In 1870, Louis Riel and those who fought alongside him insisted that the land rights of their descendants be protected. Decades later, less than 10% of a promised 1.4 million acres had made its way into the hands of Métis families. What happened to the rest of it?

In this episode we’ll be talking about Métis scrip: perplexing government policies, deliberate fraud, and the men who got rich from the whole fiasco.

Images

To respect the wishes of the Gabriel Dumont institute that the images on their site not be reproduced elsewhere, I have linked to specific items in their collection below rather than creating a slideshow of images as usual, and have used the titles and descriptions provided by the Institute. Most of these images can also be found in the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan.

These images show the scrip commission, but are also a record of the lives and lifestyles of the Métis at the turn of the century.

  • “A Sitting of the Commission” – Métis and Commissioners at a sitting of the Half-Breed Commission at Devil’s Lake, near Sandy Lake Reserve, 1900.
  • “At Devil’s Lake” – A group of Indians and/or Métis outside the Half-Breed Commissioners’ tent, Devil’s Lake (near Sandy Lake Reserve) NWT, 1900.
  • “Baking Bannocks” – Half-Breed Commissioner’s York boat crew baking bannock in camp, 1900.
  • “Commissioners’ Mess Tent” – The Half-Breed Commissioners’ mess tent, with Commissioners seated at table, Duck Lake, 1900.
  • “Send off to commissioners, Grand Rapids” – A group of people giving a “send off” for the Half-Breed Commissioners, Grand Rapids MB, 1900.
  • “At Sturgeon River” – Members of the Half-Breed Commission at Sturgeon River, 14 September 1900.
  • “At Batoche” – Unidentified man seated outside the Half-Breed Commissioners’ tent at Batoche, 1900.
  • “At Onion Lake” – A group of Métis men, women and children sitting beside a campfire, Onion Lake NWT, 1900.
  • “Group of Half-Breeds at Grand Rapids” – “Métis women and children, at the time of the visit by the Half-Breed Commission, Grand Rapids MB, 1900.”

Sources/Further Reading

Published by Alex Judge

I'm a historian with an MA in Soviet and American history, but these days most of my research time goes into local Winnipeg history for my podcast, One Great History.

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