As they grew, several of the latter communities sought to secure clear land titles from the Canadian government. Lieutenant-Governor Alexander MORRIS thought in 1880 that the claimants' case was clear: "They will, of course, be recognized as possessors of the soil and confirmed by the Government in their holdings." He urged that Métis still depending on the buffalo hunt have land assigned to them as that resource failed. The government ignored Métis concerns while at the same time negotiating the major native treaties and pre-empting land for RAILWAYS. In deep frustration, the Saskatchewan Métis took up arms under Riel and Gabriel DUMONT in the NORTH-WEST REBELLION of 1885.
Métis defeat at Batoche and the execution of Riel set off a second dispersal, particularly to Alberta, and a renewed weakening of their political influence and cohesiveness. Sir John A. MACDONALD in 1885 viewed them as without distinct standing: "If they are Indians, they go with the tribe; if they are half-breeds they are whites." Where Métis individuals did receive land allowances (or money equivalents), they usually were granted them in paper scrip - transferable certificates which unscrupulous speculators often pressured them to sell cheaply on the spot. The "scrip hunters" who followed the Treaty No 8 Half-Breed Commission in 1900 as it made its awards to Métis in the Dene settlements bought up many $240 scrip certificates for cash amounts of $70 to $130.
From 1885 into the mid-1900s poverty, demoralization and the opprobrium commonly attached to being "halfbreed" led many people of native descent to deny or suppress that part of their heritage if they could. In 1896 Father Albert LACOMBE, concerned for Métis interests, founded St-Paul-des-Métis northeast of Edmonton on land furnished by the government. For financial and other reasons, the colony failed as a formal entity by 1908, and settlers from Québec began to dominate the area.
