"Mr. Weaver, the missionary at Wahpooskow, is an Englishman, his wife
being a Canadian from London, Ontario. By untiring labour he had got his
mission into very creditable shape. When it is remembered that everything
had to be brought in by bark canoes or dog-train, and that all lumber had
to be cut by hand, it seemed to be a monument of industry.
The settlement was then some twenty years old, and numbered about sixty
souls. The total number of Indians and half-breeds in the locality was
unknown, but nearly two hundred Indians received head-money, and all were
not paid, and the half-breeds seemed quite as numerous. About a quarter of
the whole number of Indians were said to be pagans, and the remainder
Protestants and Roman Catholics in fair proportion. In the latter
denomination, Father Giroux told me, the proportion of Indians and
half-breeds, including those of the first lake, was about equal. The
latter, he said, raised potatoes, but little else, and lived like the
Indians, by fishing and hunting, especially by the former, as they had to
go far now for fur and large game." [continue]
Reprinted from Through the Mackenzie Basin: An Account of
the Signing of Treaty No. 8 and the Scrip Commission, 1899 by Charles Mair. |