 | Future of INdian tribes
CHAPTER XII
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE TREATIES--THE
HALF-BREEDS--THE FUTURE OF THE INDIAN TRIBES
...
5. A very important feature of all the treaties,
is the giving to the Indian bands, agricultural
implements, oxen, cattle (to form the nuclei of herds), and seed grain.
The Indians are fully aware that their old mode
of life is passing away. They are not
"unconscious of their destiny;" on the contrary,
they are harassed with fears as to the future of
their children and the hard present of their own
lives. They are tractable, docile, and willing to
learn. They recognize the fact that they must
seek part of their living from "the mother
earth," to use their own phraseology. A Chief at
Fort Pitt said to me,--"I got a plough from Mr.
Christie of the Company twelve years ago. I have
no cattle; I put myself and my young men in front
of it in the spring, and drag it through the
ground. I have no hoes; I make them out of the
roots of trees. Surely, when the Great Mother
hears of our needs, she will come to our help."
[Footnote: This band a year ago raised sufficient
farm produce to support themselves without
hunting.] Such a disposition as this should be
encouraged. Induce the Indians to erect houses on
their farms, and plant their "gardens" as they
call them, and then while away on their hunts,
their wives and children will have houses to
dwell in, and will care for their patches of corn
and grain and potatoes. Then, too, the cattle
given them will expand into herds. It is true
that the number assigned to each band is
comparatively limited, and the Government are not
bound to extend the number. This was done
advisedly, by the successive Governments of
Canada, and the Commissioners, acting under their
instructions; for it was felt, that it was an
experiment to entrust them with cattle, owing to
their inexperience with regard to housing them
and providing fodder for them in winter, and
owing, moreover, to the danger of their using
them for food, if short of buffalo meat or game.
Besides, it was felt, that as the Indian is, and
naturally so, always asking, it was better, that
if the Government saw their way safely to
increase the number of cattle given to any band,
it should be, not as a matter of right, but of
grace and favor, and as a reward for exertion in
the care of them, and as an incentive to
industry. Already, the prospect of many of the
bands turning their attention to raising food
from the soil is very hopeful. In the reserve of
St. Peter's, in Manitoba, the Church of England
has for many years had a church and mission, and
long before the advent of Canada as ruler of the
lands, the Indians of the Indian settlement had
their houses and gardens, the produce of which,
went to supplement the results of fishing and
hunting. And so on the shores and islands of the
Lake of the Woods and on Rainy Lake, the Indians
had their gardens. Since the treaties, the
Indians are turning their attention much more to
cultivating the soil. The Indian district agent
in the Qu'Appelle region, reported in November,
1878, that of the twenty-four bands in this
treaty, eleven are gradually turning their
attention to farming, and of these Chief Cote, of
Swan River, is the most advanced, having
harvested that year two hundred and eighty
bushels of barley, over three thousand bushels of
potatoes, and a large quantity of other
vegetables. The increase from the four cows he
received two years since is eleven head. This may
appear large, but such is the fact.
Lieut.-Gov. Laird reported in 1877, "That some of
the bands within the limits of Treaties Numbers
Four and Six sowed grain and potatoes with good
results that year, one band having about one
hundred acres under cultivation." He also states
that the Indians are very desirous of farming,
and that he has hopes that a much larger quantity
of seed will be sown next year (1879). He also
states that the band at White Fish Lake, raised
enough that year to maintain themselves without
going to hunt. The Superintendent also reported
that in the Manitoba superintendency "a general
desire to be taught farming, building and other
civilized arts exists, and some of the Indians in
Treaty Number Three, living in the vicinity of
Fort Francis, are said to evince enterprise and
progress in their farming operations." At Lac
Seule, also in this treaty, the progress of the
Indians is quite marked. They have established
two villages in order to have the benefit of schools.
The Indian agent in the Lake Manitoba district
makes a similar statement. One band has eighteen
small farms of one hundred acres in all, on which
they raise potatoes, Indian corn and garden
vegetables. They have twenty-nine houses,
twenty-four horses, and thirty-six head of
cattle, of their own. Another built during the
year a good school-house, nineteen new houses,
and had one hundred and twenty-five acres under
cultivation. Another had just begun farming,
built six houses, two stables and a barn, and
possess seven head of cattle. Still another had
twenty-three houses and one hundred and fifty
acres under tillage, raising barley, wheat,
potatoes and vegetables, and having thirty-six
head of cattle. It is unnecessary to multiply
instances, of the aptitude, the Indians are
exhibiting, within so recent a period after the
completion of the treaties, to avail themselves
of obtaining their subsistence from the soil.
