ANNUAL REPORT OF THE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF KEEWATIN. GOVERNMENT HOUSE, WINNIPEG, 30th December, 1897. To the Hon. CLIFFORD SIFTON, Minister of the Interior, Ottawa. SIR, I have the honour to report that during the past summer I spent upwards of two months in the district of Keewatin, travelling as far as York Factory on Hudson's Bay, and spending some time at the principal centres of population, namely, Norway House, Oxford House, and York Factory. It was my intention to visit God's Lake and Island Lake, in order to have a conference with the Saulteaux of these districts, but I was advised to postpone my visit owing to the difficulties of navigation, the waters being too low for a York boat to get through. The district of Keewatin is the most unique preserve in the civilized world to-day. Lying between the northern boundaries of Manitoba and the Arctic Circle, and between the territory of Saskatchewan and Hudson's Bay, it is inaccessible to ordinary travellers, the only white people living there being the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company at their various posts, and pensioners of the company, old employees who have settled in the district from preference. In addition there are a few missionaries and their families at the more populous centres. There are no regular means of communication with the district from the outside world. The Hudson's Bay Company charter a steamer twice a year, or oftener if required, from Selkirk to Norway House. Through the courtesy of the company, passengers and freight are accommodated on these steamers. Three or four times during the winter, dog trains run from Selkirk to Norway House, carrying the mails at the expense of the company for the convenience of the missionaries and the company's officials throughout the district. There are no post offices in the district, but the company's officers are most obliging in forwarding any letters that may be sent up by their chartered steamers or by dog train. Any one entering the district must be prepared to be completely shut out from the outside world for the time being. My party spent ten weeks without seeing a newspaper of a recent date, although when we afterwards came to repair our loss of information, it was wonderful to find how little we had missed. Norway House, including the Rossville mission and the reserve, is the most populous centre in the district. The population is estimated at about a thousand souls. Few of these people are genuine hunters, though most of them do a little trapping. They live principally by such work as they can get from the Hudson's Bay Company, and from traders, by fishing and by growing vegetables. Many of them have gardens, such, as they are, but they are improvident with respect to seeds, in most cases the Hudson's Bay Company having to come to their help yearly. To these is added the Treaty Annuity from the Indian Department, but many of the Indians now resident in the neighbourhood of Norway House are non-Treaty Indians, who have moved up from York Factory, and from as far south as Trout Lake near the northern boundaries of Ontario. The method of paying the Treaty Annuity is objectionable. The Indians have been known to refuse work which would have paid them well, in order to loaf around the Fort waiting for the arrival of the Indian Agent. It generally means a loss of ten days or two weeks, and the money all goes to the vendors of cheap jewellery and inferior merchandise, who follow the Indian Agent from point to point, where the Treaty money is being paid. A better plan at the Norway House Reserve would be to entrust the money to Mr. J. K. Macdonald, J.P., of Norway House, who is a magistrate for the district, in which he has resided many years, and who is well known to all the Indians throughout. They could then come in and get their annuities without waste of time, and would not be subject to temptations to squander the money. At Nelson River the whole of the male population are hunters. Some have gardens in which they grow potatoes, the seeds, as usual, being supplied by the Hudson's Bay Company. They may be said to live almost entirely by the chase and by fishing. It is reported that usually they live well. At Cross Lake a large proportion of the people are hunters, though fish is their staple article of food, and usually there is a sufficiency of it. At Split Lake all are hunters. Venison is the food principally depended on, fish not being very plentiful. One or two raise a few potatoes. Frequently the deer fail them, and then destitution overtakes the people. Under such circumstances the Hudson's Bay Company is their only source of help. At Oxford House all hunt, but the country is becoming denuded of fur-bearing animals. During the summer months the entire adult male population get continuous employment from the Hudson's Bay Company, freighting goods from Norway House for their own and neighbouring posts. Few deer are killed, and fish are not too plentiful. Periods of dire distress frequently overtake the community. At such times, to prevent starvation, the Hudson's Bay officers at the post have actually to support the population. A few vegetables, principally potatoes, are grown. These people are improvident children, and will not learn by experience. There is not an Indian south of the Nelson River who might not have an excellent kitchen garden, stocked with all kinds of vegetables, if he only had industry, perseverance and foresight. At God's Lake all the Indians are hunters, living by the chase and by fishing. Here again there are periods of starvation, when the Hudson's Bay Company has to come to the rescue. There are some gardens where potatoes are grown in a thriftless fashion. This is as reported to me. At Island Lake the entire population are hunters. Deer, fish, rabbits and the flesh of all fur-bearing animals are used for food. There is no attempt here at the cultivation of the soil, save by the Hudson's Bay Company's officials. At all the above mentioned posts the adult males get employment as freighters in the boats of the Hudson's Bay Company. They like this kind of work, and work late and early cheerfully. They are admirable voyageurs-in fact, the finest boatmen of their kind in the world. In the eastern section of the district, having York Factory for its centre, dependent upon which are the posts