8o PROCEEDINGS Ot? tHE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



duties, more than anything else, depends the future welfare of the Indian as a 

 civilized citizen. But even missionaries are human, and sometimes make mistakes, 

 and they have many serious difiiculties to contend with, for not only have they 

 to overcome such as necessarily arise from the character of the Indians, and customs 

 and circumstances of their former life, but they have also to fight the devil incarnate 

 in the persons of evil and unscrupulous whites, who, for their, own gain or grati- 

 fication, do not hesitate to bring moral and physical ruin upon the Indian. 



It is to me a matter of much regret that in the process of bringing the Indian 

 into civilization there has been an effort to make him forget his past history and 

 customs. Much of the history of some, at least, of the Indian: nations is by no 

 means a thing to be wiped out of memory, and, though some of their customs 

 must necessarily be disused, as being inconsistent with both Christianity and civili- 

 zation, the romantic and picturesque, which ever attended the life of the Indians, 

 and surrounded them with a charm which has produced abundant material for 

 writers, of fiction and poetry, is surely worth preservation, and, in my judgment, 

 should be no more a hindrance to their advancement than somewhat similar con- 

 ditions have been in the case of the Highlanders of Scotland. I am convinced that 

 an Indian who holds the memory of his forefathers in respect, and looks back with 

 honest pride upon the antiquities of his nation, and is permitted to do so, will 

 make a better citizen than one who is taught, as is evidently too often the case, to 

 consider all such things as contemptible, and to be put aside and buried ir^ the 

 past. Among the Six Nations, those who are disposed to keep alive their tradi- 

 tions and such of their ancient customs as a:re not unsuited to their present manner 

 of, life, are subjected to a kind of mild social ostracism. I venture to believe that 

 to be a great mistake, and for my part would regard an Indian who had the 

 courage to appear in buckskin and feathers, without being paid for doing so, as excel- 

 lent material from which a valuable citizen might be made if judiciously treated. 

 The system which is followed, I believe, with all due deference to those who have 

 more experience than I have, to be calculated to make such men and women use- 

 less members of society, and thus indirectly ta lower the general social and moral 

 tone of the people. A loyalist at heart, if injudiciously treated, may be made a rebel 

 in act. 



