CHAPTER V.
WOOD AND PLAIN INDIANS.
The Indians are in their habits very unclean and filthy. They will not
in the least impress anyone to such an extent that they would be
willing to forego the restrictions of civilized life, and enter upon
the free life of the red man.
The Indians living on the reserve in the neighbourhood of Frog Creek
are known as the Wood Crees, they were all peaceable and industrious,
and were becoming proficient in the art of husbandry. They lived in
the log cabins in the winter, but in the summer they took to their
tents. They numbered about 200 persons. They appeared satisfied with
their position which was much better than what falls to the lot of
other Indians. They did not take part in the massacre, nor where they
responsible for it in any way.
The Plain Crees are composed of the worst characters from all the
tribes of that name. They were dissatisfied, revengeful, and cruel,
they could not be persuaded to select their reserve until lately, and
then they would not settle upon it. Their tastes lay in a direction
the opposite to domestic; they were idle and worthless, and were the
Indians who killed our dear ones on that ever to be remembered 2nd of
April. Those same Indians were constantly fed by Mr. Delaney and my
husband. The following correspondence will show how he treated those
ungrateful characters:--Big Bear's Indians were sent up to Frog Lake,
it is said, by Governor Dewdney who told them, if they would go there,
they would never be hungry, but last winter their rations were
stopped, and they had to work to get provisions, or starve.
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