The Amerindians and Eskimo: the Aborigines of British North America
I have already attempted to describe in the first chapter the ancient
peopling of America from north-eastern Asia, but it might be useful if
I gave here some description of the Eskimo and Amerindian tribes of
the Canadian Dominion at the time of its gradual discovery by
Europeans, especially during the great explorations of the eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries.
It is evident that the ESKIMO--who are quite distinct from the
Amerindians in physical type, language, customs, and industries--have
been for thousands of years the only inhabitants of Arctic America.
When the Norsemen came to the New World they seem to have met with
Eskimo as far south as New England, but in more recent times the
Eskimo have only been found inhabiting the extreme north and
north-east: in Greenland, on the Labrador coast, on Baffin's Land, and
along the Arctic coast of the North-American continent, between the
Coppermine River and the westernmost extremity of Alaska, as well as
on the opposite islands and promontories of Asia.
Their name for themselves as a people is usually "Innuit" (in
Greenland, "Karalit"). Eskimo is a corruption of _Eskimantsik_, a
northern Algonkin word meaning "eaters of raw flesh". Although their
geographical range extends over a distance of about three thousand
five hundred miles--from north-easternmost Asia to the east coast of
Greenland--the difference in their dialects is little more than that
between French and Italian; whereas the difference between the speech
of one Amerindian tribe and another--even where they belong to the
same language group--is very great--not less than that between German
and Latin, or English and French, or even between Russian and
Hindustani. This fact--of the widespread Eskimo language--makes some
authorities suppose that the presence of the Eskimo in Arctic America
cannot be such a very ancient event as, from other evidence, one might
believe. Perhaps the bold travelling habits of the Eskimo--which makes
them range over vast distances of ice and snow when hunting seals,
walruses, whales, musk ox, or reindeer--enables them to keep in touch
with their far-away relations.
The canoes or _kayaks_ in which they travel (first described by the
Norsemen in the tenth century) are made out of the hide of the seal or
walrus. The leather is stretched over a framework constructed from
driftwood or whales' bones. There is a hole in the middle for the man
or woman to insert their legs. This hole they fill up with their
bodies. If the canoe capsizes, the Eskimo cannot fall out, but bobs up
immediately. He and the canoe are really "one-and-indivisible" when he
is navigating the seas and lakes, plying deftly a large paddle.
In regard to food they were certainly not particular or squeamish.
They loved best of all whales' blubber, or to drink the fishy-tasting
oil from bodies of whales, seals, or walruses. Besides the meat of
Polar bears and of any fur animals they could catch, or the musky beef
of the musk ox, they devoured eagerly sea birds' eggs, Iceland moss,
and even the parasitic insects of their own heads and bodies! Hearne
relates that they will eat with a relish whole handfuls of maggots
that have been produced in meat by the eggs of the bluebottle fly! On
the other hand, they held cannibalism in horror, whereas for two-two's
their Amerindian neighbours on the west and south would eat human
flesh without repugnance.
The Eskimo, though occasionally tall, are as a rule stumpy and
thickset, with very small hands and feet, broad faces, and projecting
cheekbones, a narrow nose without the aquiline bridge of the
Amerindian, slanting narrow eyes, and long heads containing large
well-developed brains. In disposition the Eskimo are nearly always
merry, affectionate to one another, honest, and modest. Modern
travellers in the Arctic regions give them invariably a high
character; but Frobisher, Davis, and the explorers of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries accused them of treachery and an inclination
to steal. Iron in any shape or form they could hardly resist taking.
Moreover, if they are the same people as the Skraellings of the Norse
traditions they must have been of a fiercer disposition a thousand
years ago.
The Amerindians who inhabited (more or less) the rest of the Canadian
Dominion, and the whole remainder of the New World, differed in
physical appearance from the Eskimo mainly in being taller and better
proportioned, with shorter and rounder heads, larger, fuller eyes, a
bigger nose, and a handsomer personal appearance. The skin colour, as
a rule, was darker and browner than the greyish- or pinkish-yellow of
the Eskimo.
The various human types that went to form the Amerindian race (beside
the Eskimo element in them) seem to have entered north-west America
from Asia, and first to have peopled the Pacific slopes of the Rocky
Mountains, after which they wandered farther and farther south till
they got into a warmer climate. Then they crossed the Rocky Mountains
and peopled the centre and east of what is now the United States. As
they pushed their way north up the valleys of the great rivers, they
no doubt killed, mingled with, or pushed back the Eskimo. At last
their northernmost extensions reached to the Mackenzie River, the
vicinity of Hudson's Bay, Labrador, and Newfoundland. But in all the
middle, west, and even east of Canada they seem to have been
_relatively recent arrivals_,[1] not to have inhabited the country for
a great many centuries before the white man came, and all their
recorded and legendary movements in North America have been from the
south-west towards the north-east (after they had got across the Rocky
Mountains). The few cultivated plants they had, such as maize (Indian
corn), tobacco, and pumpkins, they brought with them or received from
the south.
[Footnote 1: There may have been an earlier race inhabiting north-east
America which was killed out or driven away by the last Glacial
period.]
The only domestic animal possessed by either Eskimo or Amerindian was
the dog. We are most of us by now familiar with the type of the Eskimo
dog--a large, wolf-like animal with prick ears and a bushy tail curled
over its back. In this carriage of the tail the Eskimo and most other
true dogs differ from wolves, with whom the tail droops between the
hind quarters. But there is a small wild American wolf--the
coyote--which carries its tail more upright, like that of the true
dog; and the coyote seems indeed an intermediate form between the wolf
and the original wild dog. Most of the domestic dogs of the
Amerindians[2] (as distinguished from those of the Eskimo) seem to
have been derived from the coyote or small wolf of central North
America.
[Footnote 2: "The dogs of the Northern Indians are of various sizes
and colours, but all of them have a foxy or wolf-like appearance,
sharp noses, bushy tails, and sharp ears standing erect." (Samuel
Hearne).
Hearne also remarks that the northern Indians had a superstitious
reverence and liking for the wolf. They would frequently go to the
mouth of the burrows where the female wolves lived with their young,
take out the puppies and play with them, and even paint the faces of
the young wolves with vermilion or red ochre.
When first observed by Europeans the unhappy Beothiks (of
Newfoundland) had apparently no domestic dogs, only "tame wolves",
whom they distinguished from the wild wolves by marking their ears.
They were made more angry by the European seamen attacking and killing
the wolves than by anything else they did. Apparently some kind of
alliance had been struck up between the Beothiks--a nation of
hunters--and the wolf packs which followed in their tracks; and the
Newfoundland wolves were on the way to becoming domesticated "dogs".
Later on it was realized that the island _did_ produce a special
breed--the celebrated Newfoundland dog--the original type of which was
much smaller than the modern type, nearly or entirely black in colour,
with a sharper muzzle and less pendulous ears. But its feet were as
strongly webbed and its habits as aquatic as those of the
"Newfoundland" of the modern breed. Some people have noticed the
resemblance between the farmers' dogs in Norway and the Newfoundland
type, and have thought that the latter may not be altogether of wolf
extraction, but be descended from the dogs brought from Norway and
Iceland by the Norse adventurers who visited Newfoundland in the tenth
and eleventh centuries.]
On the Pacific coast there were other types of domestic dog,
resembling greatly breeds that are found in eastern Asia and the
Pacific islands. Some of these were naked, and others grew silky hair,
which was woven by the natives into cloth (see p. 323). The Eskimo dog
almost certainly has been derived from northern Asia, and is closely
related to the well-known Chinese breed--the chow dog--and the
domestic breeds of ancient Europe. Even the commonest type of house
dog in the Roman Empire was very much like an Eskimo or a chow in
appearance. There is a true wild dog, however, in the Yukon province
of the Canadian Dominion and in Alaska--_Canis pambasileus_--a dark,
blackish-brown in colour. This may have been a parent of the Eskimo
dog, but it is also doubtless closely allied to the original (extinct)
wild dog of northern Asia, from which the chow and many other breeds
are directly descended. The Eskimo never under ordinary circumstances
ate their dogs; on the other hand, the Amerindians were fond of dog's
flesh, and in some tribes simply bred dogs for the table.
When Europeans first reached America all these Amerindian tribes, and
also the Eskimo, were still, for all practical purposes, in the Stone
Age. Those who lived in the north had discovered the use of copper and
had shaped for themselves knives and spear blades out of copper, but
not even this metal was in use to any great extent, and for the most
part they relied, down to the end of the eighteenth century, for their
implements and weapons, on polished and sharpened stones, on deer's
antlers, buffalo horns, sticks, sharp shells, beavers' incisor
teeth,[3] the claws or spines of crustaceans, flints, and suchlike
substances--in short, they were leading the same life and using almost
exactly the same tools as the long-since-vanished hunter races of
Europe of five thousand to one hundred thousand years ago--the people
who pursued the mammoth, the bison, the Irish "elk", and the other
great beasts of prehistoric Europe. Indeed, North America represented
to some extent, as late as a hundred years ago, what Europe must have
looked like in the days of palæolithic Man.
[Footnote 3: Of which they made very serviceable chisels.]
