INDIAN SURRENDERS. — SANITARY CONDITION. 



195 



them from the contaminating influence of the whites, in- 

 volves the necessity of stringent police regulations pro- 

 hibiting the sale of spirits, otherwise the system becomes 

 a failure.* It appears to be an established fact that the 

 health of settled tribes is much better than that of others 

 hovering on the borders of civilization. " Epidemics are 

 less fatal, while the diminished exposure checks the ravages 

 of consumption and of febrile attacks consequent on the 

 hardships inseparable from the precariousness of a hunter's 

 life. The more regular supply of wholesome food is an- 

 other cause of the improved sanitary condition of the 

 settled tribes, "f 



The scarcity of the larger animals diminishing their 

 supply of suitable food, and the general adoption of manu- 

 factured articles of clothing, such as blankets and cloth, 

 in place of the prepared skins of animals, in which they 

 formerly clothed themselves, have been largely instru- 

 mental in making the present nomadic tribes more sus- 

 ceptible of disease than their ancestors. 



The testimony of missionaries and agents, embodied in 

 their reports to the head of the Indian Department of the 

 United States, is unanimous in deprecating the system of 

 frequent removal, as practised in the western territories. 



Instances are not wanting, either in Canada or the United 

 States, to show that compact reservations surrounded by 

 the whites are a state favourable to the civilization and 

 progress of the Indian. In Michigan, the franchise, and 

 all other rights of citizenship, are exercised by the Indians. 

 They there form an integral part of the population of the 

 state, on the same footing as their white neighbours. 



* In Canada the whites follow the Indians with spirits into the bush, and 

 obtain, at a nominal rate, the fruits of months of toil. The same occurs in 

 Rupert's Land. 



t Report of the Commissioners. 



o 2 



