OP THE RED INBIAN RACE. 445 



removal of all legal distinctions between them and Her Majesty's 

 other Canadian subjects; and to facilitate the acquisition of property, 

 and of the rights accompanying it, by such individual members of the 

 said tribes as shall be found to desu'e such encouragement, and to 

 have deserved it." 



The Act accordingly provides the legal process whereby an educated 

 Indian may be emancipated from his condition of tutelage, and 

 placed in all respects on a footing of equality with his White neigh- 

 bours, without forfeiting his vested rights in the common property of 

 his people. Provision is also made for the issue of letters patent, 

 granting to any Indian of approved sobriety and integrity, a life 

 estate in the land allotted to him within the reserve. Though he 

 cannot sell this or alienate it to anyone of White blood, he may 

 dispose of it by will to his children ; or in case of his dying intestate, 

 it descends to his children in fee simple, according to the laws of 

 inheritance of the Province. 



The motives leading to such enactments are obviously humane 

 and disinterested. But the necessity of guarding the inexperienced 

 Indian from the schemes of desionincr Whites, and the difficulties in 

 other respects in dealing with semi-civilized tribes in immediate con- 

 tact with an industrious community, are apparent from the dangers 

 which such legislation is felt to create. It tends to enfranchise, and 

 so to withdraw from the tribe, the very men best fitted by tlieir 

 intelligence and virtues to be the advisers and leaders of their own 

 people. There is, however, no great choice left. Notwithstanding 

 all the philanthropic zeal of their friends and the best elxbrts of 

 officers of the Indian Department, the inevitable tendency of the 

 system of wardship and isolation on the Indian reserves must be co 

 repress that individual energy and forethought which are the elements 

 of success among the White settlers. If bands of emigxants from 

 England, Scotland, Germany, France, or Norway, were segregated 

 under a similar system, and precluded from free interchange and 

 traffic with the rest of the community ; while no degree of indolence 

 or vice could alienate from them their share in the common revenue : 

 the results would not greatly differ from what is now seen on many 

 Indian reserves. 



Hence the apparent breach of faith in the enfoi'ced removal of 

 Indians from reserves on which White settlers are encroaching, and 

 which in the United States has repeatedly resulted in bloodshed and 



