EXPLORING NEW FIELDS--THE GOSPEL BEFORE TREATIES--BIG TOM'S NOBLE SPIRIT
OF SELF-SACRIFICE.
In 1873 I received a most urgent request from a deputation of Indians to
go and visit a band of their countrymen who lived on the western side of
Lake Winnipeg at a place called Jack Head. They were getting unsettled
and uneasy in their minds in reference to their lands. Treaties were
being made with other tribes, but nothing as yet had been done for them;
and as surveyors and other white men had been seen in their country,
they were suspicious, and wanted to know what they had better do.
So, after many councils among themselves, they decided to send over into
the land of the Crees and Salteaux for their Missionary to come and give
them advice, in order that they too might make a treaty with the
Government of the Queen.
I felt much pleased on receiving this deputation; and as it would give
me a grand opportunity to preach the Gospel to a people who had not as
yet heard it, I consented to go. With two dog-trains, and accompanied
by a couple of trusty Indians, we left the Eastern side of the great
Lake Winnipeg about sunrise. We dug a hole in the snow at Pigeon Point,
and there made a fire of some dry young willows, and enjoyed our
breakfast. From that point we struck out in a south-west direction
across the great lake. The day, although cold, was a very bright one.
The ice was good, and our dogs were magnificent fellows; and so we sped
along at a rapid rate. We reached a chain of little islands out in the
middle of the lake early in the afternoon. On the shore of one of them
we gathered some dry wood, cleared away the snow, made a fire, melted
some snow, and made ourselves a good kettle of tea. This, with some
pemmican and flat cakes, made us a capital dinner.
From this island the western shore of the lake was just visible, over
thirty miles away. Towards it we pushed as rapidly as possible,
considering that one of our Indians was quite an old man. When within
about three miles of the shore, the report of fire-arms reached our
ears, telling us that the Indians had observed our coming. Our noble
dogs seemed to rejoice at the sound as much as ourselves, and, well
knowing that their day's journey of over sixty miles was nearly ended,
changed their swinging trot into a gallop; and very soon we were at Jack
head, and among its plumed and painted inhabitants, by whom we were
received in a most extraordinary manner.
At some other places where I have gone as the first Missionary who ever
visited them, I have had two or three hundred men, women, and children
trying to see who could be the first to kiss me; but here the reception
was very different. Night was just falling upon us as we drew near the
shore, but there was light enough to observe that the narrow trail, up
from the lake into the dark recesses of the forest, along which we must
pass with our dog-trains, was lined with men armed with guns.
When we were about a hundred yards from them, the foremost ones began
firing. This _feu-de-joie_ continued until we had reached them and had
dashed through the lines of fire, for they continued loading and firing
as rapidly as possible. Our ears were almost deafened with the
continuous reports, and our nerves were somewhat tried, as the younger
braves especially consider it great fun to fire off their heavy charges
of powder as close to their visitors' heads as possible. But a well-
singed fur cap was the only evidence of harm having been done.
To increase the welcome, they courteously brought out for our special
benefit the few English and French words of which they were masters.
Some of them were most ludicrously out of place. It did require a good
deal of nerve to keep my face straight when a grave and dignified chief,
who wished to inquire politely as to my health, for the moment dropped
his own language, and in good English said, "Does your mother know
you're out?" I found out afterwards that a roguish fur-trader had
taught him the expression, as a very polite one to use to distinguished
strangers.
We quickly unharnessed and fed our faithful dogs. We hung up in the
trees our sleds and harness beyond the reach of the wolfish curs, which
in large numbers prowled around. If they could get the opportunity,
they would make short work of the deer-skin and raw-hide fastenings of
the sleds, and the harness would entirely disappear, with perhaps the
exception of the buckles. We waited until our big dogs had given a few
of the most impudent and saucy of these brutes a good thrashing, so that
there was some prospect of peace; and then, feeling that our outside
work was attended to, and that the Indians had had time to get arranged
in their council room, we went to the door, and were ceremoniously
ushered in. The council house was a large square log building of much
better construction than I had expected to see. It was without
partitions, and was lighted by the brilliant council fire, and a number
of fish oil lamps hanging from the walls. At the places of honour were
seated the chiefs of the band. Their "thrones of state" were curiously
woven mats of rushes made by the Indian women. Their head-dresses were
gorgeous masses of feathers, and their costume was very picturesque.
