186 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



The first district embraces the whole of Eastern Canada, 

 and a small part of the Upper Province. The second 

 stretches from the western limits of the first to the head of 

 Lake Ontario, comprising also the Saugeen Peninsula, and 

 some of the islands in Lake Huron. The affairs of the 

 six nations, or Iroquois, on Grand Eiver, and those of the 

 Mississaguas in the township of Tuscarora, occupy the 

 exclusive attention of a third superintendent. The tribes 

 resident throughout the western peninsula of Canada are 

 under the charge of a fourth, and the bands in the occupa- 

 tion of the Manitoulin Islands, together with the tribes on 

 Lakes Huron and Superior, form the limits under the fifth 

 superintendent. 



No opportunity has been lost, and no pains have been 

 spared, since Western Canada became a province, in 

 planning, suggesting, and advocating schemes for the 

 amelioration of the present and the brightening of the 

 prospective state of Indians in Canada. Secretaries of 

 State, Governors of provinces, and special Commissioners 

 have all interested themselves in the condition of the 

 Indians, and suggested measures for their benefit ; but as 

 the Canadian Commissioners say : " With the fatality 

 which seems to have attended this unfortunate race, 

 various obstacles appear to have arisen which prevented 

 these benevolent and judicious projects from being carried 

 out." " We are still groping in the dark, the time for 

 experiments is fast passing away, if it has not already 

 expired." The Commissioners see, however, no reason 

 why the Indian race should not in time take their place 

 among the rest of the population of Canada. A study of 

 their history shows that they have all a greater or less 

 appreciation of the blessings of civilization, and desire 

 their children to be educated like the white man. 



The theory of the steady decline of their number is post- 



