; suppose we must take ’em ugly ones.  Ugh!” This was the speech, and the true speech of many a chief, or lion-hearted young man of the tribes under the new order at Red River.