Some of them had not yet adopted the pantaloons of civilisation, but
wore instead the scant leggings of native manufacture.
From the chiefs on either side and extending around the room in circles,
were the old men and warriors and hunters, ranged according to their
rank and standing. Behind these were the young men and boys. All were
seated on the ground, and all were silent, as I entered. The chiefs
were fine-looking men, and there was that indescribable _hauteur_ now so
rarely seen among this interesting people. Crowded out behind the men
and boys, and in many places packed against the walls of the house, were
the women and girls. While the men were in many instances well and
often brilliantly dressed in their finery, the women and girls were
wretchedly clothed, and miserable in appearance.
The house was filled, with the exception of a small space reserved at
the right hand of the principal chief for the visitors. With a good
deal of ceremony we were escorted to our seats. For me they had
obtained a little box, on which a fur robe was placed, as they said
afterwards, that they had heard that white men cannot sit comfortably on
the ground. On this I seated myself next to the chief, and my attendant
Indians ranged themselves beside me. During the profound silence that
lasted for several minutes after our entrance, I had a good opportunity
to grasp the situation. I breathed an earnest prayer to God for the
much-needed wisdom, and that I might here preach the Gospel in such a
way that it might be understood and accepted by this people, the
majority of whom had not as yet heard the glad tidings of salvation.
Then I rose up and, addressing the chief, I said: "I have come at your
request from across the great Winnipeg, to visit you and to meet you at
your council fire. I will preach to you and discuss treaty matters with
you, and will help you all I can with the Government. I want to find
out your views about giving up your old paganism and becoming
Christians. I also want to know how many children you have among you,
and if you desire a school for them. So I am here for these reasons."
When I sat down, the calumet, the pipe of peace, was gravely lit, and
after the chief had puffed away at it, he handed it to me. As I have
not as yet acquired the art of smoking, I adopted the plan of taking
hold of the long stem, which is over a yard in length, by the middle.
The result was that when my hand was near my mouth, the mouthpiece of
the pipe was a foot or so behind my head. As previously arranged, one
of my obliging Indians was always on hand to do my smoking.
After the pipe ceremony was over, the chief began his address of
welcome. He said a good many kind things, and told me of their
anxieties as to their future and that of their children. The fire-canoe
(the steamboat) was rushing through the waters, destroying their
fisheries. The white hunters, with their fire guns and steel traps,
were fast killing off the game. The surveyor was driving his lines of
stakes into the ground, and the white people, more numerous than
mosquitoes, were crowding in on the prairies. They had nothing but
peace in their hearts, but still he could not help thinking that a
treaty ought to be made with them before the fire canoe or the surveyor
came. They were powerless themselves to speak before the Queen's
representative, the Governor. They had heard of the Missionary's love
for the Indian, and so they had sent across the great Winnipeg for him,
and their hearts were glad that he had come. With their right hands
they had fired off their guns, which all said, "Welcome!" With his left
hand he had handed the pipe of peace, which also from the heart again
said, "Welcome!" Their hearts were all glad that with their eyes they
saw the Missionary among them. Their ears were now open to hear what he
had to say about their future, and what he thought the Queen's men would
do for them.
Then he sat down on his mat, and I rose up and in reply said: "Before I
dare talk to you about treaties, and lands, and your future for this
life, and that of your children, I must speak about something more
important."
This seemed to astonish them, and they said: "What has he got to talk
about that is more important than the treaty?"
"Yes," I answered, "I have something more important than the treaty, and
something to say about One greater than the Queen, or the Governor she
sends; for I must first talk about our great God, Whom the Queen and we
all must love if we would be happy. The Great Spirit, our good Father
in heaven, wants to make a treaty with us; and if we will be willing to
comply with His conditions, it will be the best treaty ever made, for it
will bring us joy and happiness for this life and the life to come."
