The Jesuit priests who were attached to the Hudson Bay Company,
seconded the interest of the Company, and attempted to teach religion
to the Indian and still leave him a savage. Upon the coming of the
Protestant Missionaries, the Indians welcomed them and expressed great
delight at the prospect of being taught. They gave their choice
locations to the Missions, and most solemn promise to co-operate in
the work. But neither they nor their fathers had used the hoe or the
plow, or built permanent houses in which to live. They were by nature
opposed to manual labor. Squaws were made to do all the work, while
Indian men hunted and did the fighting. The Missionaries could see but
little hope of Christianizing, unless they could induce them to adopt
civilized customs.
It was right there that the breach between the Indians and the
Missionaries began to widen. They were willing to accept a religion
which did not interfere with savage customs, which had become a part
of their lives. It was the custom of the Hudson Bay Company, by giving
modest bribes, to win over any unruly chief. It was the best way to
hold power; but the Missionaries held the tribes which they served up
to a higher standard of morals.
The Cayuse Indians made a foray upon a weaker tribe, and levied on
their stock in payment for some imaginary debt. Dr. Whitman gave the
Chiefs a reprimand, and called it thieving, and demanded that they
send back everything they had taken. The Indians grew very angry in
being thus reminded of their sins.
We mention these little incidents as illustrations of the strained
conditions which speedily made their appearance in the government of
the Indians, and made it easy work for the mischief-makers and
criminals, later on. It was the boast of English authors that "The
English people got along with Indians much better than Americans."
This seems to be true, and it comes from the fact that they did not
antagonize savage customs. As long as their savage subjects filled the
treasury of the Hudson Bay Company, they cared little for aught else.
As a matter of policy and self defense, they treated them honestly and
fairly in all business transactions. They were in full sympathy with
the Indians in their demand to keep out white immigration, and keep
the entire land for fur-bearing animals and savage life.
Dr. Whitman's famous ride to the States in the Winter of 1842-43, and
his piloting the large immigration of American settlers in 1843, made
him a marked man, both with the Indians and the Hudson Bay Company.
When the Treaty was signed in 1846, and England lost Oregon, Whitman
was doubtless from that hour a doomed man. Both the Hudson Bay Company
and the Indians well knew who was responsible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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