1891- Report from Indian Agent Rev. R. McDonald, Pictou County
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| Titles |
1891- Report from Indian Agent Rev. R. McDonald, Pictou County: |
| Name |
Rev. Roderick McDonald (Indian Agent) |
| Name |
Edward Dewdney (Superintendent General of Indian Affairs) |
| Name |
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| Type of Resource |
text |
| Genre |
Annual Report |
| URL |
https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/aboriginal-heritage/first-nations/indian-affairs-annual-reports/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber= |
| Abstract |
Annual Report from Indian Agent Roderick McDonald. Referenced various aspects of life at Fishers Grant Reserve, including a lessening of amount of wigwams for housing, a reduction in "begging," wage labour, manufacturing, agriculture, and St. Anne's Day on Indian Island. |
| Form |
text |
| Note |
PICTOU, N.S., 1st October, 1891.
The Honourable
The Superintendent General of Indian Affairs,
Ottawa.
SIR, - I have the honour to submit the following as my annual report upon the condition of the Indians and Indian affairs within my district.
I am happy to report an improvement among them in the way of adapting themselves to the methods of civilized life. The wigwams are fast disappearing, and houses comparatively comfortable taking their place. Other domestic comforts are also being introduced. The instinct of independence and self-respect is showing signs of life; for
they depend less for a livelihood on begging than in former years. The majority of the men are industrious, and look for work, as other labourers do, and command the same wages. Their indigence, as a rule, does not arise as much from not earning as from a lack of domestic economy. The Indian seems to take to a labour that shows immediate results; and I consider this a reason why he takes comparatively little interest in farming. Farming under present circumstances is necessarily unsatisfactory; they have no cattle to enrich the soil with manure, or to restore its exhausted strength, and they are too poor to invest in artificial fertilizers.
The principal occupation of the Indians in this locality is in making butter tubs and pick handles for the coal mines, to provide material for which they seem to lay undisputed claims to the forest far and wide. In morals, I must say there lives are commendable - there are a few drunkards, but not so depraved that they do not make an effort to reform. They are essentially religious. They assemble annually on Indian Island, on the feast of St. Anne, their patron Saint, and remain there for about two weeks; on which occasion they attend specially to their religious duties, and also to temporal matters which concern the whole tribe. It is on this occasion that the influence of the Priest and Agent is most effective, and it is for this reason that I wish to offer all the inducements possible to have them assemble there.
We have no school on the reserve; because it is not remunerative enough for any teacher to open a school.
There has been no contagious disease among the Indians for some years. It may be remarked that the population given in the census of this year is in excess of last years. Some of those who were absent from the reserve for two or three years have returned, and young men getting married in other districts added in each case one more to the population of this reserve, and it is possible also that some, escaped being marked down.
The crop promises a fair yield. Fishing is, I may say, abandoned by them, for it is so uncertain on this coast.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
RODERICK McDONALD,
Indian Agent, District No. 8 |
| Note |
Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs for the Year Ended 31st December 1891 (Ottawa: Dominion of Canada, 1892), 41-42. |
| Note |
Rev. Roderick MacDonald, Indian Agent, to Edgar Dewdney, Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, October 1st 1891, Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs for the Year Ended 31st December 1891 (Ottawa: Dominion of Canada, 1892), 41-42. |