Loud were their words of approval that I should thus speak to them; and
so I preached to them, making use of my trusted and careful interpreter,
Timothy Bear, who is as thorough a master of the Saulteaux language as
he is of the Cree. Considering that it was the first sermon they had
ever heard, and that their ideas of our worship were very crude, they
behaved remarkably well, seeing they were a crowd of plumed and painted
savages, and Saulteaux besides. They kept up a constant smoking through
all the service, except when we were singing or at prayer. Men, women,
and children were all at it, and it seemed as though they were always at
it.
Before I got through my sermon I was almost suffocated by the smoke.
The cloud, not that for which we had prayed, overwhelmed us, blinded us,
and nearly smothered us. It was the cloud of their vile weeds and
tobacco. As well as I could I talked to them of God and his love, and
of the way of salvation, and the blessings which would come to them if
they would cheerfully and heartily accept Him. We then sang the Jubilee
hymn,--
"Blow ye the trumpet, blow."
This hymn has been translated into their language. The tune we used was
"Lennox," and I urged them to help us to sing. I gave out the hymn
verse by verse, and said, "Sing as well as you can." Some followed very
well, and others, while trying to follow the words, seemed to have
substituted for the tune one of their Indian lilts. After the religious
service was over, we hastily boiled our kettles, made tea, and had our
suppers, for we had travelled far, and were very hungry. The Indians
had nothing themselves but tea, fish, and tobacco. I never saw such
smokers. Even little unweaned children were adepts in the use of the
pipe.
After tea the ceremonious speeches were delivered. The head chief was
of course the first to speak again. His address was very complimentary.
He said he had been gazing all day long across the great lake watching
for my coming. Although it was several moons since, I had promised that
in this one, if possible, I would be on hand. My coming just at the
time I did, showed that I was a man of my word, and could be depended
upon.
"We feel," he said, "that we Indians are but children in the presence of
the whites. Great changes are taking place. The buffalo and deer once
so abundant are fast disappearing. Our fathers told us long ago that
the buffalo was the special gift of the Great Spirit to the Indian, and
that when it disappeared the Indian must go also. But in your words you
tell us good things about the Great Spirit, and we are thankful that you
have come. We wish you could live among us and thus talk to us."
Thus he and others talked for a long time.
We went over the business of the approaching treaty, and I told them all
I knew about the matter, and assured them that they need have no fear or
alarm. The Dominion Government would treat them honourably and fairly.
More tobacco was smoked, and extra kettles of tea were made and drunk,
and then I was told that as an additional mark of their thankfulness to
me for thus coming with these assuring and quieting words, they now
wished to give me the tribal ceremony of the greatest welcome, which was
only given at rare intervals, and then only when the best of news came
to them.
The room was quickly rearranged for the ceremony. The crowd in the
centre of the room was moved back, much to the discomfort of the women
and girls, some of whom were roughly ejected to make room for their
tyrants and masters. Then some drums were brought in, and between
twenty and thirty of the most active and agile young men, dressed, or
rather undressed, in their picturesque way, seated themselves closely
around the men who were to act as drummers. The first part of the
ceremony was supposed to be a kind of a concert, part musical and part
pantomime.
To describe it with its monotonous drumming and shrill songs, which they
said were words of welcome, is altogether beyond my powers. At certain
places in the songs, ten or twenty of the young men would spring up in
their places, and without moving their feet from the ground would go
through such strong, undulating, graceful motions, and yet all in such
perfect unison with each other and with the music, that I was almost
fascinated by the strange weird beauty of the scene.
Then their programme changed, and rapidly they glided around in simple
and intricate movements, but all in perfect time to the songs and drums.
Not satisfied with giving me the welcome of their own tribe, they also
gave me the still more exciting Sioux welcome, and also that of the wild
Crees in the Saskatchewan. Until long after midnight these scenes were
being enacted. Then word was passed round that the supply of tobacco
devoted to the welcome ceremonies was exhausted, for through all of
these scenes the pipes were only out of the mouths of the performers.
