The daily progressive-miner., 1916-03-28
Annette Island Council Takes
 Exceptions
FATHER DUNCAN AND HIS METLAKATLA INDIAN
 CONVERTS
(Continued from last issue.)

as if they are ungrateful to him We are well aware that this is how the public generally view the situation here. But this is not the case at all. Very far from it Where can you find on the whole American continent any tribe o1 Indians that does not record it's sincere thanks to it's friend and benefactor? One natural character istic of the Indian is that he never forgets any one that has made a sacrifice on his behalf Is our school-boy story of Poco- hontas protecting an endangered lone and helpless white man, an invented story?
 But the present attitude of the Metlakatla Indians toward Father Duncan has been unjustly created and nursed by Father Duncan himself. He could have easily nip- ped this in the bud by recognizing the growth, the manhood and the advanced and changing conditions of his Indian people But he did not do this. He gave plenty of opportunities for the unfortunate situation to take root and grow. It was in his power to make things right, but he did not do sos He did not wish nor try to do it. The carbuncle has been allowed to grow without medical attention. and today it is very painful to Father Duncan and painful to the Metlakatla Indians. The correct solution of the Metlakatla trouble. in the judgment of this Council. and in the judgment of the pre- ceding similar body, is the speedy and complete retirement of Father Duncan from the Metlakatla work. and his absence from Annette Is- land.
 The stories of cannibalism, the attempted murder of Father Dun can by the Indians, and similar stories like that, as recorded by MT. Carpenter, cause much amuse- ment among the Metlakatla h. dians, especially among the few old men that are still living, and who were young men when Father Duncan first came to Fort Simp- son, B. C., in 1857. These old men brand Father Duncan's stories as stretch of the human imagination They are a mere fabrication, es- pecially the cannibal stories.
 From Lower California to the Arctic regions on the Pacific coast. in the days of the early Spanish explorers, in the days of Vancouv- CT and Vitus Boring, long before Father Duncan and his co-workers came, history does not record a single instance of cannibalism among the Indian tribes of the whole coast. The reports of both American and British travellers and geographers do not speak of the cannibalistic life and practices of any of these Indians. Father Duncan's cannibal stories, as we read in MT. Carpenters article and in the books that are published on Father Duncan, are in line with Dr. Cooks ascent of our Alaska Mount Mckinley of a few years ago. Multitudes read and believed Dr. Cook; but the bubble which for 8 time appeared genuine knock ed against something and it burst
 We do not deny that we were heather people when Father Dun can first came to us. We were bad in exactly the same way that the other Indian tribes of North Amer ica were bad. Many of our cus- toms were hideous. The introduct- ion of rum and firearms among us by the white people added a great deal to our degradation. Father Duncan together with the other English missionaries and teachers that came with him at the time did good work among us. All this belongs to their cred it. We have over and over again thanked them for their good work. We have been very faithful and true to them.
 It must be remembered, how ever, that it was the self-sacrifice of many poor Christian in Eng land that made possible the gath ering of funds for the beginning of the work in 1857 and which was carried on till the fall of 1882 when Father Duncan was dis charged by the Church Missionary Society. And the Indians them selves did very well in leaving the ways of their fathers so quickly and so easily, and become adapted to the new condition of things The British Government brought Father Duncan from England or a warship and landed him in Brit ish Columbia, protected him al the way through, clothed him witt