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a dominant race can invoke the aid of economic interests, they 
meet with little resistance from ill-organized religions. Although 
most of the tribes still cling to some of their old superstitions and 
beliefs, all of them very quickly transferred their allegiance to one 
or other of the Christian churches. 
Economically and socially, then, the Indians were cut adrift 
from their old moorings at the very time when their ranks were 
being decimated by previously unknown diseases. Such results 
from contact with Europeans were perhaps inevitable, although 
human foresight exercised without regard to selfish interests could 
have eased the transition to the new conditions and prevented 
much hardship and suffering. The picture, of course, had its 
brighter side. Europeans put an end to war, the blood-feud, infan- 
ticide, and the abandonment of the aged and sick. They equipped 
the Indians with better tools and weapons, taught them to build 
more comfortable homes, and introduced agriculture and stock 
raising to replace the vanished game. But when survival or extinc- 
tion depends on the measure of a people’s adaptability, even an 
amelioration in the conditions of life may bring disaster; for 
success and failure in adaptation depend only partly on the external 
conditions, partly, also, on psychological factors that are not easily 
recognized or controlled. 
Actually, most tribes have survived, though in some the 
decline has been rapid and extinction seems not far remote. At the 
risk of repeating what was stated in earlier chapters and what may 
appear in Part II of this book, we may briefly outline their his- 
tories and present status. 
The most fortunate Indians, perhaps, were the tribes of the 
Maritime Provinces and of the St. Lawrence valley who bore the 
brunt of the first invasion. The settlers were then coming in small 
numbers to a country still entirely unknown, and they depended 
on the goodwill of the natives for the security of their families and 
homes. Life was very simple in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries. Few people could read or write, and steam engines, 
telegraphs, and newspapers had not yet stirred men’s thoughts. 
Many of the differences between the pioneer and the Indian were 
superficial only, and the chasm that separated the two peoples could 
be bridged without great difficulty. Moreover, in those early days 
