Codex Battleford
Transcription: 3
Transcription:
{2 [written in the top right corner with pencil]
I do not yet see any sign of insurrection,but I am positive that a spark would suffice to start a conflagration;the dissatisfaction is so general and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [crossed out] so well-founded.”
Time had in no way remedied this state of things.The winter of 1883 was severe;famine was rife among the Indians in spite of the weekly rations. The little children came to St.Angela misson on Poundmaker’s reserve, half-naked,half-famished,in weather 30 to 40 degrees below zero.The hope of getting each a piece of good bannock,had no doubt more inducement for xxxxx [crossed out] them in such weather than the desire for instructionx.
At the beginning of the year 1884,the Indians ceased to visit the mission and no longer sent their children to school.Grieved to see that five years of zeal and labour had given such pitiful results,Fr.Cochin begged from Bishop Grandin the permission to established [sic] a new mission at Bresaylor where some well-to-do Halfbreeds from Manitoba had just settled.The permission was granted and on February 22nd 1884 he was authorized to reside there on condition that he visited St.Angela ‘s mission every fortnight to show the Poundmaker’s Indians he had not abandoned them.
Although Fr.Cochin’s mission-centre was on Poundmaker’s Reserve,he extended his ministry to Lucky-man’s and Little-Pine’s, and frequently visited Sweet-Grass,half-way between St.Angela and Battleford.In all these places there were a few catholics .
Among the Indian chiefs of these reserves,although Little-Pine was the bravest on the battlefields,Poundmaker was the most influential on whom the Indians relied the most for their betterment.He was a manof [sic] forty,tall, slender,intelligent and energetic.He had acquired the reputation of an [sic] cunning arbiter in xxxx [crossed out] settling many quarrels which had arisen between the Crees and the Blackfeet.His speeches,full of sincerity and wits,never failed to produce a lively impression on his hearers.He had already succeeded in making the government officials realize that the Indians could not work if not fed,and that they could not become farmers,if they did not have xxx [crossed out] implements and oxen.Although admitting that in fact the Indians received more than the treaty allowed them,he pretended reasonably that they did not receive enough;as the treaty was defective,it should be amended.This is why he had began to agitate in order to obtain better terms.
In his many trips to the south,he had learned that the Blackfeet had always succeeded in their dealings with the Government,because they acted as an undivided nation.The Crees,on the contrary,scattered as they were,could never influence the Government in their behalf;they were fated to live in misery and remain slaves to the white people.To accomplish his aim,Poundmaker to unite closely on a single reserve or contiguous reserves as many cree tribes as possible,and thus obtain a greaterunity [sic] of action.But this policy ran counter to the plan of the Department of Indian Affairs which,to rule better had scattered the Indian groups and strove to prevent too frequent intercourse among them.Consequently,the Indian agents watched suspiciously Poundmaker’s policy of agitation for better terms which they treaty as acts of insubordination,but which was for the Indians a brand of his tireless devotion for his race.
In the fall of 1883,Big Bear’s band arrived under escort of the Mounted Police at the reserve which has been assigned to them in the xxxx [crossed out] Moose Hills,north of Fort Pitt.Formerly,Big-Bear had been the undisputed head-chief of the Plain Crees.The number of his followers had been momentous. Last supporter of his racial freedom and rights,he had refused to sign treaty No 6ixx which he did not find sufficient benefits to counterbalance the surrender of all claims to their xxxx [crossed out] fathers’land ,as exacted from the Crees.He then departed for the southern plains.But soon}
I do not yet see any sign of insurrection,but I am positive that a spark would suffice to start a conflagration;the dissatisfaction is so general and xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [crossed out] so well-founded.”
Time had in no way remedied this state of things.The winter of 1883 was severe;famine was rife among the Indians in spite of the weekly rations. The little children came to St.Angela misson on Poundmaker’s reserve, half-naked,half-famished,in weather 30 to 40 degrees below zero.The hope of getting each a piece of good bannock,had no doubt more inducement for xxxxx [crossed out] them in such weather than the desire for instructionx.
At the beginning of the year 1884,the Indians ceased to visit the mission and no longer sent their children to school.Grieved to see that five years of zeal and labour had given such pitiful results,Fr.Cochin begged from Bishop Grandin the permission to established [sic] a new mission at Bresaylor where some well-to-do Halfbreeds from Manitoba had just settled.The permission was granted and on February 22nd 1884 he was authorized to reside there on condition that he visited St.Angela ‘s mission every fortnight to show the Poundmaker’s Indians he had not abandoned them.
Although Fr.Cochin’s mission-centre was on Poundmaker’s Reserve,he extended his ministry to Lucky-man’s and Little-Pine’s, and frequently visited Sweet-Grass,half-way between St.Angela and Battleford.In all these places there were a few catholics .
Among the Indian chiefs of these reserves,although Little-Pine was the bravest on the battlefields,Poundmaker was the most influential on whom the Indians relied the most for their betterment.He was a manof [sic] forty,tall, slender,intelligent and energetic.He had acquired the reputation of an [sic] cunning arbiter in xxxx [crossed out] settling many quarrels which had arisen between the Crees and the Blackfeet.His speeches,full of sincerity and wits,never failed to produce a lively impression on his hearers.He had already succeeded in making the government officials realize that the Indians could not work if not fed,and that they could not become farmers,if they did not have xxx [crossed out] implements and oxen.Although admitting that in fact the Indians received more than the treaty allowed them,he pretended reasonably that they did not receive enough;as the treaty was defective,it should be amended.This is why he had began to agitate in order to obtain better terms.
In his many trips to the south,he had learned that the Blackfeet had always succeeded in their dealings with the Government,because they acted as an undivided nation.The Crees,on the contrary,scattered as they were,could never influence the Government in their behalf;they were fated to live in misery and remain slaves to the white people.To accomplish his aim,Poundmaker to unite closely on a single reserve or contiguous reserves as many cree tribes as possible,and thus obtain a greaterunity [sic] of action.But this policy ran counter to the plan of the Department of Indian Affairs which,to rule better had scattered the Indian groups and strove to prevent too frequent intercourse among them.Consequently,the Indian agents watched suspiciously Poundmaker’s policy of agitation for better terms which they treaty as acts of insubordination,but which was for the Indians a brand of his tireless devotion for his race.
In the fall of 1883,Big Bear’s band arrived under escort of the Mounted Police at the reserve which has been assigned to them in the xxxx [crossed out] Moose Hills,north of Fort Pitt.Formerly,Big-Bear had been the undisputed head-chief of the Plain Crees.The number of his followers had been momentous. Last supporter of his racial freedom and rights,he had refused to sign treaty No 6ixx which he did not find sufficient benefits to counterbalance the surrender of all claims to their xxxx [crossed out] fathers’land ,as exacted from the Crees.He then departed for the southern plains.But soon}
