Commissioners and Women in Mess Tent at Duck Lake

A photograph of the Half-Breed Commissioners sitting in their mess tent with some female visitors (wives?) at Duck Lake, NWT during their visit to that area in 1900.

Historical note:

Narcisse-Omer Cote (1859-1944) a civil servant for the Government of Canada, entered the department of the interior in 1879. In 1885, he was appointed secretary to the Royal Commission investigating and adjudicating Metis claims. In 1900 he became a Commissioner of the North-West Half-Breed Commission. The Commission was to enumerate and issue scrip to the Metis who qualified in the district of Saskatchewan and a small part of Manitoba. Their work lasted from May 16 to December 6 1900.