A peculiar class of claims, deserving a passing notice, which had to be dealt with by the Dominion was that known as "Staked Claims." From an early period, about 1862, the Roman Catholic population had been in the habit of wintering stock along the generally well-sheltered banks of the Seine, Rat (x), and La Salle rivers. Such a (x) Rat River had been a half-breed settlement from a comparatively early period. At least, so it would appear from the following communication, the original of which is in the author's possession : : "Le 2 Mars 1825. D'après ce que m'ont dit plusieurs personnes, il parvit que la plupart des gens libres de Pembina voudraient abandonner cet endroit. Vû la fertilité du sol, ils y restervient bien volontiers, s'ils pouvient avoir un Prêtre pour les y desservir: mais comme ce n'est point mon dessein d'y rétablir la Mission contre les intentions formelles des Exécuteurs du feu Comte de Selkirk, et que d'un autre côté, ils perdent toute espérance d'avoir un Missionnaire du côté des Etats-Unis, comme ils l'avoient espéré depuis la pétition qu'ils ont faite à ce sujet; ils voudroient en conséquence se fixer sur la Rivière Rouge dans un endroit qui servit approuvé de vous, et où nous pourvions les desservir. J'ai proposé à quelques uns d'aller s'établir à la Prairie du Cheval Blanc; mais le lieu ne leur convient pas. En s'établissant ici ils trouvent qu'ils servient trop éloignés de l'Églese, vû quel les terres d'alentour sont déjà concédeés, et que leur désir étant de s'en rapprocher, ils se trouveroient encore placés bien désavantageusement pour l'instruction de leurs enfans, qu'ils ont principalement en vue. "Ayant pris leur désir en considération, j'ai jugé à propos de vous le communiquer, pensant que vous ne serez pas éloigné de leur accorder des terres dans un endroit où nous aurons la facilité de leur fair rempli leurs devoirs religieux. M'étant informé qu'elles étoient les places les plus avantageuses pour un établissement, la plus proche qui m'a été enseignée, est depuis la Rivière au Rat inclusivement en remontant vers la Saline. Je servis flatté de connoître vos intentions à ce sujet. "Dans le cas où ce plan pourroit s'exécuter, presque tous ceux qui laisseront Pembina manqueront de semences; car la disette y a été considérable. Si vous étiez dans la disposition de leur faire quelques avances, je désirerais savoir à quelques conditions ce sera, pour les en informer. "J'ai l'honneur d'être, "Monsieur, "Votre très humble et ob. serviteur, use of land was not, it is submitted, sufficient to give the claimant any right to consideration under the Manitoba Act, unless, of course, there were other additional circumstances in favour of the applicant. Those in authority, however, on the principle, doubtless, of taking all that can be got, advised the half-breeds to stake, work, or otherwise define claims to unoccupied lands in the settlement. Little encouragement was needed to incite the "staker" to action, for they set to work with the most praiseworthy alacrity, and in a surprisingly short space of time the fronts of the three rivers fairly bristled with stakes, "blazes," and claims. It must not be imagined that the staker in general was content with one claim; on the contrary, with commendable forethought, be made provision not only for himself and his living children, but those dead and in expectancy. One individual in particular, who aptly rejoiced in the name Solomon, his surname being Venne, and whose "growing virtues" were not "circumscribed" in the manner detailed in the Elegy, staked out upwards of fifteen claims, not along the small streams as did his compatriots, but, being a man of large ambitions, selected the duly surveyed and allotted Red River, no less, for this purpose. Canada at first refused to recognize these staked claims at all, but pressure was brought to bear, and by Order in Council of January 29, 1876, certain concessions were made. These were enlarged and made more definite on April 20, 1876, and the government finally succumbed on February 25, 1881, by virtue of which last-mentioned order all patents have been issued. CHAPTER VI. OF THE SURVEYS, METHOD OF TRANSFER OF LAND, AND RECORDS OF ASSINIBOIA. In his interesting and instructive sketch (y) appended to the report of the Department of Interior for 1891, Mr. J. S. Dennis, D.T.S., states, at the beginning of his paper, that the "only surveys, other than explorations, which had been effected in the territory purchased (Rupert's Land), covered a narrow belt of lots fronting on the Red and Assiniboine rivers, and extending a short distance up and down these streams from their junction at Fort Garry. These surveys had been performed by Messrs. Sabine and Goulet, under instructions from the Hudson's Bay Company, with the object of defining the boundaries of holdings granted by that Company to settlers along these rivers." Mr. Dennis, not having the requisite books and documents at hand, has fallen into several errors in the above remarks, in pointing out which, it is not to be understood that any reflection is cast on the accuracy of his subsequent statements referring to the surveys of the Dominion Government in and after 1869, in regard to which be it said that Mr. Dennis is exceptionally well qualified to speak, and has furnished us with a valuable addition to a branch of Manitoba's history hitherto neglected. The surveys of the Red River Settlement were not made by Messrs. Sabine and Goulet, who were employed at a much later date by the Council of Assiniboia to make local surveys for parties desiring to take up lands outside the regular and general surveys; nor were they made by the (y) A Short History of the Surveys made under the Dominion Lands System, 1869 to 1889. Hudson's Bay Company. It was Lord Selkirk who caused the first survey of his own settlement to be made, very many years before either Goulet or Sabine came to Red River. It was done shortly after the arrival of the first settlers (2) in the colony in August, 1812. No actual date can be fixed for the commencement or ending of the survey, but, as has been seen (a), in the summer of 1813 or 1814, mentioned in the Parliamentary Report of 1819, "the surveyor of the colony, in laying out some lots for settlers, insisted upon running one of his lines through the middle of the garden of the NorthWest Company's post, which, after some opposition, was submitted to." Mr. Ross states (b) that when Lord Selkirk came to Red River in 1817, Mr. Fidler (c), the surveyor, had run (a) Ante, p. 9. (b) Ante, p. 11. (2) Ante, pp. 7, 9. (c) This was Mr. Peter Fidler, born August 16, 1769, a very wellknown officer in the service of the Company. He was stated to have made the survey of the District of Assiniboia when it was conveyed to Lord Selkirk. His name is frequently mentioned in the Parliamentary Report of 1819, and in the Reports of Trials at Montreal and York. He was a man of education, and his will, made at "Norway House, Winipie River (sic), North America," on August 16, 1821, describes him as "Surveyor and Trader for the Honourable Hudson's Bay Company." In the latter part of the following year he died, and was buried at Fort Dufferin. His will is a very interesting one. He leaves "all my manuscript Journals, beginning in 1791 and continued regularly since 1796 to the present date or time of my decease; also four or five vellum-bound books containing fair copies, etc., of the narratives of my former journeys, astronomical and meteorological observations made by me in different parts of the interior of Hudson's Bay ; also all my manuscript maps of the aforesaid places, the rough copies of my thermometrical observations," to the committee of the Company. This invaluable collection the Company disclaims all knowledge of, both in London and Canada-a very great loss indeed. He further gave his library of about five hundred books (a great collection in Rupert's Land in those days) and all his printed maps, two sets of twelve-inch globes, a large achromatic telescope, a Wilson's microscope, a brass sextant by Blunt, a barometer and several thermometers, to the Governor of the Red River Colony in trust for the public benefit, "but none of the things to be lent out of the Government House of the said Colony," all declared to be "for the general good of all those colonists settled in the lands of the Earl of Selkirk in Assiniboia.” 1 |