366 SALMON RIVERS 



consent to such an arrangement provided, of 

 course, that the rental went to them, for I have 

 made personal enquiries of them. The Indian 

 Department states with pride in its report that 

 the Montagnais Indians are almost self-support- 

 ing. If it is the aim to make them so, why not 

 allow their river to be rented and make them still 

 more so ? 



I wonder if the Department knows what a bur- 

 den the Indians are to the settlers and others on 

 the coast, since this so-called period of self-sup- 

 port has set in. 



A couple of years ago we had an old Indian 

 widow that was left behind by her relatives when 

 they left for their winter hunt. They were too 

 poor to supply her with provisions for the win- 

 ter. In fact they could not get enough for them- 

 selves, so she was left with practically nothing to 

 eat. To add to her troubles a sick child was left 

 with her. For a while the old woman toiled, 

 making sealskin shoes and other little jobs of that 

 kind, but this was of short duration owing to the 

 limited demands of the small population. When 

 winter came she was cared for by a charitable per- 

 son, who had very little to spare himself. The 

 old woman felt this very keenly and one day she 

 asked me whether I could not obtain some help for 

 her from the Indian Agency. I promised that I 

 would try lo do so and on my return home I wired 

 the Indian Agent, giving him the details of the 



