Colonization and Christianity / A popular history of the treatment of the natives by the / Europeans in all their colonies

by William Howitt

CANADIAN INDIANS.

The general account of our intercourse with the North American Indians, as distinct from missionary efforts, may be given in the words of a converted Chippeway chief, in a letter to Lord Goderich: “We were once very numerous, and owned all Upper Canada, and lived by hunting and fishing; but the white men who came to trade with us taught our fathers to drink the fire-waters, which has made our people poor and sick, and has killed many tribes, till we have become very small.”[49]

It is a curious fact, noticed in the evidence, that, some years ago, the Indians practised agriculture, and were able to bring corn to our settlements, then suffering from famine; but we, by driving them back and introducing the fur trade, have rendered them so completely a wandering people, that they have very much lost any disposition which they might once have felt to settle. All writers on the Indian race have spoken of them, in their native barbarism, as a noble people; but those who live among civilised men, upon reservations in our own territory, are now represented as “reduced to a state which resembles that of gipsies in this country.” Those who live in villages among the whites “are a very degraded race, and look more like dram-drinkers than people it would be possible to get to do any work.”

To enter, however, into a few more particulars.—The Indians of New Brunswick are described by Sir H. Douglass, in 1825, as “dwindled in numbers,” and in a “wretched condition.”

Those of Nova Scotia, the Micmacs (by Sir J. Kempt), as disinclined to settle, and in the habit of bartering their furs, “unhappily, for rum.”[50]

General Darling’s statement as to the Indians of the Canadas, drawn up in 1828, speaks of the interposition of the government being urgently called for in behalf of the helpless individuals whose landed possessions, where they have any assigned to them, are daily plundered by their designing and more enlightened white brethren.[51]

Of the Algonquins and Nipissings, General Darling writes, “Their situation is becoming alarming, by the rapid settlement and improvement of the lands on the banks of the Ottawa, on which they were placed by the government in the year 1763, and which tract they have naturally considered as their own. The result of the present state of things is obvious, and such as can scarcely fail in time to be attended with bloodshed and murder; for, driven from their own resources, they will naturally trespass on those of other tribes, who are equally jealous of the intrusion of their red brethren as of white men. Complaints on this head are increasing daily, while the threats and admonitions of the officers of the department have been insufficient to control the unruly spirit of the savage, who, driven by the calls of hunger and the feelings of nature towards his offspring, will not be scrupulous in invading the rights of his brethren, as a means of alleviating his misery, when he finds the example in the conduct of his white father’s children practised, as he conceives, towards himself.”[52]

The general also speaks of the “degeneracy” of the Iroquois, and of the degraded condition of most of the other tribes, with the exception of those only who had received Christian instruction. Later testimony is to the same effect. The Rev. J. Beecham, secretary to the Wesleyan Missionary Society, says he has conversed with the Chippeway chief above referred to, on the condition of the Indians on the boundary of Upper Canada. That he stated most unequivocally that previously to the introduction of Christianity they were rapidly wasting away; and he believed that if it had not been for the introduction of Christianity they would speedily have become extinct. As the causes of this waste of Indian life, he mentions the decrease of the game, the habit of intoxication, and the European diseases. The small-pox had made great ravages. He adds, “The information which I have derived from this chief has been confirmed by our missionaries stationed in Upper Canada, and who are now employed among the Indian tribes on the borders of that province. My inquiries have led me to believe, that where Christianity has not been introduced among the aboriginal inhabitants of Upper Canada, they are melting away before the advance of the white population. This remark applies to the Six Nations, as they are called, on the Great River; the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senacas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras, as well as to all the other tribes on the borders of the province.” Of the ulterior tribes, the account given by Mr. King, who accompanied Captain Back in his late Arctic expedition, is deplorable: he gives it as his opinion, that “the Northern Indians have decreased greatly, and decidedly from contact with the Europeans.”

Thus, the Cree Indians, once a powerful tribe, “have now degenerated into a few families, congregated about the European establishments, while some few still retain their ancient rights, and have become partly allies of a tribe of Indians that were once their slaves.” He supposes their numbers to have been reduced within thirty or forty years from 8,000 or 10,000, to 200, or at most 300, and has no doubt of the remnant being extirpated in a short time, if no measures are taken to improve their morals and to cultivate habits of civilization. It should be observed that this tribe had access to posts not comprehended within the Hudson’s Bay Company’s prohibition, as to the introduction of spirituous liquors, and that they miserably show the effects of the privilege.

The Copper Indians also, through ill-management, intemperance, and vice, are said to have decreased within the last five years to one-half the number of what they were.

The early quarrels between the Hudson’s Bay and the North West Companies, in which the Indians were induced to take a bloody part, furnished them with a ruinous example of the savageness of Christians.[53]