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"Distinction without a Difference:" Treaty and Scrip in 1899

Article Feature By G. Neil Reddekopp and Patricia Bartko

Lubicon Cree, Lubicon Land

Celebrating the Legacy

Context and Understandings

The Successful Pursuance of That Human and Generous Policy

Oral Traditions and Treaty 8

The Fraudulent Treaty

They Think They Own the Land

Bishop Emile Grouard and Treaty 8

Comments on Interpretations of 'Entitlement Land'

Protecting Their Inheritance

Treaty and Scrip in 1899

Taking Treaty 8 Scrip, 1899-1900

The Indian Agents of Fort Chipewyan

metis people with scrip commission members

The Treaty 8 and Athabasca Scrip Commissioners who visited northern Alberta in 1899 anticipated that they would meet and believed that they had met two distinct groups - Indians to whom treaty would be offered and Métis to whom scrip would be issued. It was believed that Indians and Métis were distinguished not only by ancestry, but also by employment and preferred forms of land tenure. Historical and genealogical evidence suggests, however, that these assumptions were of limited value. But, however real the similarities were between those who entered treaty and those who applied for scrip, the legal distinction between the two groups would assume considerable importance as early as the 1920s and continues to be of significance today.

For more information on Treaty 8 Revisited: Selected Papers on the 1999 Centennial Conference, visit the Lobstick website.

Reprinted from with permission from Lobstick: An Interdisciplinary Journal.