452 HYBRIDITY AND ABSORPTION 



Thus tlie same process still repeats itself along tlie widening frontier 

 of the Far West, which has been in operation on the American 

 Continent from the days of Columbus and Cabot. Hardy bands of 

 pioneer adventurers, or the solitary hunter and trapper, wander forth 

 to brave the dangers of the prairie or savage-haunted forest; and to 

 such, an Indian bride proves the fittest mate. Of the mixed ofispring,' 

 a portion cling to the fortunes of the mother's race, and are involved 

 in its fate; but more adhere to those of the white father, share with 

 him the vicissitudes of border life, and cast in their lot with the first 

 nucleus of a settled community. As the border land slowly recedes 

 into the further West, new settlers crowd into the clearing ; the little 

 cluster of primitive log huts grows up into the city, perhaps the 

 capital of a State ; and with a new generation the traces of Indian 

 blood are well-nigh forgotten : though not, on that account, necessarily 

 efi'aced. If any portion of the aboriginal owners of the soil linger in 

 the neighbourhood, they are no less affected by the predominant 

 intruding race. 



But novel experiences are to be looked for in the new provinces 

 now forming in the great North-west. Nor has the Canadian Gov- 

 ernment failed to recognize the special difficulties to be apprehended 

 from the new relations in which it is placed with tribes of wild 

 Indians transferred to its jurisdiction along with the territory 

 acquired from the Hudson's Bay Company. Returns made to an 

 address of the Hoiise of Commons at Ottawa, dated March, 1873, 

 disclose the jealousies and suspicions of the native tribes, and the 

 anxiety evinced by the Government officials to remove all just grounds 

 of complaint. Mr. Beatfcy, a contractor for certain surveys on the 

 Upper Assinniboine, reported that the Portage Indians, under their 

 chief. Yellow Quill, had absolutely forbidden any survey of their' 

 lands, and driven him and his party off" the field. The Lieutenant- 

 Governor thereafter held an interview with Yellow Quill and a party 

 of his braves, and after a long pow-wow succeeded in pacifying him. 

 Again, a party of about two thousand Sioux are reported to have left 

 in high dudgeon, with a threat to return in force next spring; and 

 the Hon. Alexander Morris— now Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba, 

 — writes to the Provincial Secretary at Ottawa, that "the Bed Lake 

 Indians on the American side have been sending tobacco to the Sioux 

 in our territory, as it is belived, with the view of common action 

 with regard to the Boundary Survey." 