All the rest of the crowd smoked without apparent cessation.
This intimation of the exhaustion of the supply of tobacco abruptly
closed the ceremony. Such is their custom. Some more tea was made and
drunk by the chiefs. Then the Missionary's hand was shaken, and the
people quickly flitted away to their wigwams. A supper, consisting of
beautiful fish, called "gold eyes," which are caught by the young
Indians in the rapid river at the foot of the Rude Water Slide, was then
much enjoyed.
One of my faithful Indians brought in my camp bed, and unrolled it near
the council fire. I rolled myself up in a blanket and buffalo robe, and
there on the ground I soon fell asleep, for I was very weary. At
daybreak we arose, and had our breakfast cooked at the council fire.
While eating it, many of the Indians crowded in to see us ere we left
for our home across Lake Winnipeg. With them we held another religious
service. I talked kindly and faithfully to them, and urged them to
decide speedily to forsake their old pagan habits and become Christians;
telling them that now, as they were making treaties and entering upon a
new way of obtaining a living, they should adopt the religion of the
great Book.
With them we sang a hymn, and then kneeled down and prayed. Devoutly
and reverently did they bow with us at the Mercy-seat. When we rose up
from our knees, a young man spoke up on behalf of the young people. He
said they were glad I had come, and hoped I would come again. Their
minds were dark; would I soon come back and bring in the light?
I said all I could to encourage them to seek after the great Light, and
promised to come again. We harnessed up our dogs, and, in company with
my attendant Indians, I started for home. A wild blizzard storm came
down upon us from the north when we were far out from land. We toiled
on through it as well as we could, although at times unable to see a
dozen feet ahead of us. Often we got bewildered by its fury, as it
seemed to circle and eddy around us; but Jack was in the foremost train,
and so we safely reached the other shore, and did not for many a day
cease to think about some of the strange features of this adventurous
trip, in which in after years we found much real good had been done.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As we have been referring to treaties and the excitement there was in
the minds of the Indians in reference to the new relationship in which
they would stand to the Government, it may be well here to put upon
record the noble spirit of one of our Indians, on whom honours were
desired to be conferred by his people.
When the Dominion Government of Canada took possession of the
territories so long held by the Hudson's Bay Company, they began to make
arrangements for treaties with all the Indian tribes. Word came out to
us at Rossville Mission House, that the Government wished the Indians to
elect one of their number as chief, with whom they could make a treaty,
and whom they could confer with if difficulties arose in the future.
They wished the people to select a wise, judicious man, in whom all
confidence could be placed.
Naturally the Indians were very much excited at this new order of
things, and so there were many councils and much speech-making. A good
deal of curiosity was expressed to know what benefits would result, and
how much money would be received by each of them. While there was still
much uncertainty about these things, it had become well known that the
one selected to be chief would fare very well. He would have more money
and presents than any other. He would be presented with a silver medal
with the face of the "Great Mother," the Queen, upon it, and would be
honoured with the personal friendship of the Governor, and with other
honours naturally dear to the Indian.
After many councils the people came to the almost unanimous conclusion
that Big Tom should be their chief. In a full council, with much
ceremony, they offered him the position. Instead of seizing the
proffered honours with avidity, his face became very grave, and it was
evident he was full of suppressed emotion. When he arose, as all
supposed, to indicate his acceptance of the position, and to express his
thanks, they were very much surprised to hear him quietly say that he
could not answer fully now, but desired a day to think it over. So he
asked the council to adjourn until the following morning.
Of course this request was complied with, and, full of curiosity, the
people thronged the building the next day. I had naturally taken a deep
interest in the matter, as, next to their spiritual interests, I was
anxious to do all I could for their temporal welfare. So I attended
many of their meetings. The council was opened in due form, and then
Big Tom arose to give his answer. He began quietly and slowly, but
warmed up a good deal before he ended.