Métis Scrip Records

Commissions

Manitoba and North-West Territories Commission

Applications

Dept. of the Interior, RG 15, Series D II 8c, Applications, 1886-1906, 8.85 m, vols. 1333 to 1371; microfilm reels C-14943 to C-15010.

This series contains applications for scrip made by Métis residents of the North-West Territories. The applications date from 1886 to 1906 and were received by all the scrip commissions post-dating the North-West Half-Breed Commission of 1885, except the Treaty 11 Commission. Each application gives the name of the applicant, his/her residence, place and date of birth, name of parents and origins, martial status, etc. The applications are filed alphabetically by name of the applicant. Finding aid FA15-21, parts 1 to 15, is an alphabetical index to these records. It is also available on microfilm reel C-14943. A copy of the electronic finding aid is available in Archives Search.

If researchers can not find a particular application in this series (this is usually the case with applications accepted by R.C. MacDonald), they should probably investigate the central registry files of the Dominion Lands Branch, RG 15, series D II 1 (which is described in greater detail elsewhere). It is always possible that the application was withdrawn from this series by departmental administrators and placed in a separate case file in their central registry. This procedure appears to have been a common practice whenever an application required special consideration by the department. By creating a separate case file on a particular scrip application, the department could keep all its correspondence concerning the application together in a single location.

For a complete listing of Métis applications under Order-in-Council, P.C. 575, 16 March, 1901, researchers should examine one of the claims registers compiled by McKenna, and which are now retained by Library and Archives Canada as RG 15, volumes 1496 and 1517. As described elsewhere, the former register is a nominal index organized by claim number; the latter is an alphabetical index organized by the name of the applicant. The alphabetical index indicates whether a claim was allowed or disallowed by McKenna. The disallowed claims were rolled together and listed in volume 1536 (see description elsewhere).

For a complete listing of applications investigated by R.C. Macdonald under Order-in-Council, P.C. 1613, 4 August, 1903, researchers should refer to the register retained as RG 15, volume 1531. Most of these applications would appear to have been placed in case files in the central registry series of the Dominion Lands Branch (RG 15, series D II 1), rather than in the applications series described here.