Canada. Queen Victoria. 1899 Indian Treaty No. 8 Medal. Electrotype copy of the reverse of the rare original medal. 76 mm. 3.6-3.9 mm thick. Copper and lead. Extremely Fine.This item reproduces the reverse of the original medal (Jamieson p. 53-55) with a large central image of a military officer and a headdress-wearing Native American shaking hands (said to be Colonel McLeod, Canadian Treaty Commission, and Chief Roundmaker), a rising sun on the left, and a Native American encampment on the right. The inscriptions are incuse, with INDIAN TREATY No 8 at the top, and 1899 at the bottom. A 10 mm hole has been neatly drilled near the top, between the two figures. The side depicted is nicely bronzed, the back is blank, and in the typical lead gray color. The blank side of this item -- the obverse on the original medal -- would have had a diademed and veiled image of the ruling British monarch, Queen Victoria, with her name and title to the left and right. According to Jamieson, Treaty No. 8, with the Cree, Castor, and Chippewa Indians, which was not signed until 21st June 1899 and other dates up to the 14th August of the same year, terminated this series of agreements, and was the final treaty to be concluded during the reign of Queen Victoria. This was also the last medal to be presented bearing the effigy of that gracious Sovereign. We could not find any examples of a Treaty 8 medal having sold in the collector market, but several images or references were located by the consignor in various publications, including a slightly damaged piece on the Library and Archives Canada website (http://collectionscanada.ca/treaty8/020006-3030-e.html), one that was part of a display at the Provincial Museum in Edmonton mentioned in a 1988 article about the exhibition (http://data2.archives.ca/e/e448/e011196101.pdf) and one pictured in an Alberta Social Studies textbook (http://www.nelson.com/albertasocialstudies/productinfo/gr6_9/documents/abss9ch4draft.pdf). The present thin copper electrotype, backed in thick lead for stability, was used for some today unknown purpose, and may be one of the only ways a collector can own a representation of a Treaty 8 Medal.
