The lost Atlantis, and other ethnographic studiesWilson, Daniel, Sir
History
The lost Atlantis, and other ethnographic studies
Wilson, Daniel, Sir
America -- Antiquities; Atlantis (Legendary place); Ethnology -- America; Indians of North America -- Antiquities
Among Canadians of mixed blood there are men at the Bar and in the
Legislature, in the Church, in the medical profession, holding rank in
the army, in aldermanic and other civic offices, and engaged in active
trade and commerce. A curious case was recently brought before the law
courts in Ontario. A son of the chief of the Wyandot Indians settled in
Western Canada, left the reserves of his tribe, engaged in business, and
acquired a large amount of real estate and personal property. He won for
himself, moreover, such general respect that he was elected Reeve of
Anderdon by a considerable majority over a White candidate. Thereupon
his rival applied to have him unseated, on the plea that a person of
Indian blood was not a citizen in the eye of the law. Fortunately the
judge took a common-sense view of the case, and decided that as he held
a sufficient property-qualification within the county, the election was
valid.
That an Indian ceases to be such in the eye of the law, and in all
practical relations to society, when he becomes an educated industrious
member of the general community, and competes not only for its
privileges but for its highest honours, is inevitable. But it is not
with the Indian as with the Negro mixed race. The privileges and the
disabilities of the Indian ward may both be cast off; but a certain
degree of romance attaches to Indian blood, when accompanied with the
culture and civilisation of the European. The descendants of Brant and
other distinguished native chiefs are still proud to claim their
lineage, where the physical traces of such an ancestry would escape the
eye of a common observer. Traces of Indian descent may be recognised
among ladies of attractive refinement and intelligence, and with certain
mental as well as physical traits which add to the charm of their
society. Similar indications of the blood of the aborigines are familiar
to Canadians in the gay assemblies of a Governor-General’s receptions,
in the halls of Legislature, in the diocesan synods and other
ecclesiastical assemblies, and amongst the undergraduates of Canadian
universities.
But the condition of men and women of mixed blood, admitted to all the
privileges of citizenship, and mingling in perfect equality with all
other members of the community, is in striking contrast to that of the
occupants of the Indian reserves, where they are settled, for the most
part in isolated bands, in the midst of a progressive White population.
Such a condition is manifestly an unfavourable one, and one, moreover,
which cannot be regarded as other than transitional. They are
confessedly dealt with as wards, in a state of pupilage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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