of Churchill, Trout Lake, and Severn River, the number of white people and half-breeds is about one hundred. There are about fifteen hundred Indians, twelve hundred of whom are Crees belonging to the southern part of the country. There are about three hundred Chipweyans, who hunt to the north of Churchill River and visit Fort Churchill. The Esquimaux who visit Churchill number about two hundred, and in the far north it is estimated that there are about six hundred Esquimaux scattered from Repulse Bay to Marble Island. All the Indians in this section of the country are professing Christians. The Crees from their long intercourse with white men, have reached a certain degree of civilization. For two centuries and a quarter, they and their ancestors have been in touch with the officials of the Hudson's Bay Company, indeed, there was far more life and activity on the west shores of the bay, at Churchill, York and further south, two hundred years ago than there is to-day. England and France were contending for the fur trade. Frontenac also had an eye on the country, and when he was Governor of New France sent men and ships, with the French Canadian traders, to try to wile away from the Hudson's Bay Company the Indian fur trade of this district. The Crees can nearly all read and write the Cree language, as printed in Syllabic characters. The old teach the young. The attempts of the Church of England clergymen at York Factory and Fort Churchill to impart an English education have failed of success. The young Indians could only attend school for a week or two in summer, and even then had to be charitably provided for, they and their parents as well. Of the Crees in this section, about one-half are Inland Indians, whose main support is fish and rabbits. In the winter they have no fixed place of abode; in summer time, they collect at a lake or about one of the company's posts. Often they have a great abundance of food, sometimes, at the change of seasons, they are rather pinched, but it is only on rare occasions that they suffer want. The others are called Coast Indians. Their life is a more precarious one. The wild geese used to be their great mainstay. They had enough for themselves, and did a big trade with the company as well, but now so few geese are to be got that the Indians in the season cannot support themselves. It is believed that the cause of the great change is that the wild geese now fly over inland, to feed upon the wheat fields of the prairies. The Coast Indians never have a store of food for the winter, as the Inland Indians generally have. The fish on the coast are small, and in the depth of the winter, when, as they say, nothing is running about, they have a bad time indeed. In the spring and autumn also there are times when the rivers cannot be crossed, or the swamps are impassable. At such periods the company has to help them through as best they can. The fur these Indians get is traded in great part for imported food and ammunition. In seasons when fur is scarce, without liberal assistance from the company, they would starve. At Churchill, with the Chipweyans, a different condition of things obtains, they are true nomads, live in tents and are clad in deer skin. They wander in the interior from Churchill River up to the edge of the wood country, and come to the coast only twice a year. The characteristics of this tribe are described by those who have come in contact with them as being very discouraging, they are said to be grasping, selfish and ungrateful. Their ways are little altered since Franklin's time. The Esquimaux who come to Churchill live along the coast, and in the inland, barren lands up to some three hundred miles north of Fort Churchill-they visit the Fort on certain dates during the winter, and some few of them stay about it for a month or so in the spring. They depend on deer and seals for their living, wear deer skin clothing, and have as yet changed their native ways but little. The company's officers who have been stationed at Fort Churchill regard them as the most interesting aborigines we meet with. They are brave, daring almost to recklessness, quick to resent an injury, but of a cheerful, happy disposition, and have not the greedy, begging way that most Indians have. They steal when they can, but promptly give up the articles if missed and inquired after. Their thieving is looked on by themselves and by the company's officers as a sort of amusing knavery not to be taken seriously. They are wonderfully ingenious in making broken guns serviceable, repairing wood or iron-work, and are, as a people, said to be much more intelligent than the Indians. In the far north their country is a barren waste, and in addition to the deer, yields only a few white foxes. Reports come down to Churchill almost yearly about some one or other family of these Esquimaux being destitute. Their wants are few, guns, ammunition, knives and files. Tobacco is their only luxury. As a rule, they are able to pay their way, and are said to be more honourable in their dealings with the company and in repaying advances than many of the Indians. It has been suggested that the Indians, especially from the neighbourhood of Oxford House and God's Lake, should be removed to some other settlement, either in the district or to some other portion of the country, as in the case of the Indians who removed some years ago from Norway House Reserve to Fisher River on the western shores of Lake Winnipeg. The objection to removing them within the district is this: That the district in which they might settle would soon become congested, and the natives of the place be driven, in their turn, to migration elsewhere. Only the old and infirm would willingly consent to leave the district altogether, and if the Government or the Department of Indian Affairs undertook the responsibility of moving a body of these Indians to another settlement in Manitoba or elsewhere, it must be with the knowledge that for the rest of their lives they will be pensioners on the bounty of the Government. It is with regret that I have to report that the schools in the district could not possibly be in a worse condition than I found them. At Oxford House and York Factory the schools were closed altogether, and it was reported to me that there was no school at Churchill. At Rossville and at what is known as the Jack River school |