In the British Columbia Indian system, as we have before stated there was no policy of bestowing annuities or subsidies, although gifts were sometimes made for special reasons.[72] To the student of American Indian history special interest attaches in this connection to the judgment of Mr. William Duncan, a man of very great experience, wisdom, and success in his dealings with Indians. Mr. Duncan wrote as follows in 1875 from his mission at Metlakahtla: "In no matter affecting the Indians can the Government do more good or harm than in the matter of gifts.
"Money may be spent to a large amount upon the Indians and yet tend only to alienate, dissatisfy, and impoverish them, if wrongly applied; whereas a small sum rightly administered will yield much good both to the Indians and the country at large.
"The policy of dealing out gifts to individual Indians I consider cannot be too strongly deprecated, as it is both degrading and demoralizing. To treat the Indians as paupers is to perpetuate their baby-hood and burdensomeness. To treat them as savages, whom we fear and who must be tamed and kept in good temper by presents, will perpetuate their barbarism and increase their insolence. I would therefore strongly urge the Government to set their faces against such a policy." He recommended, on the positive side, that money be put into Public Works for the benefit of the Indians. It will thus be seen that Mr. Duncan held substantially the same views with regard to annuities as did the Agents and superintendents south of the Line, whose well-conceived ideas were nullified by the officials and contractors in the East.[73]
As has before been remarked, the Colony of British Columbia made no special effort for the education of the Indians. It was averred on the part of the Government that "the Government merely deferred the subject, believing that it was far more important in the interests of the community at large to first reclaim the Natives from their savage state and teach them the practical and rudimentary lessons of civilized life."[74] Beyond establishing reserves, however, and placing the Indians under law, one fails to see how the Government directly tried to teach them these "practical and rudimentary lessons." Certainly there was no effort by the Government to teach the Indians agriculture or any of the practical arts, as there was south of the Line.
There were other ways, however, in which the Colonial Government did help the Indians at considerable expense. In surveying reserves, and in keeping whites off of them; in the suppression of the liquor traffic; in exemptions from tolls, taxes, and customs; and in direct pecuniary aid for the destitute and the sick, the aggregate expenditures and rebates were considerable. Moreover, the Magistrates in the several Districts were to act as Indian Agents, and to advise and protect the Indian "in all matters relating to their welfare."[75]
We arrive now, finally, at the very important subject of reserves. These Indian reserves of British Columbia are to be clearly distinguished from the Indian reservations of the United States. The latter were very large in area, were assigned to a tribe or to a number of tribes, were founded on the principle of sequestration from the whites, and were under the oversight of an agent; the reserves of British Columbia were small, were assigned to septs or families, were often contiguous to white settlements, and had no special agents. In size the reserves of British Columbia varied in all degrees from one acre to six thousand acres.[76] The total area of surveyed reserves amounted in 1871 to 28,437 acres.[77] The general principle on which reserves were assigned was that each head of a family should be given ten acres, but in practice there was considerable variation.[78] It seems strange to one accustomed to American reservations, that a reserve of six hundred square miles for a tribe of 400 members should have been regarded as entirely too extensive to be allowed.[79]
The principle of assigning land in so small amounts, on what we may call a village system, may have been adopted with special reference to conditions of life among the Coast Indians or among those of the lower Fraser, for whose use (since they made their living by fishing or working for whites) a small parcel of land was sufficient but for the pastoral Indians of the interior it seemed manifestly insufficient. So long as there was plenty of range, the smallness of the reserves was not felt, but when whites acquired title to vacant lands and, at the same time, the wants of the Indians increased, the latter felt themselves unjustly treated.[80] When British Columbia entered the Confederation, the Dominion Government wanted the Indians to have eighty acres for each head of family. This the Province refused, but it did consent to grant twenty. This amount still being considered insufficient for the Interior Indians by the Dominion Superintendent of Indian Affairs for British Columbia, he requested that it be raised to forty acres (in accordance with the principle then recognized in the preemption laws of British Columbia, which allowed 160 acres west of the Cascades, but 320 east); but the request was not granted.[81]
In addition to their reserves, however, the Indians of British Columbia had the right to acquire land outside the reserves on the same terms as white men,—a right not possessed at that time by their kindred to the South. This right was clearly stated by Governor Douglas: "That measure," he said (referring to the reserve system) "is not, however, intended to interfere with the private rights of individuals of the future Tribes, or to incapacitate them, as such, from holding land; on the contrary, they have precisely the same rights of acquiring and possessing land in their individual capacity, either by purchase or by occupation under the Pre-emption Law, as other classes of Her Majesty's Subjects; provided they in all respects comply with the legal conditions of tenure by which land is held in this Colony."[82] This right, however, was afterwards modified to the extent that preemption could be exercised by an Indian only by special consent of the Government.[83] So late as 1872 an Indian received special permission to pre-empt one hundred acres.
As to which system, that of British Columbia or that of the United States, on the whole was the better, is a question difficult, if not impossible to decide; and it would certainly involve extensive research in the period subsequent to that of our study and beyond its scope.