They
All Seemed Affable, And Gave Us Broad Grins In Return For Our
Salutes.
The Indian tribes on Canadian territory are the Blackfeet and
Piegans.
The former used to number over ten thousand, but now are
comparatively few. The small-pox, which raged among them in 1870,
decimated their numbers; also alcohol, first introduced by
Americans who established themselves on Belly River, about 1866,
and in which they drove a roaring trade, as the Indians sacrificed
everything for this "fire-water," as they called it, and hundreds
died in consequence of exposure and famine, having neither clothes
to cover them nor horses nor weapons wherewith to hunt. Luckily in
1874 the mounted police put an entire end to this abominable sale
of whisky.
The Indian is naturally idle - to eat, smoke, and sleep is the sole
end of his life; though he will travel immense distances to fish
or hunt, which is the only occupation of the men, the women doing
all the rest, their condition being but little better than beasts
of burden. The Indian of the Plain subsists in winter on buffalo
dried and smoked; but in spring, when they resort to the
neighbourhood of the small lakes and streams, where innumerable
wild fowl abound, they have grand feasting on the birds and eggs.
The tribes living near the large lakes of Manitoba, Winnipeg, and
Winnipegosis have only fish as food, which they dry and pack for
winter use, and eat it raw and without salt - which sounds very
palatable?
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