MODERN RED INDIANS.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20266, 7 August 1937, Page 15 (Supplement)

MODERN RED INDIANS.

Civilisation’s Blessings. :: A Treaty Trip.

(Great Thoughts.)

HOW THE “ RED MAN ” earns his living and receives his pensions, and how he, like ourselves, now has such blessings of civilisation as ’flu are set out in the annual report of the Department of Indian Affairs which has Just been published at Ottawa. The people of the Indian reserves, estimated at 112,510. earn over 6,000,000 dollars a year. In addition, the Dominion holds something like 1-1,000.000 dollars in trust on their behalf, while schooling and numerous other services are given free. Fifty thousand of the Indians, too, receive pensions under the terms of various treaties bearing the names of Robinson Huron Treaty, Robinson Superior Treaty, and Treaties One to Eleven, the earliest being made in 1860 and the latest in 1930. 1 he payment of these annuities, which amount to four or five dollars a head per year, is always made the subject of a definite ritual. “As an illustrative example of what a treaty ship involves," says the report, it may be of interest to follow one ot the annuity parties, say for treaty Nine, which goes out to New Ontario in chnige ot an official from headquarters at Ottawa. This party makes use of two seaplanes, and the following sketch gives, in some detail, the duties involved in paying Indians their annuity. In each plane is a Hying officer and a mechanic of the Royal Canadian Air Force; the paying officer in one plane and the medical officer in the other. The itinerary of this annuity party is as follows: “ Upon arriving at Remi Lake from Ottawa, this partv makes preparations to call

i at English River, Ogoki, Fort Hope, Lans- , downe, Osnaburgh, and then out to Sioux Lookout, where the planes are checked over before the more extended journey into the f interior is commenced. After the completion of these further preparations the party leaves for Cat Lake, Windigo, Trout Lake, Fort Severn, Winisk, Attawapiscat, Albany, and thence to Moose Factory, where a fur- ; ther check-up is made before extending the 3 trip to Nemaska and Neoskweskau, in the > interior of Quebec, before it returns to 3 Ottawa.” A great deal has been done by the DepartJ ment to improve the health of the Indians, i outbreaks of ’flu, scarlet fever and diphth--1 eria having been successfully coped with, j “ The development of modern methods of • travel,” observes the report, “particularly by ' aeroplane, is not an unmixed blessing, from _ the standpoint of health. Remote bands of • Indians, who used to be beyond the reach of contagion, particularly in winter, no i longer escape the diseases current in more t settled districts. Measles spread down tho MacKenzie River clear to the Arctic during i the early part of the past winter. It is fair i to observe, on the other hand, that the aero--5 plane is of the greatest value as a means of • conveying medical assistance to those same ? remote people.” Great efforts were made during the year 1 to fight eye trouble, a specialist’s services being retained with very gratifying results. 1 Also gratifying is the spread of educational facilities and the extent to which they j are being taken advantage of. All told, there are 359 Indian schools and training centres of various kinds, with 18,033 scholJ ars and a average attendance of nearly 72 1 per cent.