Volume 2

Report from the Select Committee on Aborigines (British Settlements) with the minutes of evidence, appendix and index.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Aboriginal Tribes.
Date:
1966
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report from the Select Committee on Aborigines (British Settlements) with the minutes of evidence, appendix and index. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 4320. 5372- 5372) 5373+ 5395: 5403. 8 REPORT FROM SELECT COMMITTEE by our missionaries stationed in Upper Canada, and who are now em- ployed 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 ap- plies 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 Capt. 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 30 or 40 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 Com- panies, in which the Indians were induced to take a bloody part, furnished them with a ruinous example of the savageness of Christians.* Mr. Pelly, the chairman of the Hudson’s Bay Company has, however, assured your Committee, that many of the evils caused by the rivalry of the two companies have been removed by their junction, and that the present directors are well disposed to promote the welfare of the Indians: yet we observe, that the witness above quoted, Mr. King, who has travelled in the country, is of opinion, that even our system of peaceable trade has a tendency to be- come injurious to these people, by encouraging them in improvident habits, which frequently bring large parties of them to utter destitution and to death by starvation. But whatever may be the actual condition of the Indians at the present moment, on which subject there appears to be some diversity of testimony, we entirely concur in the wisdom, the humanity, and the right feeling which dictated the following paragraph :— It appears to me that the course which has hitherto been taken in dealing with these people has had reference to the advantages which might be derived from their friend- ship in times of war, rather than to any settled purpose of gradually reclaiming them from a state of barbarism, and of introducing amongst them the industrious and peaceful habits of civilized life. Under the peculiar circumstances of the times, it may have been originally difficult to pursue a more enlightened course of policy; the system may, perhaps, have been persisted in by the Home and Colonial Governments rather as a matter of routine than upon any well considered grounds of preference, whilst, on the part of the Indians themselves, there is no doubt that its accordance with their natural propensities * See Papers relating to Red River Settlement, 1815, 1819: especially Mr. Coltman’s Report, pp. 115, 125.