The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-02-09
CANADIAN SILHOUETTES,
Some Indian Items-The st. Regis Tribe
A Live MOOse-The Canadian Boy.

Written for the indianapolis Journal by B. s. Parker.
Indians and Indian Statistics.
One of the features of the winter carnival,
which is to occur this week at Montreal will be
an Indian concert in which the performers and
singers are all to be Indians selected from the
various tribes in eastern Canada and clothed in
the fantastic Indian garb of former day.
There again may be heard the Iroquois, or
language of the Six Nations, those valiant foes
of the French ''voyageurs" and colonists in the
days of New France, and perhaps, also, that of
the Algonquins, their sturdy friends, with whom
they intermarried, and whose blood is flowing
to-day in the veins of many habitans. Apropos
of this, the report of the Department of Indian
Affairs for the year 1883 shows that the whole
number of Indians in the Dominion of Canada
is 131, 137, of whom sc, 4S3 are in British
Columbia, 1880 in the Northwest, 1921
in Ontario, i, $50 in Quebec, and $1,000
in the Athabaska and Mckenzie districts.
Out of this number only 1894 are in schools, and
it is probable that the attendance of many of
these is merely nominal These schools are
principally under the control of the various or
ders of priests, the Jesuits being, of old, the
most earnest and energetic in the work of edu-
eating and proselytising the Indians. There is
one feature of the Indian policy of the Dominion
Government which is deserving Of special praise.
A certain portion of the proceeds of their lands
are held in trust for them, so that they may not
be reduced to suffering and want by their own
improvidence or lack of knowledge in financial
affairs The amount now held in this way to the
credit of the various tribes in the Dominion is
49, 80, 52S, showing an increase of So 257 during
the last year And the amount used for the ben
eft of the Indians during the year was $27S, 81,
being $21, 293 more than for the preceding twelve
months, which shows that the fund must gain at
about the rate of $25, per annum. Unfortu-
nately this humane policy did not prevail in the
early settlement of the country, and the aborlg-
inal tribes of Quebec, the Bas Provinces and
parts of Ontario are not nearly so well
provided for as those of the west and north
western portions of British America. A vigor
Gus effort is now being made for the suppression
of the liquor traffic among the Indians. The
love of strong drink is the worst stumbling
block in the path of the red men to civilization
and decent self-support after the manner o.
civilized and enlighted people, and if this can be
removed the future of the aboriginal survivors
in Canada will be much more hopeful One of
the Oldest and best known Of these Indian tribes
is that known as the St Regis tribe, whose
reservation and village is on the st. Lawrence,
opposite the city of Cornwall. For two hundred
or more years these Indians have been the
special charge of the Catholic Church. The
band numbers now 1,119, owning al dwellings
and 2,282 acres of cultivated land. Last year
they had in their possession I5T head of live
stock and produced 1857 bushels of produce
and 529 tons of hay, and realized $40l from furs
and s., 400 from other industries, Not very
much, certainly, for over thousand people, but
there are, doubtless, sections where an
equal number of habitans do not
produce more. You remember the story
of the bell which was taken, l forget
in what year of the old French war, from
Catholic church on the st. Lawrence by an En-
glish sea captain, who carried it to New England
and sold it to the Puritans, who put it upon
their meeting house at Deerfeld, Mass, to cab
the righteous to prayer and praise and the sol
enn observance of the severe religious cere
monies and obligations of those gloomy days.
You also remember the sequel how the jealous
French monks fred their Indian allies with their
own zeal and supershtous enthusiasm, until
they we're enabled to gather them together in a
formidable band and march them hundreds of
miles through the unbroken forests, across the
mountains. and over rapid streams to Massachu-
setts. And how, one night when the inhabitants
of Deerfeld were wrapped in peaceful slumhers,
unbroken by the slightest premonition of dan
GER they were awakened by the war-whoop of
the Indians and the scarcely less-savage battle
cries of their French allies and directors-awak-
ened only to meet the descending blade of the
tomakawk or perish in the flames of their burn
ing homes And how the French and their
Indian cohorts, after their muFderous nights
work, bore back the old bell in
triumph to the banks of the st. Lawrence, as
though the possession of so trifing piece of
property could in any measure atone for the
blood outlines which its recapture had cost
them. That same old bell is to-day hanging in
the tower of the little Catholic church at st.
Regis, and rings out its calls to the dusky
children of the church who worship IN that
aboriginal village, as cheerily as though it had
been but yesterday brought from the founders
work shop and had never been stained by the
blood of the innocent and defenseless.