The Story of Louis Riel: The Rebel Chief | Page 7

they would smoothe the cloth
woven in Paisley, forming in their minds a contrast between its
elegance and that of the coats of their own red gallants made of the
rough skin of the wolf or the bison. So it came to pass that in due
season most of the pretty girls among the Jumping Indians had gone
with triumph and great love in their hearts from the wigwam of their
tribe to be the wives of the whites in their stately dwellings.
In this way up-grew the settlement of Red River; by such
intermarriages were the affections of the red men all over the plains,
from the cold, gloomy regions of the North to the mellow plains of the
South, won by their pale-faced neighbours. The savages had not shut
their ears to what their women had so eloquently urged, and they would
say:
"The cause of these pale people is our cause; their interests are our
interests; they have mingled their flesh and blood with ours; we shall be
their faithful brothers to the death." It was this fact, not the wisdom of
government Indian agents, nor the heaven-born insight of government
itself into the management of tribes that so long preserved peace and
good will throughout our North-West Territories. It was for this reason
that enemies of government in the Republic could say after they had

revealed the corruption of Red Cloud and Black Rock agents:
"Observe the Canadian tribes, mighty in number, and warlike in their
nature. They fight not, because they have been managed with wisdom
and humanity. There is no corruption among the accredited officials;
there is no sinister dealing towards them by the government." We do
not charge our officials with corruption, neither do we believe that their
administration has been feeble;--on the whole our attitude towards the
Indian people has been fair; our policy has revealed ordinary
sense,--and not much brilliancy. Probably half a dozen level-headed
wood-choppers, endowed with authority to deal with the tribes, could
have acquitted themselves as well; perhaps they might not have done so
well, and it is probable that they might have exhibited a better showing.
It was in this settlement that in after years appeared Louis Riel pere.
For some generations the Hudson Bay Company had carried on an
extensive trade in peltry, and numbers of their employes were French
peasants or coureurs de bois. Thousands of these people were scattered
here and there over the territories; and they began to turn loving eyes
toward the rich meadows along the banks of the Red River. Some of
these had for wives squaws whom they had wooed and won during
their engagement in the peltry trade. These finding that other whites
had taken Indian girls for brides, felt drawn towards the new settlement
by sentiments stronger than those of mere interest. Numbers of
unmarried French took up farms in the new colony, and soon fell
captive to the charms of the Cree girls. Now and again the history of
the simple-hearted Scots was repeated; and a coureur was presently
seen to bring a shy, witching Saulteux maiden from the tents of the
Jumping Indians. But the French, it must be said, were not so dilettante
in their taste for beauty as were their Scottish brethren; yet, as a rule,
their wives were the prettiest girls in the tribes --after, of course, "braw
John" had been satisfied--for an ugly maiden was content to have an
Indian for her lord; and she tried no arts, plucked no bouquets from the
prairie flowers, beaded no moccasins, and performed no tender little
offices to catch the heart of the white man.
"Pale face gets all the pretty squaws; suppose we must take 'em ugly

ones. Ugh!" This was the speech, and the true speech of many a chief,
or lion-hearted young man of the tribes under the new order at Red
River.
This may seem hard to the poor Indian, but perhaps it was just as well.
It would have, indeed, been worse had the handsome maiden given her
hand to the dusky Red, and afterwards, wooed by blue eyes, given her
heart where her hand could never go. And the Indian woman is no
better and no worse than her kind, no matter what the colour be.
Happier, then, is the lot of the Indian with his homely affectionate wife,
than with a bride with roses in her cheek, and sunlight in her eye, who
cannot resist the pleading eye and the outstretched arms of one whose
wooing is unlawful, and the result of which can be nought but wrong
and misery.
The population grew and comforts increased till eighteen or twenty
thousand souls could be reckoned in the colony. The original whites
had disappeared, and no face was to be seen