P r e f a c e

The facts related in the following chapters concerning the lives of my
people have, to the best of my knowledge, never been published before,
at least, not from the viewpoint of the Indian himself. I feel sure that
many are interested in following the development of the educational
system as applied to the Indians of Western Canada, and the progress,
or lack of it, made by, this picturesque people. Often, in perusing
supposedly authentic historic volumes, I have read of the Indians as
bloodthirsty individuals, yelling, whooping, capering and seeking to
destroy. I have become increasingly aware, as I continued reading,
that very few of the good points of the Redskins were chronicled.
Hence it became my desire to narrate as accurately as possible
some of the little-known but true facts concerning my people,
without exaggeration of their virtues or glossing over of their faults.

Doubtless, many people have wondered what were the feelings of the
aborigines as they put aside their native garb and customs and began to
take up life as civilized beings. In the following chapters I intend to give
as accurately and concisely as possible an account of my people's habits,
customs, and mode of living, and, what is perhaps much less understood,
some of the mental processes of the Red Race. I also wish to acquaint
the reader with a few 'inside facts' which may help to establish a closer
feeling of kinship between the white man and the red, and thus prevent
either from experiencing that feeling of revulsion on meeting which
cannot be better depicted than in the Indian expression 'Ugh!'

CHAPTER VII

Police - Injuns - Missionaries - Some Results

There is no doubt that during the later years of the regime of
the Northwest Mounted Police they have been considered by
the Indians throughout the territory of their activities as their
greatest allies and protectors. Comparatively a bare handful of
brave men, this organization has gained control of the entire
northwest, cleared it of its worst characters, and made life there
safer than it is in many cities. Law and order have been brought
out of chaos only because the men who comprised the force were
men of sterling character, men who held their honor higher than the
briber's gold and were willing to face quick death on the plains, or
the slower finish on the trail in the frozen North, without complaint,
in the upholding of a traditional principle. It may be interesting to
the reader to learn how this famous force won the respect, love
and fear of the original denizens of the Northwest.

Perhaps the first and hardest task of the Mounties was fighting
the whiskey traders and preventing these men from providing the
Indians with 'fire-water', which always resulted in brawls and killings
among the drinkers.

A close second in difficulty as the abolishment of tribal wars, which
meant the abolishment of the warrior - the highest calling in the eyes
of the Indian male. Also, the Indians had to be discouraged in their
business (for business it verily was) of stealing horses from ranchers
and hereditary enemy tribes across the American line. To 'run' a
herd of stolen horses across the border in early days was considered
by those Indians who accomplished it as not only a profitable
occupation, but a feat of gallantry and daring as well. For this reason
it took much time and patience to persuade the Blackfoot Confederacy
to desist from the practice and settle down to a slower and much less
'Honorable' - in the Indian's opinion - business of horse-raising and
agriculture.

Colonel Macleod, beloved officer commanding the Northwest, who
never broke his word to the Indians, was an aggressive and bold
leader who achieved results that went a long way toward making
Canada today the most law-abiding country of its size in the world.
He was afraid of no one, and perhaps this was the secret of his
success with the Indians, though I do not wish to give the impression
that he ruled them entirely through fear. The Indians did not
understand the white man's laws, did not want them, nor in many
cases agree with them, but there was one quality which they did
understand and appreciate to its fullest extent, and that was courage.

But even courage in itself did not win the case for the Mounties.
What really made the Red Men adopt principles and laws foreign
to them was that these laws were administered with such bravery,
fairness and honour on the part of the administrators that the
respect of the Indians was completely won. For these were qualities
which the Indians loved, admired, and from their viewpoint, had
always practised.

Shortly after the Police and Missionaries arrived, the Indians settled
on reserves allotted to them by treaty with the Federal Government,
and it was there that the missionaries also settled and carried on
their onerous tasks. Very difficult it was for them, for first they
had to learn the Indian language.

Only the white reader who has struggled his way through an
Indian dialect will realize the difficulty of this. Secondly, they
had to combat the various barbarous practices prevalent among
my people at that time. And lastly, they had to inculcate the
principles of Christianity into the minds of the Indians. Three
stupendous tasks! - the tedious learning of a language from
persons who did not understand the questions asked of them -
overcoming resentment in order to change barbarous and
unsanitary customs - teaching a religion revolving entirely on
the belief in one God, to prospective converts who already were
supplied with more deities than they knew how to propitiate!
However, the teaching of the missionaries was of a practical nature.
They quickly perceived that they must improve the material living
conditions of the Indians before they could hope to accomplish
anything toward raising their moral and spiritual status, and it is
chiefly due to this practical outlook on the part of these religious
leaders that their teachings were eventually accepted.

With the idea of setting the Indians firmly on their own feet
industrially, farm instructors and agents were sent to the Reserve
by the Government to teach them agriculture. Day schools
were established where the Indian children were taught. Boys'
homes and hospitals were erected on the various reserves.

The missionaries are still working as hard as ever for the welfare
of the Indians on all the reserves, and in the last two decades
great moral changes have been wrought among my people. A
new era has dawned, the old life is quickly passing away, and
the Indians are eagerly looking forward to still further advance
through the aid of those who are so nobly striving to help them.
Today green fields of grain may be seen stretching for miles across
the various reserves, the work under the supervision of agents
appointed by the Department of Indian Affairs.

An important figure in the eyes of the Alberta Indian is Canon
Middleton of St. Pauls School, Cardston, who for over thirty years
has been a diligent and sincere worker in his behalf. Not only
has he acted as teacher and adviser, but he has himself been
an inspiration, an incentive and an example of good living - a
guiding star to the high ideals which are revealed to us in the Good
Book.

In the foregoing paragraphs I have paid tribute to those to whom
most credit is due for the advancement of my people. Their
reactions, mental and physical, to these new ideas of civilization
will be dealt with in another chapter.

CHAPTER X

Civilization - the wrong kind

I sometimes wonder how long it will be before this so called
civilization extinguishes my people from the face of the earth.
I am not, of course, speaking of those aspects of civilization so
nobly exemplified by the missionaries and the Northwest Mounted
Police, but rather of the chicanery, drunkenness, greed and
deception which made their appearance in conjunction with the finer
phases of the white man's code, and which, as is usual with evil
things, found so many more willing pupils among my people than
did the good teachings.

Where are the tall, handsome, healthy, bronzed aborigines of
yesterday? Most of them are in the 'Big Sands' - the
Indian settlement of the Hereafter, wherein all are welcome,
good or bad, their earthly sins forgiven and equal love extended
to all whose time on earth has expired. Surely a generous Heaven!

Where are the numberless thousands who comparatively recently
roamed the plains, valleys and mountains of this continent?
Their hordes are now represented by a small and ever
diminishing number of Indians.

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