Their desire to do so, should be cultivated to
the fullest extent. They are, of course,
generally ignorant of the proper mode of farming.
In the year 1876, I reported to the Minister of
the Interior, the Hon. David Mills, after my
return from the negotiation of the treaties at
Forts Carlton and Pitt, "that measures ought to
be taken to instruct the Indians in farming and building."
I said "that their present mode of living is
passing away; the Indians are tractable, docile
and willing to learn. I think that advantage
should be taken of this disposition to teach them
to become self-supporting, which can best be
accomplished by the aid of a few practical
farmers and carpenters to instruct them in farming and house-building."
This view was corroborated by my successor,
Lieutenant-Governor Laird, who in 1878 reported
from Battleford "that if it were possible to
employ a few good, practical men to aid and
instruct the Indians at seed time, I am of
opinion that most of the bands on the
Saskatchewan would soon be able to raise
sufficient crops to meet their most pressing wants."
It is satisfactory to know, that the Government
of Canada, decided to act on these suggestions,
at least in part, and have during the past summer
sent farm instructors into the Plain country. It
is to be hoped, that this step may prove as
fruitful of good results, as the earnest desire
of the Indians to farm would lead us to believe it may be.
FUTURE OF THE INDIANS
And now I come, to a very important question,
What is to be the future of the Indian population
of the North-West? I believe it to be a hopeful
one. I have every confidence in the desire and
ability of the present administration, as of any
succeeding one, to carry out the provisions of
the treaties, and to extend a helping hand to
this helpless population. That, conceded, with
the machinery at their disposal, with a judicious
selection of agents and farm instructors, and the
additional aid of well-selected carpenters, and
efficient school teachers, I look forward to
seeing the Indians, faithful allies of the Crown,
while they can gradually be made an increasing and self-supporting population.
They are wards of Canada, let us do our duty by
them, and repeat in the North-west, the success
which has attended our dealings with them in old
Canada, for the last hundred years.
But the Churches too have their duties to fulfil.
There is a common ground between the Christian
Churches and the Indians, as they all believe as
we do, in a Great Spirit. The transition thence
to the Christian's God is an easy one.
Many of them appeal for missionaries, and utter
the Macedonian cry, "come over and help us." The
Churches have already done and are doing much.
The Church of Rome has its bishops and clergy,
who have long been laboring assiduously and
actively. The Church of England has its bishops
and clergy on the shores of the Hudson's Bay, in
the cold region of the Mackenzie and the dioceses
of Rupert's Land and Saskatchewan. The Methodist
Church has its missions on Lake Winnipeg, in the
Saskatchewan Valley, and on the slopes of the
Rocky Mountains. The Presbyterians have lately
commenced a work among the Chippewas and Sioux.
There is room enough and to spare, for all, and
the Churches should expand and maintain their
work. Already many of the missionaries have made
records which will live in history: among those
of recent times, Archbishop Taché, Bishop
Grandin, Père Lacombe, and many others of the
Catholic Church; Bishops Machray, Bompas,
Archdeacons Cochran and Cowley of the Church of
England; Revs. Messrs. Macdougall of the Wesleyan
and Nisbet of the Presbyterian Churches, have
lived and labored, and though some of them have
gone to their rest, they have left and will leave
behind them a record of self-denial, untiring
zeal, and many good results. Let the Churches persevere and prosper.
And now I close. Let us have Christianity and
civilization to leaven the mass of heathenism and
paganism among the Indian tribes; let us have a
wise and paternal Government faithfully carrying
out the provisions of our treaties, and doing its
utmost to help and elevate the Indian population,
who have been cast upon our care, and we will
have peace, progress, and concord among them in
the North-West; and instead of the Indian melting
away, as one of them in older Canada, tersely put
it, "as snow before the sun," we will see our
Indian population, loyal subjects of the Crown,
happy, prosperous and self-sustaining, and Canada
will be enabled to feel, that in a truly
patriotic spirit, our country has done its duty
by the red men of the North-West, and thereby to herself. So may it be.
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