* * * * *
The AMERINDIANS of the Canadian Dominion (when the country first
became known to Europeans) belonged to the following groups and
tribes. The order of enumeration begins in the east and proceeds
westwards. I have already mentioned the peculiar _Beothiks_ of
Newfoundland.[4] In Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick,
and the Gaspé Peninsula there were the _Mikmak_ Indians belonging to
the widespread ALGONKIN family or stock. West and south of the
Mikmaks, in New Brunswick and along the borders of New England, were
other tribes of the Algonkin group: the Etchemins, Abenakis,
Tarratines, Penobscots, _Mohikans_, and Adirondacks. North of these,
in the eastern part of the Quebec province, on either side of the Gulf
of St. Lawrence, were the _Montagnais_. This name, though it looks
like a French word meaning "mountaineers", was also spellt Montagnet,
and in various other ways, showing that it was originally a native
name, pronounced Montanyé. The Montagnais in various clans extended
northwards across Labrador until they touched the Eskimo, with whom
they constantly fought. The interior of Labrador was inhabited by
another Algonkin tribe, the _Naskwapi_, living in a state of rude
savagery. The _Algonkins_ proper, whose tribe gave their name to the
whole stock because the French first became acquainted with them as a
type, dwelt in the vicinity of Montreal, Lake Ontario, and the valley
of the St. Lawrence. In upper Canada, about the great lakes and the
St. Lawrence valley, were the Chippeways, or _Ojibwés_, and the
Ottawas. West and north of Lake Michigan were the Miamis, the
Potawátomis, and the Fox Indians (the Saks or Sawkis). Between Lake
Winnipeg and Lake Superior were the _Cheyennes_ (Shians); between
North and South Saskatchewan, the _Blackfeet_ or Siksika Indians
(sections of which were also called Bloods, Paigans, Piegans, &c).
North of Lake Winnipeg, as far as Lake Athabaska, and almost from the
Rocky Mountains to the shores of Hudson's Bay, were the widespread
tribe of the _Kris_, or _Knistino_.[5] The Gros Ventres or Big
Bellies--properly called _Atsina_--inhabited the southern part of the
middle west, between the Saskatchewan and the Missouri basins; and the
Monsoni or Maskegon were found in eastern Rupert Land.
[Footnote 4: See also pp. 156, 164, 186, and 199. In this list I have
put in italics the names of the tribes more important in history, and
in capitals the principal group names.]
[Footnote 5: Kinistino, Kiristineaux, Kilistino; called "Crees" or
"Kris" for short.]
All the above-enumerated tribes, except the Beothik indigenes of
Newfoundland, belong to the great and widespread ALGONKIN group.
(Algonkin is a word derived from the "Algommequin" of Champlain.) In
the valley of the St. Lawrence the French first encountered those
Indians whom they called _Huron_. This was a French word meaning
"crested", because these people wore their hair in a great crest over
the top and back of the head, which reminded the French of the
appearance of a wild boar (_Hure_). The real name of the Hurons, who
dwelt at a later date between Lakes Huron, Erie, Ontario, and the
neighbourhood of Montreal, was _Waiandot_ (Wyandot); but they went
under a variety of other names, according to the clans, such as the
Eries and the Atiwándoran or Neutral Nation. They were also called the
"Good" Iroquois, to distinguish them from the six other nations, the
IROQUOIS proper of the French Canadians, who signalized themselves by
fiendish and frightful warfare against the French and the various
tribes of Algonkin Indians. The Hurons and the rest of the six tribes
grouped under the name of IROQUOIS[6] were of the same stock
originally, forming a separate group like that of the Algonkins,
though they are supposed to be related distantly to the Dakota or
Siou. Amongst the "Six Nations" or tribes banded together in warfare
and policy were the celebrated "Mohawks" who dwelt on the southern
borders of the St. Lawrence basin and near Lake Champlain. As the
others of the six nations (including the Senekas and Onondagas)
inhabited the eastern United States, well outside the limits of
Canada, they need not be referred to here.
[Footnote 6: "Iroquois" was a name invented by Champlain (see p. 69).
Apparently this confederation called themselves _Hodenosauni_. The
termination "ois" in all French-American names is pronounced
"wa"--Irokwá.]
Between the South Saskatchewan, the Rocky Mountains, and Lake
Superior, nearly outside the limits of the Canadian Dominion, was the
great DAKOTA, or Siou group,[7] divided into the distinct tribe of
_Assiniboin_ or "Stone" Indians (because they used hot stones in
cooking), the "Crows" or Absaroka, the Hidatsa or Minitari (also
called Big Bellies, like the quite distinct Atsina of the Algonkin
family), the Menómini (the most north-eastern amongst the Siouan
tribes, and the first met with by the British and French Canadians
south-west of Lake Superior), the Winnebagos on the southern borders
of Manitoba, the Yanktons or Yanktonnais, the "_Santi Siou_"
proper--generally calling themselves _Dakota_ or Mdewakanton--and the
"Tétons" along the northern Dakota frontier and into the Rocky
Mountains--also known as _Blackfeet_, Sans Arcs ("without bows"),
"Two-kettles", "Brulés" or "Burnt" Indians, &c.
[Footnote 7: The far-famed term _Siou_ is said to have been an
abbreviation of one of the original French names for this type of
Amerindian, _Nadouessiou_. In early books they are often called the
Nadouessies.]
Next must be mentioned the very important and widespread ATHAPASKAN or
Déné (Tinné) group, named after Lake Athapaska (or Athabaska), because
that sheet of water became a great rallying place for these northern
tribes. The Athapaskan group of Indians indeed represents the
"Northern Indians" of the Hudson's Bay Company's reports and
explorers. They drew a great distinction between the Northern Indians
(the Athapaskan tribes) and the Southern Indians, which included all
the other Amerindian groups dwelling to the south of the Athapaskan
domain. But although nowadays so much associated with the far north
and north-west of America, the Athabaskan group evidently came from a
region much farther south, and has been cut in half by other tribal
movements, wars, and migrations; for the Athapaskan family also
includes the Apaches and the Navaho of the south-western portions of
the United States and the adjoining territories of Mexico. The
northern and southern divisions of the Athapaskan group are separated
by something like twelve hundred miles. The following are the
principal tribes into which the Northern ATHAPASKAN group was divided
at the time of the first explorations of the north-west. There were
the _Chippewayan_ Indians[8] round about Lake Athapaska, and the
Caribou Eaters or Ethen-eldeli between Lake Athapaska and Reindeer
Lake. The "_Slaves_", or Slave Indians of the Great Slave Lake and the
upper Mackenzie River; the Beaver and Sarsi Indians (known also as the
Tsékehn), about the Peace River and the northern part of Alberta
province; and the _Yellow Knives_, or Totsan-ottine (so called from
their being found with light-coloured copper knives when first
discovered by Europeans), north-east of the Great Slave Lake and along
the Coppermine River: the _Dogribs_ between the Great Slave Lake and
Great Bear Lake, perhaps (except in Alaska) the most northern
extension of the Amerindian type towards the Arctic regions. West of
the Dogribs dwelt--and still dwell--the interesting tribe of _Hare_
Indians, or Kawcho-Tinné. They extend northwards to the Anderson
River, on the verge of the Arctic Ocean. West of the lower Mackenzie
River, and stretching thence to the Porcupine or Yukon Rivers, are the
Squinting Indians ("Loucheux", or Kuchin), who in former times were
met with much farther to the south-east than at the present day.
Finally, there are the Nahani Indians, who have penetrated through the
Rocky Mountains to the Stikine River, reaching thus quite close to the
Pacific Ocean. This penetration northwards of groups of Athapaskan
Indians into districts inhabited for the most part by Amerindian
tribes differing widely in language and customs from all those _east_
of the Rocky Mountains, explains the way in which stories of the great
western sea--the Pacific--reached, by means of trading intercourse,
those Amerindian tribes of the middle-west and upper Canada, and so
stirred up the French and English explorers of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries to make the marvellous journeys which are
recounted in this book.
[Footnote 8: These northern Indians are described by Hearne as having
very low foreheads, small eyes, high cheekbones, Roman noses, broad
cheeks, and long, broad chins. Their skins were soft, smooth and
polished, somewhat copper-coloured, and inclining towards a dingy
brown. The hair of the head was black, strong, and straight. They were
not in general above middle size, though well proportioned.]
_West_ of the Rocky Mountains, in British Columbia and Vancouver
Island (besides southern Alaska), the Amerindian tribes form the
N[¯u]tka-Columbian group, which is markedly distinct from the
Amerindians _east_ of the Rocky Mountains, from whom they differ
_widely_ in language, type, and culture. They are divided into quite a
large number of small separate groups--the Wakashan or _N[¯u]tkas_ of
Vancouver Island and south-western British Columbia, the Shahaptian or
"Nez percés" Indians of the Columbia basin, and the Chin[¯u]ks of
the lower Columbia River, the _Salishan_ or "Flathead" group
(including the Atn[¯a]s) of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers and central
British Columbia; and the _Haida_ Indians of Queen Charlotte's Islands
and the north-west coast of British Columbia. It must be remembered
that these different groups are only based on the relationships of
their component tribes in language or dialect, and do not always imply
that the tribes belonging to them had the same customs and
dispositions; but they were generally able to communicate with one
another in speech, whereas if they met the Indians of another group
the language might be so totally different that they could only
communicate by means of signs.
[Illustration: AN AMERINDIAN TYPE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA]
Sign and gesture language[9] was extraordinarily developed amongst all
the Amerindian races from the Arctic Ocean to the Antarctic. Not only
that, but they were quick to understand the purpose of pictures. They
could draw maps in the sand to explain the geography of their country,
and Europeans could often make them understand what they required by
rough drawings. They themselves related many events by means of a
picture language--the beginning of hieroglyphics; and in the
south-eastern parts of Canada, as in the United States, these signs or
pictographs were recorded in bead-shell work--the celebrated "wampum".
[Footnote 9: "It is surprising how dexterous all these natives of the
plains are in communicating their ideas by signs. They hold
conferences for several hours, upon different subjects, during the
whole of which time not a single word is pronounced upon either side,
and still they appear to comprehend each other perfectly well. This
mode of communication is natural to them; their gestures are made with
the greatest ease, and they never seem to be at a loss for a sign to
express their meaning" (Alex. Henry the Younger, 1800). But it should
also be noted that during the last hundred years the peoples belonging
to the N[¯u]tka-Columbian group have developed a trade language which
they use in common. This is a mixture of Chin[¯u]k, English, French,
Chinese, and Hawaaian.]
