Treatise on the Six-Nation Indians | Page 9

affirmation falters not the less upon my tongue. That very many of the
graver crimes laid at the Indian's door, and the revolting heinousness of
which the records of our courts reveal; may be traced to his prescribing
for himself, and practising, a lax standard of morals, is a statement

which it would be idle to dispute. That the marriage tie exacts from him
not the most onerous of interpretations, and that the scriptural basis for
a sound morality, involved in the declaration, "and they twain shall be
one flesh," not seldom escapes, in his case, its full and due honoring,
are, likewise, affirmations not susceptible of being refuted. That, for
instance, is not a high notion of marital constancy (marital is scarcely
the term, for I am speaking now of the pagan, who rejects the idea of
marriage, though often, I confess, living happily and uninterruptedly
with the woman of his choice) which permits the summary disruption
of the bond between man and woman; nor is paternal responsibility
rigorously defined by one, who causes to cease, at will, his labor and
care for, and support of, his children, leaving the reassuring of these to
those children contingent upon the mother finding some one else to
give them and herself a home.
To follow a lighter vein for a moment. The Police Magistrate at
Brantford, before whom many of these little domesticities come for
their due appreciation (for they disclose, often, elements of really
baffling complexity) not less than their ventilation and unravelling, is
an eminently peace-loving man, and quite an adept at patching up
such-like conjugal trifles. He will dispense from his tribunal sage
advice, and prescribe remedial measures, which shall have untold
efficacy, in dispelling mutual mistrust, restoring mutual confidence,
and bringing about a lasting re-union. He will interpose, like some
potent magician, to transform a discordant, recriminating, utterly
unlovely couple, into a pair of harmless, peaceable, love-consumed
doves. There rises before my mind a case for illustration. A couple
lived on the Reserve, whose domestic life had become so completely
embittered that every vestige of old-time happiness had fled. The
agency of the Police Magistrate was sought to decree terms of
separation, as there was an adamantine resolve on the part of each to no
longer live with the other. Thus, in a frame of mind altogether repelling
the notion of conversion to gentler views, or the idea of laudable
endeavor, on the part of another, to instil milder counsels, being
availingly expended, they repaired to the Police Magistrate's office. He,
by invoking old recollections on either side, and judiciously inviting
them to a retrospection of their former mutual courtesies, and early
undimmed pleasures, gradually brought the would-be sundered people

to a wiser mind. I believe there have only been two or three outbursts of
domestic infelicity since.
Certain notions, bound up with the Indian's practice, in times now
happily passed away, of polygamy, may be construed into an advocacy
of the Deceased Wife's Sister's Bill, which engaged the attention of
Parliament last session, and bids fair to take up the time and thought of
our legislators, in sessions yet to come. The Indian usually sought to
marry two sisters, holding that the children of the one would be loved
and cared for more by the other than if the wives were not related. The
concurrent existence of both mothers is, of course, presumed here. The
question remains to be asked, would the children of the one sister, were
their mother dead, be as well loved and cared for by the surviving sister,
were she called upon to exercise the functions of a step-mother; and
would the children of the dead sister love the children of the living
sister, were they not viewed upon the same footing as those children?
That the Indian--the Christian Indian--frequently contemns the means
unsparingly used, and the attempts and arguments put forth, by his
spiritual overseers, to restrain his immoral propensities, to bridle his
immoral instinct, and to ameliorate and elevate, generally, his moral
tone, I fear, will not be gainsaid. That very many, on the other hand,
practice a high morality, and set before themselves an exalted
conception of conjugal duty, and strive, with a full-hearted earnestness,
to fulfil that conception, none would-be so blind or so unjust as to
deny.
There are some features in the Indian character to which unstinted
praise is due, and shall be rendered.
He is very hospitable; and (herein nobly conserving his traditions) it is
in no wise uncommon for him to resign the best of the rude comforts he
has, in the way of accommodation, to some belated one, and content
himself with the scantest of those scant comforts, impressing, at the
same time, with his native delicacy, the notion, that he courts, rather
than shrinks