The Indian Question


The Indian Question
Saskatchewan Herald 2/10/1879 The Indian Question The question of what shall be done with our Plain Indians in the immediate future is a most important one, and is now receiving a good deal of attention in many quarters. The Dominion Government has been exceedingly fortunate in its dealings with the Indians in the past, and there is no doubt that it will be equally successful in their treatment in the future, although difficult and unforeseen circumstances have arisen. The great problem with the Indian is how he shall be fed. As long as he has plenty to eat he will be contented. Hitherto the buffalo has supplied all his wants, but it is evident that this source of food will be exhausted in a very few years. What then will become of him? Food he must have, and when the game is destroyed he must have something else, and the next thing is, what shall that something else be? In this dilemma he naturally looks to the white man. When the treaties were made with the Indians of the North-West it was thought that they would have met the gradually changing circumstances of the Indians. * * * * * The principal event that has brought about the existing state of things is undoubtedly the presence on the hunting grounds formerly occupied by our own people, of the large bands of United States Indians who recently entered upon of them. Their numbers are variously estimated at from six to ten thousand souls, and the buffalo killed amount to hundreds daily. This wholesale slaughter and the exclusion of our Indians from their hunting grounds are undoubtedly the cause of much of the distress that prevailed last summer, and gave rise to the rumors of coming trouble. Providentially great bands of fat buffalo came down from the mountains in the autumn and furnished a good supply of food for the winter, thus removing all cause of apprehension for the present. The incursion of these foreign Indians could not be foreseen, nor could it have been averted, so that it was impossible to guard against it or provide a remedy for the hardships it brought in its train. It is evident that for the Indian there is but one resource-he must be taught to cultivate the soil, to accommodate himself to a civilized mode of life, and be at least partially fed while he is learning. This will involve an enlargement of the Indian policy of the Government. It was expected that as game became scarce, the Indians would gradually withdraw from the plains and settle on reserves as farmers, so that by the time the supply of buffalo failed they would be able to maintain themselves by agriculture. But the change has come so suddenly that this calculation has failed, and it only remains to make the best of the situation, and the easiest way seems to be to cause farms to be broken up on the reserves under the direction of competent men engaged to superintend them and instruct the Indians, not only in the cultivation of the soil, but in the management of domestic animals and the practice of such branches of trade as are necessary for a farmer to know. b

Saskatchewan Herald
2/10/1879
The Indian Question
The question of what shall be done with our Plain Indians in the immediate future is a most important one, and is now receiving a good deal of attention in many quarters. The Dominion Government has been exceedingly fortunate in its dealings with the Indians in the past, and there is no doubt that it will be equally successful in their treatment in the future, although difficult and unforeseen circumstances have arisen.
The great problem with the Indian is how he shall be fed. As long as he has plenty to eat he will be contented. Hitherto the buffalo has supplied all his wants, but it is evident that this source of food will be exhausted in a very few years. What then will become of him? Food he must have, and when the game is destroyed he must have something else, and the next thing is, what shall that something else be? In this dilemma he naturally looks to the white man.
When the treaties were made with the Indians of the North-West it was thought that they would have met the gradually changing circumstances of the Indians.
* * * * *
The principal event that has brought about the existing state of things is undoubtedly the presence on the hunting grounds formerly occupied by our own people, of the large bands of United States Indians who recently entered upon of them. Their numbers are variously estimated at from six to ten thousand souls, and the buffalo killed amount to hundreds daily. This wholesale slaughter and the exclusion of our Indians from their hunting grounds are undoubtedly the cause of much of the distress that prevailed last summer, and gave rise to the rumors of coming trouble. Providentially great bands of fat buffalo came down from the mountains in the autumn and furnished a good supply of food for the winter, thus removing all cause of apprehension for the present.
The incursion of these foreign Indians could not be foreseen, nor could it have been averted, so that it was impossible to guard against it or provide a remedy for the hardships it brought in its train.
It is evident that for the Indian there is but one resource-he must be taught to cultivate the soil, to accommodate himself to a civilized mode of life, and be at least partially fed while he is learning. This will involve an enlargement of the Indian policy of the Government. It was expected that as game became scarce, the Indians would gradually withdraw from the plains and settle on reserves as farmers, so that by the time the supply of buffalo failed they would be able to maintain themselves by agriculture.
But the change has come so suddenly that this calculation has failed, and it only remains to make the best of the situation, and the easiest way seems to be to cause farms to be broken up on the reserves under the direction of competent men engaged to superintend them and instruct the Indians, not only in the cultivation of the soil, but in the management of domestic animals and the practice of such branches of trade as are necessary for a farmer to know.