All these tribes, of course, varied very much in personal appearance,
though not in disposition. The vanished Beothiks of Newfoundland are
described as having been a good-looking tall people, with large black
eyes and a skin so light, when washed free from dirt or paint, that
the Portuguese compared them to gipsies; and the writer of Fabian's
_Chronicle_, who saw two of them (brought back by Cabot) at Henry
VII's Court, in 1499, took them for Englishmen when they were dressed
in English clothes. It was these people--subsequently killed out by
the British settlers on Newfoundland--who originated the term "Red
Indians", or, in French, _Peaux Rouges_, because their skins, like
those of so many other Amerindians, were painted with red ochre.
Many of the British Columbian peoples made themselves artificially
ugly by flattening the sides of the head. To press the skull whilst it
was soft, they squeezed the heads of their children between boards;
others, such as the warlike tribes of the upper Missouri, had a
passion for submitting themselves to mutilation by the medicine man of
the clan, in order to please the sun god. Such would submit to large
strips being cut from the flesh of their shoulders, arms, or legs, or
having their cheeks slashed. The result, of course, was to leave their
limbs and features horribly scarred when they healed up. In some
tribes, however, a young man could not obtain--or retain--a wife
unless he had shown his bravery by submitting to this mutilation.
Women often cut off one or more joints of their fingers to show their
grief for the death of children.
In some tribes, especially of the far north-west and of the Rocky
Mountains, the personal habits of men and women, or of the women only,
were so filthy, and their dislike to bathing so pronounced, that they
became objects of loathing to white men; in other tribes personal
cleanliness was highly esteemed, especially on the seacoast of British
Columbia or along the banks of the great rivers. Usually the men were
better looking and better developed than the women--for one reason,
because they were better fed.
Here is a description by PETER GRANT--a pioneer of the North-West
Company--of the Ojibwé Indians dwelling near the east end of Lake
Superior at the beginning of the nineteenth century:--
"Their complexion is a whitish cast of copper colour, their hair
black, long, straight, and of a very strong texture. The young men
allow several locks of the hair to fall down over the face, ornamented
with ribbons, silver brooches, &c. They gather up another lock from
behind the head into a small clump, and wrap it up with very thin
plates of silver, in which they fix the tail feathers of the eagle or
any other favourite bird with the wearing of which they have
distinguished themselves in war. They are very careful with their
hair, anointing it with bears' oil, which gives it a smooth and glossy
appearance. The teeth are of a beautiful ivory white, the cheeks
rather high and prominent, the eyes black and lively. Their
countenances are generally pleasant, and they might often be called
handsome. The ears are pierced in infancy, and the lobe is extended to
an unnatural size by suspending lead or any other heavy metal from the
outer rim, which in time brings them down near the shoulder. The nose
ornaments hang down half an inch, and nearly touch the upper lip.
"The men are bold, manly, and graceful in their gait, always carrying
their bodies erect and easy. On the other hand, the women, by walking
with the toes of their feet turned inwards, have a disagreeable and
lame appearance. The men are specially fond of painting their faces
and bodies with vermilion, white and blue clay, charcoal or soot mixed
with a little grease or water. With this colour they daub the body,
legs, and thighs in bars and patches, and take the greatest pains
about painting the face, usually with red and black. Their skins are
generally tattooed with figures representing the sun, stars, eagles,
serpents, &c, especially objects which have appeared to them in their
dreams. The women's faces are much less painted, usually a spot of red
on each cheek and a circle of red round the roots of the hair or
eyes."
Here is a summary of what Alexander Henry, sen., wrote of the _Kri_ or
_Knistino_ Indians of Lake Athabaska about 1770:--
"The men in general tattoo their bodies and arms very much. The women
confine this ornamentation to the chin, having three perpendicular
lines from the middle of the chin to the lip, and one or more running
on each side, nearly parallel with the corner of the mouth. Their
dress consists of leather; that of the men is a pair of leggings,
reaching up to the hip and fastened to the girdle. Between the legs is
passed a strip of woollen stuff, but when this cannot be procured they
use a piece of dressed leather about nine inches broad and four feet
long, whose ends are drawn through the girdle and hang down before and
behind about a foot.... The shirt is of soft dressed leather, either
from the prong-buck or young red deer, close about the neck and
hanging to the middle of the thigh; the sleeves are of the same, loose
and open under the arms to the elbows, but thence to the wrist sewed
tight. The cap is commonly a piece of leather, or skin with the hair
on, shaped to fit the head, and tied under the chin; the top is
usually decorated with feathers or other ornament. Shoes are made of
buffalo (bison) hide, dressed in the hair, and mittens of the same.
Over the whole a buffalo robe is thrown, which serves as covering day
and night.
"Such is their common dress, but on particular occasions they appear
to greater advantage, having their cap, shirt, leggings, and shoes
perfectly clean and white, trimmed with porcupine quills and other
ingenious work of their women, who are supposed to be the most skilful
hands in the country at decorations of this kind. The women's dress
consists of the same materials as the men's. Their leggings do not
reach above the knee, and are gathered below that joint; their shoes
always lack decoration. The shift or body garment reaches down to the
calf, where it is generally fringed and trimmed with quillwork; the
upper part is fastened over the shoulders by strips of leather; a flap
or cape hangs down about a foot before and behind, and is ornamented
with quillwork and fringe. This covering is quite loose, but tied
around the waist with a belt of stiff parchment fastened on the side,
where also some ornaments are suspended. The sleeves are detached from
the body garment; from the wrist to the elbow they are sewed, but
thence to the shoulder they are open underneath and drawn up to the
neck, where they are fastened across the breast and back.
"Their ornaments are two or three coils of brass wire twisted around
the rim of each ear, in which incisions are made for that purpose;
blue beads, brass rings, quillwork, and fringe occasionally answer.
Vermilion (a red clay) is much used by the women to paint the face.
"Their hair is generally parted on the crown and fastened behind each
ear in large knots, from which are suspended bunches of blue beads or
other ingenious work of their own. The men adjust their hair in
various forms; some have it parted on top and tied in a tail on each
side, while others make one long _queue_ which hangs down behind, and
around which is twisted a strip of otter skin or dressed buffalo
entrails. This tail is frequently increased in thickness and length by
adding false hair, but others allow it to flow loose naturally. Combs
are seldom used by the men, and they never smear the hair with grease,
but red earth is sometimes put upon it. White earth daubed over the
hair generally denotes mourning. The young men sometimes have a bunch
of hair on the crown, about the size of a small teacup, and nearly in
the shape of that vessel upside down, to which they fasten various
ornaments of feathers, quillwork, ermine tails, &c. Red and white
earth and charcoal are much used in their toilets; with the former
they usually daub their robes and other garments, some red and others
white. The women comb their hair and use grease on it."
The Slave Indians (a tribe of the Athapaskan family) tattooed their
cheeks with charcoal inserted under the skin, also daubed their
bodies, robes, and garments profusely with red earth (generally
called, in the text of travellers, vermilion), but they had another
favourite pigment, procured from the regions on the west of the Rocky
Mountains, some kind of graphite, like the lead of lead pencils. With
this they marked their faces in black lead after red earth has been
applied, and thus gave themselves a ghastly and savage appearance.
Their dress consists of a leather shirt trimmed with human hair and
porcupine-quill work, and leggings of leather. Their shoes and caps
were made of bison leather, with the hair outside. Their necklaces
were strings of grizzly-bear claws, and a "buffalo" robe was thrown
over all occasionally. Some of them occasionally had quite light
skins--when free of dirt or paint--and grey eyes, and their hair,
instead of being black, was greyish-brown. These last features (grey
eyes and brown hair) characterized many individuals among the northern
British-Columbian tribes.
The Naskwapis of inland Labrador--allied in speech to the Kris and the
Montagnais, but in blood to the Eskimo--are described as above the
middle size in height, slender, and long-legged, their cheeks being
very prominent, eyes black, nose rather flat, mouth large, lips thick,
teeth white, hair rough and black, and the complexion a yellowish
"frog" colour. They were dressed in elaborate and warm garments made
of reindeer skin. The ordinary covering for the head of the men was
the skin of a bear's head. "Thus accoutred, with the addition of a
bow and quiver, a stone axe, and a bone knife, a Naskwapi man
possessed no small degree of pride and self-importance" (James
M'Kenzie).
The handsomest tribes of Amerindians encountered by the Canadian
pioneers seem to have been the Ojibwés of Lake Superior, the Iroquois
south of the St. Lawrence, and the Mandans of the upper Missouri.
Until well on in the nineteenth century none of the Canadian
Amerindians were particular about wearing clothes if the weather was
hot. The men, especially, were either quite oblivious of what was
seemly in clothing (except perhaps the Iroquois) or thought it
necessary to go naked into battle, or to remove all clothing before
taking part in religious ceremonies.
It is commonly supposed that the Red Man was a rather glum person,
seldom seen to smile and averse to showing any emotion. That is not
the impression one derives from the many pen portraits of Amerindians
in the journals of the great pioneers. Here, on the contrary, you see
the natives laughing, smiling, kissing eagerly their wives and
children after an absence, displaying exuberant and cordial friendship
towards the white man who treated them well, having love quarrels and
fits of raging jealousy, moods of deep remorse after a fight, touching
devotion to their comrades or chiefs, and above all to their children.
They are most emotional, indeed, and, apart from this chapter you will
find frequent descriptions of how they wept at times over the
remembrance of their dead relations and friends.
Hearne remarked, in 1772, that when two parties of Athapaska Indians
met, the ceremonies which passed between them were very formal. They
would advance within twenty or thirty yards of each other, make a full
halt, and then sit or lie down on the ground, not speaking for some
minutes. At length one of them, generally an elderly man, broke
silence by acquainting the other party with every misfortune that had
befallen him and his companions from the last time they had seen or
heard of each other, including all deaths and other calamities which
had happened to any other Indians during the same period. When he
finished, another orator, belonging to the other party, related in
like manner all the bad news that had come to _his_ knowledge. If
these orations contained any news that in the least affected either
party, it would not be long before some of them began to sigh and sob,
and soon after to break out into a loud cry, which was generally
accompanied by most of the grown persons of both sexes; and sometimes
it was common to hear them all--men, women, and children--joining in
one universal howl. When the first transports of grief had subsided,
they advanced by degrees, and both parties mixed with each other, the
men with the men, the women with the women. They then passed round
tobacco pipes very freely, and the conversation became general. They
had now nothing but good news left to tell, and in less than half an
hour probably nothing but smiles and cheerfulness would be seen on
every face.
One direction in which the Amerindians did not shine was in their
treatment of women. This perhaps was worse than in other uncivilized
races. Woman was very badly used, except perhaps for the first year of
courtship and marriage. Courtship began by the young man throwing
sticks at the girl[10] who pleased his fancy, and if she responded he
asked her in marriage. But not long after she had become a mother she
sank into the position of a household drudge and beast of burden. For
example, amongst the Beaver Indians, an Athapaskan tribe of the far
north-west, it is related by Alexander Mackenzie that the women are
permanently crippled and injured in physique by the hardships they
have to undergo. "Having few dogs for transport in that country, the
women alone perform that labour which is allotted to beasts of burden
in other countries. It is not uncommon whilst the men carry nothing
but a gun, that their wives and daughters follow with such weighty
burdens that if they lay them down they cannot replace them; nor will
the men deign to perform the service of hoisting them on to their
backs. So that during their journeys they are frequently obliged to
lean against a tree for a small degree of temporary relief. When they
arrive at the place which their tyrants have chosen for their
encampment, they arrange the tent in a few minutes by forming a curve
of poles meeting at the top and expanding into a circle of twelve or
fifteen feet in diameter at the bottom, covered with dressed skins of
the moose sewn together. During these preparations the men sit down
quietly to the enjoyment of their pipes, if they happen to have any
tobacco."
[Footnote 10: The manner of courtship among the Ojibwés seemed to
Peter Grant not only singular, but rude. "The lover begins his first
addresses by gently pelting his mistress with bits of clay, snowballs,
small sticks, or anything he may happen to have in his hand. If she
returns the compliment, he is encouraged to continue the farce, and
repeat it for a considerable time, after which more direct proposals
of marriage are made by word of mouth."]
Among the Ojibwé and Huron Indians of the Great Lakes the men
sometimes obliged their wives to bring up and nourish young bears
instead of their own children, so that the bears might eventually be
fattened for eating. If food was scarce, the women went without before
even the male slaves of the tribe were unprovided with food. Women
might never eat in the society of males, not even if these males were
slaves or prisoners of war. If food was very scarce, the husband as
likely as not killed and ate a wife; perhaps did this before slaying
and eating a valuable dog. (On the other hand, Mackenzie instances the
case of a woman among the Slave Indians who, in a winter of great
scarcity, managed to kill and devour her husband and several
relations.) So terrible was the ill-treatment of the women in some
tribes that these wretched beings sometimes committed suicide to end
their tortures. Even in this, however, they were not let off lightly,
for the Siou men invented as a tenet of their religion the saying that
"Women who hang themselves are the most miserable of all wretches in
the other world".
On the other hand, the kind treatment of children by fathers as well
as mothers is an "Indian" trait commented on by writer after writer.
Here is a typical description by Alexander Henry the Elder, concerning
the children of the Ojibwé tribe:
"As soon as the boys begin to run about, they are provided with bows
and arrows, and acquire, as it were 'by instinct', an astonishing
dexterity in shooting birds, squirrels, butterflies, &c. Hunting in
miniature may be justly said to comprise the whole of their education
and childish diversion. Such as excel in this kind of exercise are
sure of being particularly distinguished by their parents, and seldom
punished for any misbehaviour, but, on the contrary, indulged in every
degree of excess and caprice. I have often seen grown-up boys of this
description, when punished for some serious fault, strike their father
and spit in his face, calling him 'bad dog', or 'old woman', and,
sometimes, carrying their insolence so far as to threaten to stab or
shoot him, and, what is rather singular, these too-indulgent parents
seem to encourage such unnatural liberties, and even glory in such
conduct from their favourite children. I heard them boast of having
sons who promised at an early age to inherit such bold and independent
sentiments.... Children of nine or ten years of age not only enjoy
the confidence of the men, but are generally considered as companions
and very deliberately join in their conversations."
When death overtook anybody the grief of the female relations was
carried to great excess. They not only cut their hair, cried and
howled, but they would sometimes, with the utmost deliberation,
employ some sharp instrument to separate the nail from the finger and
then force back the flesh beyond the first joint, which they
immediately amputated. "Many of the old women have so often repeated
this ceremony that they have not a complete finger remaining on either
hand" (Mackenzie).
[Illustration: CARIBOU SWIMMING A RIVER]
The Amerindians of North America were religious and superstitious, and
had a firm faith in a world of spiritual agencies within or outside
the material world around us. Most of them believed in the existence
of "fairies",--woodland, earth, mountain, or water spirits--whom they
declared they could see from time to time in human semblance. Or such
spirit or demi-god might assume for a time or permanently the form of
an animal. To all such spirits of earth, air, and water, or to the
sacred animals they inhabited, sacrifices would be offered and prayers
made. Great importance was attributed to dreams and visions. They
accustomed themselves to make long fasts, so that they might become
light-headed and see visions, or hear spirit voices in a trance. To
prepare their minds for this state they would go four or five days
without food, and even abstain from drinking.
Undoubtedly their "medicine men" developed great mesmeric powers, and
this force, combined with rather clumsy juggling and ventriloquism,
enabled them to perform a semblance of "miracles". The Iroquois
offered much opposition to Christianity, thinking it would tame their
warriors too quickly and affect their national independence; but by
the greater part of the Amerindians the message of the Gospel brought
by the French priests was eagerly received, and the converts became
many and most sincere. Their reverence for the missionaries and belief
in them was increased when they saw how effectually they were able to
protect them from too-rapacious white adventurers, fierce soldiers,
and unscrupulous traders.
The Miamis of Lake Michigan held the symbol of the cross in great
respect. A young Frenchman who was trading with them got into a
passion and drew his sword to avenge himself for a theft committed on
his goods. The Miama chieftain, to appease him, showed him the cross,
which was planted in the ground at the end of his lodge, and said to
him: "Behold the tree of the Black Gown; he teaches us to pray and not
to lose our temper,"--of course, referring to the missionary in the
black gown who had been amongst them. Before the cross was planted
here these Miamis kept in their houses one or more bogies, to which
they appealed in times of distress or sickness. One of these was the
skull of the bison with its horns. Another was the skin of the bear
raised on a pole in the middle of the hut and retaining the head,
which was usually painted green. The women sometimes died of terror
from the stories told them by the men about these idols, and the
Jesuits did a great deal of good by getting them abolished in many
places.
The Supreme Being of the Eskimos was a goddess rather than a god: a
mother of all things who lived under the sea. On the other hand, most
of the Amerindian tribes believed in one great God of the Sky--Manito,
as He was called by the peoples of Algonkin stock, Nainubushan by the
Siou and their kindred. This Being was usually kindly disposed towards
man; but they also (in most cases) believed in a _bad_ Manito, who was
responsible for most of the harm in the world. But sometimes the Great
Manito was capricious, or apparently made many mistakes which he had
afterwards to rectify. Thus the Siou tribes of Assiniboia believed
that the Supreme Being (whom they called Eth-tom-é) first created
mankind and all living things, and then, through some oversight or
mistake, caused a great flood to cover the earth's surface. So in a
hurry he was obliged to make a very large canoe of twigs and
branches, and into this he put a pair of every kind of bird and beast,
besides a family of human beings, who were thus saved from drowning,
and began the world afresh when the waters subsided. This legend was
something like the story of Noah's ark, but seems in some form or
another to have existed in the mind of all the North-American peoples
before the arrival of Christian missionaries. Much the same story was
told by the Ojibwés about the Great Hare-God, Nainiboju.
The Siou and the Ojibwé (and other tribes also) believed that after
death the soul lay for a time in a trance, and then found itself
floating towards a River which must be crossed. Beyond the River lay
the Happy Hunting Grounds, the Elysian fields; but to oppose the weary
soul anxious to reach this paradise there ramped on the other side a
huge, flaming-red bison bull, if it had been ordained by the Great
Spirit that the soul's time was not yet come, this red bison pushed it
back, and the soul was obliged to re-enter the body, which then awoke
from its trance or swoon and resumed its worldly activities.
Suicide was regarded as the most heinous of crimes. Any man killing
himself deliberately, fell into the river of the ghost world and was
never heard of again, while women who hanged themselves "were regarded
as the most miserable of all wretches in the other world".
Their belief in spirits--even ancestral spirits--taking up an abode in
the bodies of beasts, birds, or reptiles, or even in plants or stones,
caused them to view with respect of a superstitious kind many natural
objects. Some one thing--a beast, bird, reptile, fish, plant, or
strange stone had been fixed on as the abode of his tutelary spirit by
some father of a family. The family grew into a clan, and the clan to
a tribe, and the object sacred in the eyes of its father and founder
became its "totem", crest, or symbol. As a rule, whatever thing was
the _totem_ of the individual or the clan was held sacred in their
eyes, and, if it was an animal, was not killed, or, if killed, not
eaten. Many of the northern Indians would refrain from killing the
wolf or the glutton, or if they did so, or did it by accident, they
would refuse to skin the animal. The elder people amongst the
Athapaskan Indians, in Hearne's day, would reprove the young folk for
"speaking disrespectfully" of different beasts and birds.
Their ideas of medicine and surgery were much mixed up with a belief
in magic and in the mysterious powers of their "medicine men". This
person, who might be of either sex, certainly knew a few simple
medicines to be made from herbs or decoctions of bark, but for the
most part he attempted to cure the sick or injured by blowing lustily
on the part affected or, more wisely, by massage. A universal cure,
however, for all fevers and mild ailments was sweating. Sweating huts
were built in nearly every settlement. They were covered over in a way
to exclude air as much as possible. The inside was heated with red-hot
stones and glowing embers, on to which from time to time water was
poured to fill the place with steam. The Amerindians not only went
through these Turkish baths to cure small ailments but also with the
idea of clearing the intelligence and as a fitting preliminary to
negotiations--for peace, or alliance, or even for courtship. In many
tribes if a young "brave" arrived with proposals of marriage for a
man's daughter he was invited to enter the sweating house with her
father, and discuss the bargain calmly over perspiration and the
tobacco pipe.
Tobacco smoking indeed was almost a religious ceremony, as well as a
remedy for certain maladies or states of mind. The "pipe of peace" has
become proverbial. Nevertheless tobacco was still unknown in the
eighteenth century to many of the Pacific-coast and far-north-west
tribes, as to the primitive Eskimo. It was not a very old practice in
the Canadian Dominion when Europeans first arrived there, though it
appeared to be one of the most characteristic actions of these
red-skinned savages in the astonished eyes of the first pioneers. They
used pipes for smoking, however, long before tobacco came among them,
certain berries taking the place of tobacco.
The Amerindians of the southern parts of Canada and British Columbia
were more or less settled peoples of towns or villages, of fixed homes
to which they returned at all seasons of the year, however far afield
they might range for warfare, trade, or hunting. But the more northern
tribes were nomads: people shifting their abode from place to place in
pursuit of game or trade. Unlike the people of the south and west
(though these only grew potatoes) they were not agriculturists: the
only vegetable element in their food was the wild rice of the marshes,
the sweet-tasting layer between the bark and the wood of certain
trees, and the fruits or fungi of the forest or the lichen growing on
the rocks. Though these people might in summertime build some hasty
wigwam of boughs and moss, their ordinary dwelling place was a tent.
The Wood Indians, or Opimitish Ininiwak, of the Athapaskan group
(writes Alexander Henry, sen.) had no fixed villages; and their lodges
or huts were so rudely fashioned as to afford them very inadequate
protection against the weather. The greater part of their year was
spent in travelling from place to place in search of food. The animal
on which they chiefly depended was the _hare_--a most prominent animal
in Amerindian economy and tradition. This they took in springes. From
its skin they made coverings with much ingenuity, cutting it into
narrow strips and weaving this into the shape of a blanket, which was
of a very warm and agreeable quality.
The Naskwapi Algonkins of inland Labrador were savages that led a
wandering life through the bare, flat parts of that country,
subsisting chiefly upon flesh, and clothing themselves with the skin
of the caribou, which they caught in pitfalls or shot with the bow
and arrow. "Very few sights, I believe, can be more distressing to the
feelings of humanity than a Labrador savage, surrounded by his wife
and five or six small children, half-famished with cold and hunger in
a hole dug out of the snow and screened from the inclemency of the
weather by the branches of the trees. Their whole furniture is a
kettle hung over the fire, not for the purpose of cooking victuals,
but for melting snow" (James M'Kenzie).
A description of the tents of the Kris or Knistino (Algonkins of the
Athabaska region), written by Alexander Henry, sen., applies with very
little difference to all the other tribes dwelling to the east of the
Rocky Mountains.[11]
[Footnote 11: See also p. 249.]
These tents were of dressed leather, erected with poles, generally
seventeen in number, of which two were tied together about three feet
from the top. The first two poles being erected and set apart at the
base, the others were placed against them in a slanting position,
meeting at the top, so that they all formed nearly a circle, which was
then covered with the leather. This consisted of ten to fifteen
dressed skins of the bison, moose, or red deer, well sewed together
and nicely cut to fit the conical figure of the poles, with an opening
above, to let out smoke and admit the light. From this opening down to
the door the two edges of the tent were brought close together and
well secured with wooden pegs about six inches long, leaving for the
door an oval aperture about two feet wide and three feet high, below
which the edges were secured with similar pegs. This small entrance
did well enough for the natives, who would be brought up to it from
infancy, but a European might be puzzled to get through, as a piece of
hide stretched upon a frame of the same shape as the door, but
somewhat larger, hung outside, and must be first raised by the hand of
the incomer.
Such tents were usually spacious, measuring twenty feet in diameter.
The fire was always made in the centre, around which the occupants
generally placed a range of stones to prevent the ashes from
scattering and to keep the fire compact. New tents were perfectly
white; some of them were painted with red and black figures. These
devices were generally derived from the dreams of the Amerindians,
being some mythical monster or other hideous animal, whose description
had been handed down from their ancestors. A large camp of such tents,
pitched regularly on a level plain, had a fine effect at a distance,
especially when numerous bands of horses were seen feeding in all
directions.
The "lodges" or long houses made of poles, fir branches, moss, &c.,
wherein, among the Iroquois, Algonkin, and Siou peoples, several
families made a common habitation, are described here and there in the
course of the narrative. The houses of the coast tribes of British
Columbia were bigger, more elaborate, and permanent, and in this
region the natives had acquired some idea of carpentry, and had learnt
to make planks of wood by splitting with wedges or hewing with adzes.
One of these British Columbian houses was measured, and found to be
seventy feet long by twenty-five feet wide; the entrance in the gable
end was cut through a plank five and a half feet wide, and nearly
oval. A board suspended on the outside answered for a door; on the
other side of the broad plank was rudely carved a large painted figure
of a man, between whose legs was the passage. But other houses on the
Pacific coast, visited by Cook or Vancouver, are said to have been
large enough to accommodate seven hundred people. These houses of the
Pacific coast region were exceedingly filthy, sturgeon and salmon
being strewn about in every direction. The men inhabiting them were
often disgusting in their behaviour, while the women are declared to
have been "devoid of shame or decency".
According to Mackenzie, such habitations swarmed with fleas, and even
the ground round about them "was alive with this vermin". The
Alexander Henrys, both uncle and nephew, complain of the flea plague
(partly due to the multitude of dogs) in every Indian village or
encampment.
The domestic implements of the Amerindians were few. Pottery seems to
have been unknown amongst the northern tribes to the east and north of
the Mississippi valley, but earthen jars and vessels were made by the
Dakota-Siou group in the valley of the Mississippi. Amongst these
agricultural Indians the hoe was made of a buffalo's blade bone
fastened to a crooked wooden handle. The Ojibwés manufactured chisels
out of beavers' teeth. The Eskimo and some of the neighbouring
Amerindian tribes used oblong "kettles" of stone--simply great blocks
of stone chipped, rubbed, and hollowed out into receptacles, with
handles at both ends. (It is suggested that they borrowed the idea of
these stone vessels for cooking from the early Norse settlers of
Greenland; see p. 18.)
The Amerindians of the regions west of the Rocky Mountains made
kettles or cooking vessels out of blocks of "cedar" (_Juniper_) wood;
east of the Rocky Mountains the birch-bark kettle was universal. Of
course these vessels of wood or bark could not be placed on the fire
or embers to heat or boil the contents, as was possible with the
"kettles" of stone or the cooking pots of clay. So the people using
them heated the water in which the food or the soup was boiled by
making stones red-hot in the fire and then dropping them into the
birch-bark or cedar-wood tubs. Many of the northern Indians got into
the way of eating their food raw because of the difficulty of making a
fire away from home.
In regard to food, neither Amerindian nor Eskimo was squeamish. They
were almost omnivorous, and specially delighted in putrid or noisome
substances from which a European would turn in loathing, and from the
eating of which he might conceivably die.
It was only in the extreme south of Canada or in British Columbia
(potatoes only) that any agriculture was carried on and that the
natives had maize, pumpkins, and pease to add to their dietary; but
(as compared to the temperate regions of Europe and Asia) Nature was
generous in providing wild fruits and grain without trouble of
husbandry. The fruits and nuts have been enumerated elsewhere, but a
description might be given here of the "wild oats" (_Avena fatua_) and
the "wild rice" of the regions of central Canada and the middle west.
The wild oats made a rough kind of porridge, but were not so important
and so nourishing as the wild rice which is so often mentioned in the
stories of the pioneers, who liked this wild grain as much as the
Indians did.
This wild rice (_Zizania aquatica_) grew naturally in small rivers and
swampy places. The stems were hollow, jointed at intervals, and the
grain appeared at the extremity of the stalk. By the month of June
they had grown two feet above the surface of the shallow water, and
were ripe for harvesting in September. At this period the Amerindians
passed in canoes through the water-fields of wild rice, shaking the
ears into the canoes as they swept by. The grain fell out easily when
ripe, but in order to clean it from the husk it was dried over a slow
fire on a wooden grating. After being winnowed it was pounded to flour
in a mortar, or else boiled like rice, and seasoned with fat. "It had
a most delicate taste", wrote Alexander Henry the Elder.
Fish was perhaps the staple of Amerindian diet, because in scarcely
any part of the Canadian Dominion is a lake, river, or brook far away.
In the region of the Great Lakes fish were caught in large quantities
in October, and exposed to the weather to be frozen at nighttime. They
were then stored away in this congealed state, and lasted good--more
or less--till the following April.
Pemmican--that early form of potted meat so familiar to the readers of
Red-Indian romances--was made of the lean meat of the bison. The
strips of meat were dried in the sun, and afterwards pounded in a
mortar and mixed with an equal quantity of bison fat. Fish "pemmican"
was sun-dried fish ground to powder.
A favourite dish among the northern Indians was blood mixed with the
half-digested food found in the stomach of a deer, boiled up with a
sufficient quantity of water to make it of the consistency of pease
porridge. Some scraps of fat or tender flesh were shredded small and
boiled with it. To render this dish more palatable they had a method
of mixing the blood with the contents of the stomach in the paunch
itself, and hanging it up in the heat and smoke of the fire for
several days--in other words, the Scotch haggis. The kidneys of both
moose and buffalo were usually eaten _raw_ by the southern Indians,
for no sooner was one of those beasts killed than the hunter ripped up
its belly, snatched out the kidneys, and ate them warm, before the
animal was quite dead. They also at times put their mouths to the
wound the ball or the arrow had made, and sucked the blood; this, they
said, quenched thirst, and was very nourishing.
The favourite drink of the Ojibwé Indians in the wintertime was hot
broth poured over a dishful of pure snow.
The Amerindians of the Nipigon country (north of Lake Superior) and
the Ojibwés and Kris often relapsed into cannibalism when hard up for
food. Indeed some of them became so addicted to this practice that
they simply went about stalking their fellow Indians with as much
industry as if they were hunting animals. "These prowling ogres caused
such terror that to sight the track of one of them was sufficient to
make twenty families decamp in all the speed of their terror"
(Alexander Henry). It was deemed useless to attempt any resistance
when these monsters were coming to kill and eat. The people would even
make them presents of clothes and provisions to allow them and their
children to live. There were women cannibals as well as men (see p.
171).
As the greater part of their food came from the chase, and their only
articles of commerce likewise, they devoted themselves more entirely
to hunting and fishing than to any other pursuit. The women did most
of the fishing (and all the skin-curing for the fur market and for
their own dress), while the men pursued with weapons the beasts of the
chase, trapped them in pitfalls or snares, or drove them into "pounds"
(excavated enclosures).
Illustrating the wonderful sagacity of the Amerindians as game
trackers, Alexander Henry the Elder tells the following story in the
autumn of 1799:--
"We had not gone far from the house before we fell upon the fresh
tracks of some red deer (wapiti), and soon after discovered the herd
in a thicket of willows and poplars; we both fired, and the deer
disappeared in different directions. We pursued them, but to no
purpose, as the country was unfavourable. We then returned to the spot
where we had fired, as the Indian suspected that we had wounded some
of them. We searched to see if we could find any blood; on my part, I
could find tracks, but no blood. The Indian soon called out, and I
went to him, but could see no blood, nor any sign that an animal had
been wounded. However, he pointed out the track of a large buck among
the many others, and told me that from the manner in which this buck
had started off he was certain the animal had been wounded. As the
ground was beaten in every direction by animals, it was only after a
tedious search that we found where the buck had struck off. But no
blood was seen until, passing through a thicket of willows, he
observed a drop upon a leaf, and next a little more. He then began to
examine more strictly, to find out in what part of the body the
animal had been wounded; and, judging by the height and other signs,
he told me the wound must have been somewhere between the shoulder and
neck. We advanced about a mile, but saw nothing of the deer, and no
more blood. I was for giving up the chase; but he assured me the wound
was mortal, and that if the animal should lie down he could not rise
again. We proceeded two miles farther, when, coming out upon a small
open space, he told me the animal was at no great distance, and very
probably in this meadow. We accordingly advanced a few yards, and
there we found the deer lying at the last gasp. The wound was exactly
as I had been told. The sagacity of the Saulteurs [Ojibwés] in tracing
big wood animals is astonishing. I have frequently witnessed
occurrences of this nature; the bend of a leaf or blade of grass is
enough to show the hunter the direction the game has taken. Their
ability is of equally great service to war parties, when they discover
the footsteps of their enemies."
The Assiniboin Indians (a branch of the Sious) down to about fifty
years ago captured the bison of the plains in hundreds at a time by
driving them into large excavated areas below the level of the ground.
Alexander Henry, jun., gives the following description of this
procedure in 1810:--
"The pounds are of different dimensions, according to the number of
tents in one camp. The common size is from sixty to one hundred paces
or yards in circumference, and about five feet in height. Trees are
cut down, laid upon one another, and interwoven with branches and
green twigs; small openings are left to admit the dogs to feed upon
the carcasses of the (old) bulls, which are generally left as useless.
This enclosure is commonly made between two hummocks, on the declivity
or at the foot of rising ground. The entrance is about ten paces wide,
and always fronts the plains. On each side of this entrance commences
a thick range of fascines, the two ranges spreading asunder as they
extend to the distance of one hundred yards, beyond which openings are
left at intervals; but the fascines soon become more thinly planted,
and continue to spread apart to the right and left until each range
has been extended about three hundred yards from the pound. The labour
is then diminished by only placing at intervals three or four cross
sticks, in imitation of a dog or other animal (sometimes called 'dead
men'); these extend on the plain for about two miles, and double rows
of them are planted in several other directions to a still greater
distance. Young men are usually sent out to collect and bring in the
buffalo--a tedious task, which requires great patience, for the herd
must be started by slow degrees. This is done by setting fire to dung
or grass. Three young men will bring in a herd of several hundred from
a great distance. When the wind is aft it is most favourable, as they
can then direct the buffalo with great ease. Having come in sight of
the ranges, they generally drive the herd faster, until it begins to
enter the ranges, where a swift-footed person has been stationed with
a buffalo robe over his head, to imitate that animal; but sometimes a
horse performs this business. When he sees buffaloes approaching he
moves slowly toward the pound until they appear to follow him; then he
sets off at full speed, imitating a buffalo as well as he can, with
the herd after him. The young men in the rear now discover themselves,
and drive the herd on with all possible speed. There is always a
sentinel on some elevated spot to notify the camp when the buffalo
appear; and this intelligence is no sooner given than every man,
woman, and child runs to the ranges that lead to the pound to prevent
the buffalo from taking a wrong direction. Then they lie down between
the fascines and cross sticks, and, if the buffalo attempt to break
through, the people wave their robes, which causes the herd to keep
on, or turn to the opposite side, where other persons do the same.
When the buffalo have been thus directed to the entrance of the pound,
the Indian who leads them rushes into it and out at the other side,
either by jumping over the enclosure or creeping through an opening
left for that purpose. The buffalo tumble in pell-mell at his heels,
almost exhausted, but keep moving around the enclosure from east to
west, and never in a direction against the sun. What appeared
extraordinary to me on those occasions was that, when word was given
to the camp of the near approach of the buffalo, the dogs would skulk
away from the pound and not approach until the herd entered. Many
buffaloes break their legs and some their necks in jumping into the
pound, as the descent is generally six or eight feet, and stumps are
left standing there. The buffalo being caught, the men assembled at
the enclosure, armed with bows and arrows; every arrow has a
particular mark of the owner, and they are let fly until the whole
herd is killed. Then the men enter the pound, and each claims his own;
but commonly there is what they term the master of the pound, who
divides the animals and gives each tent an equal share, reserving
nothing for himself. But in the end he is always the best provided
for; everyone is obliged to send him a certain portion, as it is in
his tent that the numerous ceremonies relating to the pound are
observed. There the young men are always welcome to feast and smoke,
and no women are allowed to enter, as that tent is set apart for the
affairs of the pound. Horses are sometimes used to collect and bring
in buffalo, but this method is less effectual than the other; besides,
it frightens the herds and soon causes them to withdraw to a great
distance. When horses are used the buffalo are absolutely driven into
the pound, but when the other method is pursued they are in a manner
enticed to their destruction."
A somewhat similar method was adopted by the northern Kris and
Athapascans for the capture of reindeer.
As regards means of transport, the use of dogs as draught animals was
by no means confined to the Eskimo: they were used in wintertime to
draw sledges over the snow or ice by nearly all the northern Indian
tribes, and by the people of the Rocky Mountains and Pacific coast.
After the Amerindians of the prairies and plains received horses
(indirectly through the Spaniards of Mexico)[12] they sometimes
employed the smaller and poorer kind of ponies as pack animals; but
for the most part throughout the summer season of the Canadian
Dominion--from May to October--transport and travel by canoe was the
favourite method.
[Footnote 12: See p. 150.]
There were four very well marked types of canoe or boat in British
North America. There was the already-described Eskimo _kayak_, made of
leather stretched over a framework of wood or bone; the Amerindians of
the Dominion, south of the Eskimo and east of the Rocky Mountains,
used the familiar "birch-bark" canoe;[13] the peoples of the Pacific
coast belt possessed something more like a boat, made out of a
hollowed tree trunk and built up with planks; and the tribes of the
Upper Mississippi used round coracles. Here are descriptions of all
three kinds of Amerindian canoe from the pens of eighteenth-century
pioneers: The birch-bark canoe used on the Great Lakes was about
thirty-three feet long by four and a half feet broad, and formed of
the smooth rind or bark of the birch tree fastened outside a wooden
framework. It was lined with small splints of juniper cedar, and the
vessel was further strengthened with ribs of the same wood, of which
the two ends were fastened to the gunwales. Several bars rather than
seats were laid across the canoe from gunwale to gunwale, the small
roots of the spruce fir afforded the fibre with which the bark was
sewn or stitched, and the gum of the pine tree supplied the place of
tar and oakum. Bark, some spare fibre, and gum were always carried in
each canoe for repairs, which were constantly necessary (one
continually reads in the diaries of the pioneers of "stopping to gum
the canoe"). The canoes were propelled with paddles, and occasionally
a sail.
[Footnote 13: In the far north-west, on the rivers of the Pacific
slope, the natives used spruce-fir bark instead of birch.]
The aborigines of Newfoundland--the Beothiks--are said to have known
the birch-bark canoe, framework canoe, but to have employed
"dug-outs"--hollowed tree trunks. The canoes of the Mandans of the
upper Missouri basin were like coracles, of circular form, made of a
framework of bent willow branches over which was stretched a raw
bison-hide with the hair inside. This was sewn tightly round the
willow rim. In lieu of a paddle they use a pole about five feet long,
split at one end to admit a piece of board about two feet long and
half a foot broad, which was lashed to the pole and so formed a kind
of cross. There was but one for each canoe. The paddler of this
coracle made directly for the opposite shore; every stroke he gave
turned his "dish" almost entirely round; to recover his position and
go on his intended route, he must give a stroke on the other side,
which brought him up again; and so on till he got over, not without
drifting down sometimes nearly a mile.
Alexander Henry, jun., thus describes a canoe of the Clatsop people on
the Lower Columbia (Pacific coast, opposite Vancouver Island): "This
was a war canoe--the first of the kind I had seen. She was about
thirty-six feet long and wide in proportion, the stem rising upright
about six feet, on top of which was a figure of some imaginary monster
of uncouth sculpture, having the head of a carnivorous animal with
large erect ears but no body, clinging by arms and legs to the upper
end of the canoe, and grinning horribly. The ears were painted green,
the other parts red and black. The stern also rose about five feet in
height, but had no figure carved on it. On each side of both stem and
stern broad strips of wood rose about four feet, having holes cut in
them to shoot arrows through. She had a high sprit-sail made of
handkerchiefs and pieces of gunny-cloth or jute, forming irregular
stripes, I am told these Indians commonly have pieces of squared
timber, not unlike a three-inch plank, high and broad, perforated to
shoot arrows through; this is fixed on the bow of the war canoe to
serve as bulwarks in battle."
Canoe voyages were mainly embarked on for trading; but in all
probability before the coming of the European there was little trading
done between one tribe and another, except in the region _west_ of the
Rocky Mountains, in which--especially to the north--the Amerindians
were so different in their habits and customs from those dwelling east
of the mountains as to suggest that they must very occasionally have
been in touch with some world outside America, such as Hawaii,
Kamschatka, or Japan. In these Pacific coastlands they used a white
seashell as a currency and a medium of exchange. So also did the
Iroquois people and the southern Algonkin tribes, in the form of
"wampum". The principal articles of barter were skins of fur animals,
porcupine quills, dogs, slaves, and women.
First Hunting (to supply food), then Trading in the products of the
chase, and lastly War were the main subjects which occupied the
Amerindian's thoughts before the middle of the nineteenth century.
They usually went to war to turn other tribes out of profitable
hunting grounds or productive fisheries; or because they wanted slaves
or more wives; or because a chief or a medicine man had a dream; or
because some other notability felt he had given way too much to tears
over some personal or public sorrow, and must show his manliness by
killing the people of another tribe. In their wars they knew no mercy
when their blood was up, and frequently perpetrated frightful
cruelties for the sheer pleasure of seeing human suffering. Yet these
devilish moods would alternate with fits of sentimentality. A man or a
woman would suddenly take a war prisoner, or a person who was wounded
or half-tortured to death, under their protection, and a short time
afterwards the whole war party would be greeting this rescued wretch
(usually a man--they were far more pitiless towards women) as brother,
son, or friend, and even become quite maudlin over a scratch or a
bruise; whereas an hour or so before they were on the point of
disembowelling, or of driving splinters up the nails and setting them
on fire. In warfare they often gave way to cannibalism.
Though extremely fond of singing--they sang when they were merry; when
they thought they were going to die; when they were victorious in
hunting, love, or war; when they were defeated; when they were
paddling a canoe or sewing a moccasin--they had but a poor range of
musical instruments. Most of the tribes used flutes made out of the
wing bones of cranes or out of reeds, and some had small trumpets of
wood, bark, or buffalo horn. The Pacific coast Indians made gongs or
"xylophones" out of blocks or slabs of resonant wood.
Here is a specimen of Amerindian singing. It is the song which
accompanied the famous Calumet dance in celebration of the peacemaking
qualities of tobacco-smoking. It was taken down by the Jesuit
missionaries in the seventeenth century from the Ilinwa (Illinois)
Algonkin Indians of the middle west, and its notation reminds one of
Japanese music.
[Musical notation and words:
THE CALUMET OR TOBACCO-PIPE DANCE
Ni-na-ha-ni, ni-na-ha-ni, ni-na-ha-ni
na-ni on-go; Ni-na-ha-ni, ni-na-ha-ni,
ni-na-ha-ni ho-ho; ni-na-ha-ni, ni-na-ha-ni,
ni-na-ha-ni, Ka-wa ban-no-ge at-chi-cha
Ko-ge a-ke a-w[¯a]; Ba-no-ge a-chi-cha
sha-go-be hé, hé, hé! Min-tin-go mi-ta-de
pi-ni, pi-ni hé! A-chi-cha lé ma-chi
mi nam ba mik-tan-de, mik-tan-de pi-ni, pini hé!]
Ninahani, &c, ongo; ninahani, &c, hoho; ninahani, &c.
Kawa bannoge atchicha Koge ake aw[¯a];
Banoge atchicha shagobe hé hé hé! Mintingo mitade
Pini pini hé! Atchicha lé machi mi nam ba miktande,
Miktande pini pini hé!
Dancing was little else than posturing and jumping in masks--usually
made to look like the head of a wild beast. But the men were usually
very athletic. Wrestling competitions were almost universal,
especially as a means of winning a wife. The conqueror in a wrestling
match took the wife or wives of the defeated man. Their running powers
for endurance and speed became justly celebrated.
"Their principal and most inveterate game is that of the hoop," writes
Alexander Henry, sen., "which proves as ruinous to them as the platter
does to the Saulteurs (Ojibwé)." This game was played in the following
manner. A hoop was made about two feet in diameter, nearly covered
with dressed leather, and trimmed with quillwork, feathers, bits of
metal, and other trinkets, on which were certain particular marks. Two
persons played at the same time, by rolling the hoop and accompanying
it, one on each side; when it was about to fall, each gently threw one
arrow in such a manner that the hoop might fall upon it, and according
to that mark on the hoop which rested on the arrows they reckoned the
game. They also played another game by holding some article in one
hand, or putting it into one of two shoes, the other hand or shoe
being empty. They had another game which required forty to fifty small
sticks, as thick as a goose quill and about a foot long; these were
all shuffled together and then divided into two bunches, and according
to the even or odd numbers of sticks in the bunch chosen, the players
lost or won.
A favourite game amongst the Ojibwé is described as "the hurdle",
which is another name for the Canadian national game of La Crosse.
When about to play, the men, of all ages, would strip themselves
almost naked, but dress their hair in great style, put ornaments on
their arms, and belts round their waists, and paint their faces and
bodies in the most elaborate style. Each man was provided with "a
hurdle", an instrument made of a small stick of wood about three feet
long, bent at the end to a small circle, in which a loose piece of
network is fixed, forming a cavity big enough to receive a leather
ball about the size of a man's fist. Everything being prepared, a
level plain about half a mile long was chosen, with proper barriers or
goals at each end. Having previously formed into two equal parts, they
assembled in the very middle of the field, and the game began by
throwing up the ball perpendicularly in the air, when instantly both
parties (writes an eyewitness) "formed a singular group of naked men,
painted in different colours and in the most comical attitudes
imaginable, holding their rackets elevated in the air to catch the
ball". Whoever was so fortunate as to catch it in his net ran with it
to the barrier with all his might, supported by his party; whilst the
opponents were pursuing and endeavouring to knock the ball out of the
net. He who succeeded in doing so ran in the same manner towards the
opposite barrier, and was, of course, pursued in his turn. If in
danger of being overtaken, he might throw it with his hurdle towards
any of his associates who happened to be nearer the barrier than
himself. They had a particular knack of throwing it a great distance
in this manner, so that the best runners had not always the advantage;
and, by a peculiar way of working their hands and arms while running,
the ball never dropped out of their "hurdle".
"The best of three heats wins the game, and, besides the honour
acquired on such occasions, a considerable prize is adjudged to the
victors. The vanquished, however, generally challenge their
adversaries to renew the game the next day, which is seldom refused.
The game then becomes more important, as the honour of the whole
village is at stake, and it is carried on with redoubled impetuosity,
every object which might impede them in their career is knocked down
and trodden under foot without mercy, and before the game is decided,
it is a common thing to see numbers sprawling on the ground with
wounded legs and broken heads, yet this never creates any disputes or
ill-will after the play is decided" (Alexander Henry, sen.).
It has been computed that in the middle of the eighteenth century the
Amerindian population of the vast territories now known as the
Dominion of Canada numbered about 300,000. It now stands at an
approximate 110,000. The chief diminution has taken place in
Newfoundland, Lower and Upper Canada, New Brunswick, Assiniboia, and
British Columbia. There may even have been an increase in the north
and north-west. The first great blow to the Amerindians of these
regions was the smallpox epidemic of 1780. The next was the effect of
the strong drink[14] introduced by the agents of the Hudson's Bay and,
still more, the two North-west Companies. Phthisis or pulmonary
consumption also seems to have been introduced from Europe (though
Hearne thought that the Northern Indians had it before the white man
came). In fact, before the European invaded America neither Eskimo nor
Amerindian seem to have had many diseases. They suffered from ulcers,
scurvy, digestive troubles, rheumatism, headache, bronchitis, and
heart complaints, but from few, if any, "germ" diseases.
[Footnote 14: Before the white man came to _North_ America the natives
had no form of intoxicating drink.]
Some of the agents of the North-west Company apologize in their
writings for the amount of rum that was circulated among the
Amerindians at the orders of that company to stimulate trade, by
saying that it was seven parts water. Nevertheless it excited them to
madness, as the following extracts show. These are mostly taken from
the journals of Alexander Henry the Younger, but they are typical of
what was recorded by many other writers who describe the far interior
of British North America between 1775 and 1835.
"To see a house full of drunken Indians, consisting of men, women, and
children, is a most unpleasant sight; for, in that condition, they
often wrangle, pull each other by the hair, and fight. At times, ten
or twelve of both sexes may be seen fighting each other promiscuously,
until at last they all fall on the floor, one upon another, some
spilling rum out of a small kettle or dish which they hold in their
hands, while others are throwing up what they have just drunk. To
add to this uproar, a number of children, some on their mothers'
shoulders, and others running about and taking hold of their clothes,
are constantly bawling, the elder ones, through fear that their
parents may be stabbed, or that some other misfortune may befal them
in the fray. These shrieks of the children form a very unpleasant
chorus to the brutal noise kept up by their drunken parents."
* * * * *
"In a drinking match at the Hills yesterday, Gros Bras (Thick Arms) in
a fit of jealousy stabbed Aupusoi to death with a hand-dague (dagger);
the first stroke opened his left side, the second his belly, and the
third his breast; he never stirred, although he had a knife in his
belt, and died instantly. Soon after this Aupusoi's brother, a boy
about ten years of age, took the deceased's gun, loaded it with two
balls, and approached Gros Bras's tent. Putting the muzzle of the gun
through the door the boy fired the two balls into his breast and
killed him dead, just as he was reproaching his wife for her affection
for Aupusoi, and boasting of the revenge he had taken. The little
fellow ran into the woods and hid. Little Shell (Petite Coquille)
found the old woman, Aupusoi's mother, in her tent; he instantly
stabbed her. Ondainoiache then came in, took the knife, and gave her a
second stab. Little Shell, in his turn taking the knife, gave a third
blow. In this manner did these two rascals continue to murder the old
woman, as long as there was any life in her. The boy escaped into
Langlois' house, and was kept hid until they were all sober. Next
morning a hole was dug in the ground, and all three were buried
together. This affair kept the Indians from hunting, as Gros Bras was
nearly related to the principal hunters."
* * * * *
"Grand' Gueule stabbed Perdrix Blanche with a knife in six places.
Perdrix Blanche fighting with his wife, fell in the fire and almost
roasted, but had strength enough left notwithstanding his wounds to
bite her nose off."
* * * * *
"In the first drinking match a murder was committed in an Assiniboine
tent, but fortunately it was done by an Ojibwé. L'Hiver stabbed
Mishewashence to the heart three times, and killed him instantly. The
wife and children cried out, and some of my people ran to the tent
just as L'Hiver came out with the bloody knife in his hand, expecting
we would lay hold of him. The first person he met was William Henry,
whom he attempted to stab in the breast; but Henry avoided the stroke,
and returned the compliment with a blow of his cudgel on the fellow's
head. This staggered him; but instantly recovering he made another
attempt to stab Henry. Foiled in this design, and observing several
coming out of the fort, he took to his heels and ran into the woods
like a deer. I chased him with some of my people, but he was too fleet
for us. We buried the murdered man, who left a widow and five
helpless orphans, having no relations on this river. The behaviour of
two of the youngest was really piteous while we were burying the body;
they called upon their deceased father not to leave them, but to
return to the tent, and tried to prevent the men from covering the
corpse with earth, screaming in a terrible manner; the mother was
obliged to take them away."
* * * * *
"Men and women have been drinking a match for three days and nights,
during which it has been drink, fight--drink, fight--drink, and fight
again--guns, axes, and knives being their weapons--very disagreeable."
* * * * *
"Mithanasconce was so troublesome (in drink) that we were obliged to
tie him with ropes to prevent his doing mischief. He was stabbed in
the back in three different places about a month ago. His wounds were
still open, and had an ugly appearance; in his struggling to get loose
they burst out afresh and bled a great deal. We had much trouble to
stop the blood, as the fellow was insensible to pain or danger; his
only aim was to bite us. We had some narrow escapes, until we secured
his mouth, and then he fell asleep."
* * * * *
"Some Red Lake Indians having traded here for liquor which they took
to their camp, quarrelled amongst themselves. One jumped on another
and bit his nose off. It was some time before the piece could be
found; but, at last, by tumbling and tossing the straw about, it was
recovered, stuck on, and bandaged, as best the drunken people could,
in hopes it would grow again" (Alexander Henry, jun.).
* * * * *
As regards drunkenness, several authors among the early explorers
declared that the French Canadian voyageurs were more disagreeable
when drunk even than the Amerindians, for their quarrels were noisier
and more deadly. "Indeed I had rather have fifty drunken Indians in
the fort than sixty-five drunken Canadians", writes Alexander Henry in
1810. And yet the extracts I have given from his journal show that it
would be hard to beat the Amerindians for disagreeable ferocity when
intoxicated.
Henry, summing up his experiences before leaving for the Pacific coast
in 1811, writes these remarks in his diary:--
"What a different set of people they would be, were there not a drop
of liquor in the country! If a murder is committed among the Saulteurs
(Ojibwés), it is always in a drinking match. We may truly say that
liquor is the root of all evil in the north-west. Great bawling and
lamentation went on, and I was troubled most of the night for liquor
to wash away grief."
As a rule, the treatment of the Amerindians by the British and French
settlers was good, except the thrusting of alcohol on them. But in
Newfoundland a great crime was perpetrated. Between the middle of the
seventeenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries the British
fishermen and settlers on the coasts of Newfoundland had _destroyed_
the native population of Beothik Indians.
Before the English arrived on the coasts of Newfoundland the Beothiks
lived an ideal life for savages. They were well clothed with beasts'
skins, and in the winter these were supplemented by heavy fur robes.
Countless herds of reindeer roamed through the interior, passing from
north to south in the autumn and returning in the spring. Vast flocks
of willow grouse (like ptarmigan) were everywhere to be met with; the
many lakes were covered with geese, swans, and ducks. The woods were
full of pigeons; the salmon swarmed up the rivers to breed; the sea
round the coasts was--except in the wintertime--the richest fishery in
the world. They caught lobsters in the rock pools, and speared or
clubbed seals and great walruses for their flesh and oil. An
occasional whale provided them with oil, blubber, and meat. The Great
Auk--which could not fly--swarmed in millions on the cliffs and
islets. So abundant was this bird, and so fat, that its body was
sometimes used as fuel, or as a lamp. In the summertime their fish and
flesh diet could be varied by the innumerable berries growing
wild--strawberries, raspberries, currants, cranberries, and
whortleberries. The _capillaire_ plant yielded a lusciously sweet,
sugary substance.[15]
[Footnote 15: This was the Moxie plum or creeping snowberry
(_Chiogenes hispidula_).]
[Illustration: GREAT AUKS, GANNETS, PUFFINS, AND GUILLEMOTS]
The Beothiks were a tall, good-looking people, with large black eyes
and a light-coloured skin. The early French and Biscayan seamen, who
resorted to the coasts of Newfoundland for the whale fisheries,
reported these "Red Indians" to be "an ingenious and tractable people,
if well used, who were ready to help the white men with great labour
and patience in the killing, cutting-up, and boiling of whales, and
the making of train oil, without other expectation of reward than a
little bread or some such small hire".
Yet from the beginning of the seventeenth century the Beothiks--then
about four thousand in number--were ill-treated by the European
fishermen who frequented the Newfoundland coasts. They soon greatly
decreased in numbers, and became very shy of white men. The French,
when they occupied the south coast of Newfoundland, brought over
Mikmak Indians to chase and kill the Beothiks or "Red" Indians. The
Eskimo attacked them from Labrador. Finally, when Newfoundland became
British in the eighteenth century, the English fishermen settlers and
fur hunters attacked and slew the harmless Beothiks with a wanton
ferocity (described by horror-struck officers of the British navy)
which is as bad as anything attributed to the Spaniards in Cuba and
Hispaniola. By about 1830 they were all extinct. As late as 1823 the
following anecdote is recorded of two English settlers whose names are
hidden behind the initials C and A. "When near Badger Bay they fell in
with an Indian man and woman, who approached, apparently soliciting
food. The man was first killed, and the woman, who was afterwards
found to be his daughter, in despair remained calmly to be fired at,
when she was also shot through the chest and immediately expired. This
was told Mr. Cormack by the man who did the deed." Even English women
in the late eighteenth century were celebrated for their skill "in
shooting Red Indians and seals".
"For a period of nearly two hundred years this barbarity had
continued, and it was considered meritorious to shoot a Red Indian.
'To go to look for Indians' came to be as much a phrase as to look for
partridges (ptarmigan). They were harassed from post to post, from
island to island; their hunting and fishing stations were
unscrupulously seized by the invading English. They were shot down
without the least provocation, or captured to be exposed as
curiosities to the rabble at the fairs of the western towns of
Christian England at twopence a piece."[16]
[Footnote 16: These are the remarks of an English chaplain in the
island, quoted by the Rev. George Patterson, who contributed a most
interesting article on the vanished Beothiks of Newfoundland to the
Royal Society of Canada in 1891.]
Too late--when the worry and anxiety of the Napoleonic wars were
over--the British Government sent a commission of naval officers to
enquire into the treatment of the Beothiks by the settlers. One woman
alone remained, as a frightened semi-captive, to be consoled and
soothed. There are Indians in the south of Newfoundland at the present
day, but they are Mikmaks who come over from the adjoining regions of
Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. So tender, indeed, is the modern
government of the island towards these (out of compunction for the
past) that they are allowed to kill the reindeer and other wild
animals without the licence which is exacted from white people, and so
are actually injuring Newfoundland's resources!
Since the great Dominion of Canada was brought into existence in 1871
as a unified, responsible government, the treatment of the remaining
Amerindian natives of British North America has been admirable; and
splendid work has been done in reclaiming them to a wholesome
civilization by the Moravian, Roman Catholic, and Church of England
missionaries.