THE FUTURE OF THE INDIAN TRIBES What do you think was Morris' intent here??

From the Eagle Watch #182
October 12, 2011

THE FUTURE OF THE INDIAN TRIBES

What do you think was Morris' intent here??

Excerpt from:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/tcnnd10h.htm
The Treaties of Canada with The Indians of 
Manitoba and the North-West Territories
by Alexander Morris, 1880
[he was the head Commissioner/negotiator on 
behalf of the Crown for Treaties 3, 4, 5 and 
6.  we'll have more to say about him later but for now this is what he wrote.]

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.