I8/S-] 



THE OKA INDIANS. 



329 



to allow the body of M. Guibord, who had died under their 

 ban, to be buried in the Cote des Neiges Cemetery, though the 

 claim of his representatives had been confirmed on appeal to 

 the Queen in Council. Philip wrote to the agent of the family, 

 advising him to forego his rights in the interests of peace : but 

 pointing out that, if he insisted on them, legal proceedings 

 should be taken against many beside the actual rioters ! 



The persecution of the Oka Indians also roused Philip's 

 indignation. While in Ontario the Indians are located on 

 Reserves, under the guardianship of agents (see p. 318), in the 

 Province of Quebec they have been more or less under the 

 priests. The Seminary of St. Sulpice, who are seigneurs of 

 the Island of Montreal, are also seigneurs of the Deux Mon- 

 tagnes district, where are located the remains of the Two Nation 

 Indians. " Their chief settlement is at Oka, on the Lake of 

 the Two Mountains. Things went on tolerably smoothly, till 

 some six years ago {i.e. 1869), when the Wesleyans thought 

 proper to institute a Mission among them. This proved very 

 successful, and almost the whole remnant of the Iroquois 

 nation left the Church of Rome. . . . From that time the un- 

 fortunate Indians have been subjected to a series of petty 

 persecutions, in which the police and county magistrates have 

 acted as tools of the priests. While the men have been off 

 hunting, the bullies have insulted the women, trumped up 

 petty charges under which the defenceless people have been 

 imprisoned, and even prevented them from cutting down wood 

 on their own domains. As no justice could be got or expected, 

 where juries and judges are alike the tools of the priests, the 

 good offices of the Aborigines' Protection Society were sought 

 and gained." 



In a private letter to Mr. F. W. Chesson, the Secretary of 

 that Society, Philip wrote : " Thirty years ago, there was a 

 pleasing feeling between the Catholics and Protestants of this 

 country. The Seminary priests were like the old English 

 Catholics before Cardinal Wiseman's days. Now, what with 

 the Evangelical Missions of the Protestants, the open organiza- 

 tions of the Orangemen, and the attacks of 'The Daily Wit- 



