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to bisect the territory. To clear the prairies for closer settlement the 
government then set aside certain tracts for occupation by the Indians 
alone, and undertook the difficult task of transforming them from 
purely hunting peoples into agriculturalists on the wheat lands and 
raisers of cattle and horses on the plateaux. For a period the Indians 
stagnated, unable to stifle their longing for the old free days of buffalo 
hunting and the excitement of the chase. Some of the bands then 
res]X)uded vigorously, especially the Blackfoot, who to-day contribute 
their full quota to the car-loads of grain that find their way to the 
flour mills. Others never recovered from the transplanting. The 
Sarcee, for example, after their removal to a rather infertile tract of 
land on the outskirts of Calgary, submitted only half-heartedly to a 
forcetl agriculture and stock raising that yielded little profit and few 
thrills. Ill success in these occupations increased their apathy, and 
proximity to a city that scorned them as tourist attractions only, 
and to white fanners who deemed them unworthy of a white man^s 
wage, still further lowered their morale. They lost all desire to 
recuperate, all ambition to stand on their feet in the economic world. 
So they are fast declining, and probably within another century this 
tribe will be no more. 
The inland tribes of British Columbia experienced much the 
same difficulties in readjustment as the plains’ Indians, and faced 
the situation with equally varying results. The Kootenay, who occu- 
pied a splendid ranching country, energetically seized hold of the new 
career that opened out to them, a career that fostered their love of 
horses and involved no tremendous upheaval in the social sphere; 
but many of the Salish and Carrier bands, condemned from a nomadic 
hunting life to a quiet tilling of the soil, became spiritless and 
started down the road to decline. The tribes of the coast, absorbed 
in ceremonies and rituals that emphasized the ever-present rivalries 
and class distinctions while feignedly commemorating the glories of 
a visionary past, received only a very short warning before the Euro- 
pean invasion broke on them in full force. They could not change 
the entire economic and social framework of their lives before the 
flood of settlement rolled over their villages and submerged the 
inhabitants beyond all hope of rescue. Helplessly they were tossed 
at the mercy of the tide, unable to gain a secure foothold. The sur- 
vivors to-day, with few exceptions, feel that their race is run and 
calmly, rather mournfully, await the end. 
