OCTOBER 31:

1977 Montreal Quebec - James Bay Land Claims Agreement signed into law; agreement with New Quebec Cree and Inuit transfers aboriginal rights and lands in return for $225 million, hunting and fishing rights and greater self-government; paves way for construction of James Bay Hydroelectric Project, which will flood ancestral land; Canada's first modern First Nations treaty.

1888 Regina Saskatchewan - First Legislative Assembly of NWT meets at Regina.

1763 Detroit Michigan - Pontiac capitulates after British defeat Indians at Bushy Run, and after the deaths of several chiefs and a string of other losses.

October 31, 1871:  On this date Delshay of the Tonto Apaches met with Captain W N Netterville, in Sunflower Valley, to discuss a peace treaty. Delshay said he wanted peace, but he wanted both sides to live up their promises which the whites seldom did.  Delshay agreed to meet the Peace Commissioner, Vince Colyer, at Camp McDowell near Phoenix, Az, on November 12, 1879, but Colyer never responded to Delshay's meeting proposal so no peace was made.

October 31, 1880:  Spotted Eagle and Rain in the Face surrender at Ft.Keogh.
 

BACKGROUND:
 

Words Spoken:  Delshay
 

"I don't want to run over the mountains anymore; I want to make a big treaty....I will keep my word until the stones melt....God made the white man and God made the Apache, and the Apache has just as much right to the country as the white man. I want to make a treaty that will last, so that both can travel over the country and have no trouble."
 

*****
 

>From "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee", by Dee Brown.  Random House, Publishers.  ISBN 0 09 952640 9.
 

The next chief on Colyer's agenda was Delshay of the Tonto Apaches.  Delshay was a stocky, broad-shouldered man of about thirty-five.  He wore a silver ornament in one ear, his facial expression was fierce, and he usually moved at a half-trot as though in a constant hurry.  As early as 1868 Delshay had agreed to keep the Tontos at peace and use Camp McDowell on the west bank of the Rio Verde as his agency.  Delshay, however, found the bluecoat soldiers to be exceedingly treacherous.  On one occasion an officer had fired buckshot into Delshay's back for no reason the chief could fathom, and he was quite certain that the post surgeon had tried to poison him. After these occurrences, Delshay stayed clear of Camp McDowell.

Commissioner Colyer arrived at Camp McDowell late in September with authority to use soldiers to open communications with Delshay.  Although truce flags, smoke signals and night fires were used extensively by parties of cavalry and infantry, Delshay would not respond until he had thoroughly tested the intentions of the bluecoats.  By the time he agreed to meet with Captain W N Netterville in Sunflower Valley (October 31, 1871), Commissioner Colyer had returned to Washington to make his report.  A copy of Delshay's remarks was forwarded to Colyer.

"I don't want to run over the mountains anymore," Delshay said.  "I want to make a big treaty ... I will make a peace that will last; I will keep my word until the stones melt."  He did not want to take the Tontos back to Camp McDowell, however.  It was not a good place (after all, he had been shot and poisoned there).  The Tontos preferred to live in Sunflower Valley near the mountains so they could gather the fruit and get thewild game there.  "If the big capitan at Camp McDowell does not put a post where I say," he insisted, "I can do nothing more, for God made the white man and God made the Apache, and the Apache has just as much right to the country as the white man.  I want to make a treaty that will last, so that both can travel over the country and have no trouble; as soon as the treaty is made I want a piece of paper so that I can travel over the country as a white man. I will put a rock down to show that when it melts the treaty is to be broken ... If I make a treaty, I expect the big capitan will come and see me whenever I send for him, and I will do the same whenever he sends for me. If a treaty is made and the big capitan does not keep his promises with me I will put his word in a hole and cover it up with dirt.  I promise that when a treaty is made the white man or soldiers can turn out all their horses and mules without anyone to look after them, and if any are stolen by the Apaches, I will cut my throat.  I want to make a big treaty, and if the Americans break the treaty I do not want any more trouble; the white man can take one road and I can take the other ... Tell the big capitan at Camp McDowell that I will go to see him in twelve days."