Métis Scrip Records

Commissions

Manitoba and North-West Territories Commission

Subject Files

Dept. of the Interior, RG 15, Series D II 1, Dominion Lands Branch, Correspondence, Headquarters, 1871-1946, 213.6 m, vols. 227 to 1176; Microfilm reels T-12176 to T-15542.

A numerically arranged series of subject files created by the Dominion Lands Branch. The series touches on all aspects of land management and natural resource administration by the Department of the Interior, including Métis land claims. The records included in this series contain general correspondence and departmental memoranda relating to rulings, policy, and procedures, which governed the operations of the North-West Half-Breed Commissions. It also contains case files relating to the awards given to individual Métis families. For example, most of the claims investigated by R.C. MacDonald under Order-in-Council, 13 August, 1904, appear to have been filed in this series. The files are numbered sequentially from 1 to 5,644,152 and are listed, in numerical, order in finding aid FA15-5. Under each file number, the finding aid gives the volume number, file title, date range, and subject headings. A copy of the electronic finding aid is available in Archives Search. The case files established by R.C. MacDonald are indexed in RG 15, volume 1531.

Dept. of the Interior, RG 15, Series D II 8 g, General Administrative Records Relating to Métis Scrip, Compiled by N.O. Coté, 1894-1913, 0.3 m, vol. 3171.

Various un-numbered files which are believed to have been used by N.O. Coté in his capacity as a senior administrator in the Department of the Interior. Throughout his lengthly career as a civil servant, Coté served on three separate scrip commissions, and later, as the senior manager of the Lands Patent Branch. The records included in this series summarize departmental procedures, policies, and authorities as they relate to the issuing of scrip to Métis residents of the North-West Territories. Of particular interest are the records relating to the grants awarded to specific families by R.C. Macdonald under the Manitoba and North-West Territories Commission as authorized by Order-in-Council, P.C. 1613, 13 August, 1904.