Indians of Canada

Abstract

AN example of the variation in method in dealing with the less advanced races of different parts of the Empire, to which reference is made on another page of this issue of NATURE (see p. 1083), is afforded in a recent survey of conditions among the Indians of Canada by the Hon. T. A. Crerar, M.P., Minister of Mines and Resources of the Dominion of Canada. Indian administration in Canada is dominated by the twofold aim of protection and advancement. The Indians, at one time rapidly decreasing in numbers and regarded as a doomed race, are now on the up-grade. Since 1927, when they had fallen to 104,000, they have increased to 112,000. This increase is attributed largely to the improved medical benefits they now receive and the greater attention given to hygiene. They live on reservations, of which there are two thousand of varying size, running from a few acres up to five hundred square miles, the total area being 5,170,000 acres, of which 220,000 acres is under cultivation. A fund of fourteen million dollars, accruing from the sale of Indian lands, mining rights, etc., is administered by the Government entirely for Indian benefit. The cultural condition of the Indians depends almost entirely on their geographical environment. In the East, they are farmers, and although many are very poor and all suffering from the effects of the economic depression, they differ little in condition from their white agricultural neighbours. In the northern hinterland they are hunters and trappers, and have suffered severely from white competition, and the same applies to some extent to the salmon fishing communities of the North-West coast; but the tribes of the Plains region (Alberta) who lost their livelihood with the extinction of the bison and became farmers and ranchers, have in many instances achieved prosperity in two generations. Finally, it may be added, it is possible for an Indian to become enfranchised on certain conditions, and to cease to rank legally as an Indian.