The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-10-08

A most primitive and peculiar village
it is, with handsome women, beauti-
fully formed, busily weaving baskets
inside the open doors, their dark eyes
gazing curiously as you pass by; other
women walking with elastic step alol4s
the road, with dark colored blankets,
draped with rare effect over the head
and about the face, and enveloping al
most the entire figure in their folds; dark
visaged men here and there, some work
ing in the gardens, others preparing
logs for being stripped into splints for
basket work.
The village is partly within Canada
and partly within the United States, but
no difference is in any way apparent.
No one indeed can point out the exact
boundary, as of the line of iron posts set
up to mark the division as agreed upon
by the treaty of Washington some have
been destroyed, and one in the heart Of
the village has been willfully misplaced.
Some $500 Indians there are i'll the
village and the Canadian and United
States reservations, of which the village
is part, and this number is about equally
divided between the two countries. In
neither reservation is there court, a
policeman or a constable, yet uniformly
good order is maintained.
For the United States portion there is
an annuity Of So, eco or $4,000, and after
schools and roads are paid for there is
left some two dollars per head-not Il
very great annual sum.
But the Indians do not usually get
even the two dollars. for the govern
ment sees to it that all sorts of fees and
commissions and travelling expenses and
are paid for out of the
reserv alton fund 1t is unfair to make
the Indians pay for all this, because
what is due them is interest on the sum
for which they sold lands to the govern
ment, and the money therefore belongs
to them as a right and not a charity
! Basket making is the principal oe-.
,cupation of the village, tile men doing
the first rough work and the women
and girls completing it. They become
imarvelously expert, and many of their
productions are elaborate and thor
loughly artistic. The making of la
crosse sticks is also quite an industry.
Fishing is the occupation of quite a
number. Great eels are caught and
splendid sturgeon, while even the fast
vanishing musllellunge is still from time
to time the prize OF the more fortunate.
Some vegetable produce is raised with
in the limits of the village itself, but in
winter all the fences of this tract are
burned up, leaving a task of fence build
ing for the early spring. Such are the
community ideas that if a man doesn't
care to burn his fence himself his neigh
bors quietly remove it and burn it for
him. Naturally enough, therefore, it is
seldom that there is such an omission on
the owners part.
In the reservations outside of the vii
lage considerable farming is carried on,
and quite large farms are by some fami-
lies operated. Money, though, is neces-
sarily scarce, even among the most sue
cessful, and so it is but few who can
afford expensive agricultural inlple-
ments and farming machines. 'f
Still some of the farms are very cred
liable indeed. Especially is this the
case on the ''Glebe lands" on the far
Their side Of the St. Regis rivera large
tract of land, over century ago grant
ed to the priests and cleared by them,
but which long since ceased to be theirs.
The mission church stands prominent
ly on the point between the two rivers,
and is quaint old gothic structure of
stone, with tall, square tower, erected
toward the close of the past century to
take the place of an earlier and ruder
structure.
The priests home, also built in the
last century, stands close by-a massive
stone building, lead rooted and with
walls to 81 feet thick.
All the expenses of the mission are
borne by the Indians themselves, al
though money is scarce among them.
That the town is what it is, is the re-
suit of the tireless and self devoted en-
ergies of its missionaries. The mission
was begun over q century and a quarter
ago, and the continuous records of the
church are still sacredly preserved for
all but very few of the earliest years.
Old and yellowed with age are the rec
ords, and there is u quiet pathos in read
ing entry after entry of a missionary.
then his last; then, in strange hand.
the record OF his denth and BURIAL and
then, continuing, the entries of his sue
cessor. The Oldest page is dated the I'd
of February, 1862: