LONG LAKE INDIANS.
The two years I passed in charge of the Hudson's Bay Post of Long
Lake, situated on the water-shed between Lake Superior and Hudson's
Bay, was the happiest of any period of my long service.
The conclusion I have arrived at, after considerable experience, is
that Christianizing, in no matter what form, has only made the Indian
worse.
It is the verdict of all who have had to do with the red man, that he
copies all of the white man's vices and very few, if any, of his
virtues.
Indians I found at Long Lake, in the middle seventies, were Pagans,
but they were honest, truthful and virtuous.
We locked our tradeshop, not to prevent robbery, simply to guard
against the door being blown open. Not one of these Indians would
have taken a pin without showing it to me first and saying: "I am
going to keep this," holding up the pin.
My predecessor had been stationed at that post in an unbroken charge
of over twenty years. He was a man of system and everything went by
rote. There were certain fixed dates for out-fitting the hunters;
certain dates for those short of ammunition to come and get it in the
winter; and, best of all, certain dates for them to arrive in the
spring and close their hunts. This assured us of getting only prime,
seasoned skins, and such skins it was a pleasure to handle, since the
paper upon which this is printed is not whiter than every skin that
passed thru my hands in those two years.
I am writing of the days before the Canadian Pacific Railway passed
thru that country when there were no whiskey peddlers going about
demoralizing the Indians. There being no opposition we regulated the
catch of furs. When we found, by general report of the hunters, that
a certain kind of fur was becoming scarce, we lowered the price for
that particular animal's pelt so low as to not make it worth their
while to trap it. For instance, while I was there, the beaver was
having our protection, and, as a consequence, in three years every
little pond or creek became stocked with beaver. The Indian hunter
did not suffer, because we paid the most liberal prices for the skins
that were most plentiful. This policy, however, could only be carried
out at places where there was no competition.
The gentleman in charge was the representative of the "Great Company"
and what he said was law. Our interests and those of the Indians ran
on parallel lines.
It was to our interest to see all that the Indian required should be
of the very best. That he should have good, strong, warm clothing,
good ammunition and double-tower proved guns was essential to his
ability to hunt, his comfort and his very life.
It was drilled into the hunters at each yearly send off, that if he
did not exert himself to hunt sufficient to pay the advances given
him, that the "Great Father" would not, or could not, send goods for
the next year.
It was explained to them that their furs were bartered in far off
countries for other new guns, blankets, twine, capots, duffle, copper
kettles and other wants of the Indians. As we wanted the hunters to
be well clothed and supplied with necessaries we imported no such
useless trash as the frontier posts were obliged to keep to cope with
the free traders.
If an Indian took a four point H. B. blanket, even with the rough
usage it was subjected to, it would keep him and his wife warm for a
year. The next season, a new one being bought, the old one did
service for another winter as lining for mittens, strips for socks,
and leggings for the younger branches.
Steel traps being dear twenty-five years ago, and the long canoe
transport being costly so far into the interior, we did not import
them very largely.
Bears, martens, minks and even beaver and otter were killed in
deadfalls; and with different sizes of twine, the Indians snared
rabbits, lynx, and, in the spring, even the bear.
The Indians principal, and I may say, only tools for hunting and for
his support were his axe, ice chisel, twine and his gun. I mention
the gun last because the hunter only used it for caribou and moose,
ducks and geese. Ammunition was too costly to use it for anything
that could be trapped or snared.
A life chief was elected by the Indians themselves, and he was
supported in his management of the tribe by the officer in charge of
the post. The chief had precedence in being outfitted, his canoe
headed the fleet of canoes on arriving at the post in the spring, and
was the one to lead off in the autumn. His was the only pack of furs
carried up from the beach, by our men, to the store, and he set the
example to his young men by being the first to pay his last year's
advances. To him we gave, as a present, a new suit of black cloth
clothes, boots, hat, etc., and to his wife a bright tartan wool dress
piece, and a tartan shawl of contrasting pattern.
Our currency, or medium of trade, was called "Made Beaver,"
equivalent in most articles to a dollar. The value of each skin was
computed in "Made Beaver." For every hundred of "Made Beaver" of
skins that the Indian brought in we allowed him as a gratuity "Called
Rum," ten "Made Beaver," he was at liberty, after paying his debt, to
trade whatever he fancied out of the shop to the extent of his "Rum."
But unless he paid his debt in full the "Rum" he was entitled to went
towards his account. This, however, seldom happened, because one that
did not pay his debt in full was looked down upon by his friends, and
his supplies for the next year were reduced in proportion to his
deficiency.
What a change has taken place in the past quarter of a century. I
hear from the person now in charge of that post (it is kept up
principally now to protect our further interior post) that all those
Indians are dead and gone. Their descendants number scarcely
one-third of the original band. They are thieves, drunkards and liars
as a rule; the white man's diseases and fire-water have left their
trail. White trappers have penetrated their country in all directions
from the line of railway and exterminated most of the fur-bearing
animals. Instead of, as their forefathers, getting a good supply of
all necessary articles to assure them of comfort for a year, these,
their sons and grandsons, can get no one to risk advancing them. They
live principally, now, on fish and when they do succeed in killing a
skin, the most likely thing to happen is, they will travel many miles
to barter it for whiskey.
This is one of the results of railways and civilization. I can say
with the late lamented Custer "The good Indians are dead."