OFF FOR LAC LA B1CHE 23 



the dances of their tribe, he scattered them ; if they played 

 the games of their childhood, he stopped them ; if they 

 asked for reasons, he told them it was the devil in them 

 that they exploited and which he wished to cast out. A 

 logical way, forsooth, of educating the ignorant ! And 

 this is why we find the broken-spirited Indian, who realizes 

 he is the creature of an all-powerful master whose ways he 

 cannot understand, so often " converted," but only in indi- 

 vidual cases educated and civilized. He is " converted " 

 because it requires only outward acquiescence, and he finds 

 his material life made pleasanter thereby. He is willing 

 to change his " Great Spirit " for the white man's " Great 

 Spirit " when a few beads or an extra ration make the 

 trade inviting. But he cannot be educated without being- 

 first civilized, and he cannot be civilized because in most 

 cases the white man does not know how, or does not find 

 it to his interest, to make the attempt in a rational way. 

 At present he distrusts, and sees only that he is being 

 " civilized " off the face of the earth, and remembers the 

 white man in his successive roles of welcomed guest, 

 greedy hunter, settler, and exterminator. I am not deal- 

 ing in heroics, and every one knows that the savage must 

 disappear before the civilized man ; but if we are to at- 

 tempt the civilization of those that remain let us first en- 

 deavor to gain their confidence, and then follow it up by 

 methods which they can grasp. 



It is not to be done in one season, nor in two; the civil- 

 ized red man cannot be brought forth full-fledged, as from 

 a patent incubator; he can be evolved only after long pe- 

 riods of gradual and natural development ; yet we expect 

 by mere word of mouth to make him forsake the senti- 

 ments of a lifetime, of generations of lifetimes. At the 

 same time he should realize there is a law in the land 

 which punishes and protects him as thoroughly as it does 



