Collection search - [Order in Council - Métis Claims, List of Orders filed by R.C. Macdonald]. Original title: Order in Council - Half Breed Claims, List of Orders filed by R.C. Macdonald

Scrip was a certificate issued by the Department of the Interior which indicated the right of the holder to receive payment later in the form of money or land. The federal government distributed scrip to the Métis in exchange for their land rights, as a method of extinguishing their Aboriginal title to the land. The federal government also used scrip to distribute land to white settlers, including Original White Settlers, soldiers, and police who fought in the North West Resistance of 1885 (or North West Rebellion of 1885).
Throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the federal government of Canada used the term "Half-breed" to refer to people of mixed First Nations and European ancestries. This included the Métis Nation, a people who coalesced into a distinct nation in the northwest in the late 18th century.

Further documentation on these cases investigated by MacDonald can be found among the working papers of the Manitoba and North West Territories Commission, i.e., RG 15, series D-ll-1, vol. 783 and 784, file 556321, pt. 1-4. The case files can now be found in RG15, series D-II-1 (part of Branch Registry, item ID number 156349).