Treatise on the Six-Nation Indians | Page 2

position to sanction, or acquiesce
in, its use or expropriation by Railway Corporations, for the running of
their roads; or for other national or general purposes. The surrender on
the part of the Indian was not, however, an absolute one, there having
been a reservation that he should have a Reservation, of adequate
extent, and the fruit of the tilling of which he should enjoy as an
inviolable privilege.
As regards the money-consideration for this land, the Government
stand to the Indian in the relation of Trustees, accounting for, and
apportioning to, him, through the agency of their officer and appointee,
the Indian Superintendent, at so much per capita of the population, the
interest arising out of the investment of such money.
Sales of lands among themselves are permissible; but these, for the
most part, narrow themselves down to cases where an Indian, with the
possession of a good lot, of fair extent, and with a reasonable clearing,
vested in him, leaves it, to pursue some calling, or follow some trade,
amongst the whites; and treats, perhaps, with some younger Indian,
who, disliking the pioneer work involved in taking up some uncultured
place for himself, and preferring to make settlement on the
comparatively well cultivated lot, buys it. The Government, also, allow
the Indian, though as a matter of sufferance, or, in other words, without
bringing the law to bear upon him for putting in practice what is,
strictly speaking, illegal, to rent to a white the lot or lots on which he
may be located, and to receive the rent, without sacrifice or alienation
of his interest-money.
Continued non-residence entails upon the non-resident the forfeiture of
his interest.
The Indian is, of course, a minor in the eye of the law, a feature of his
estate, with the disabilities it involves, I shall dwell upon more fully at
a later stage.
Should the Indian intermarry with a white woman, the receipt of his

interest-allowance is not affected or disturbed thereby, the wife coming
in, as well, for the benefits of its bestowal; but should, on the other
hand, an Indian woman intermarry with a white man, such act compels,
as to herself, acceptance, in a capitalized sum, of her annuities for a
term of ten years, with their cessation thereafter; and entails upon the
possible issue of the union absolute forfeiture of interest-money. In any
connection of the kind, however, that may be entered into, the Indian
woman is usually sage and provident enough to marry one, whose hold
upon worldly substance will secure her the domestic ease and comforts,
of which the non-receipt of her interest would tend to deprive her.
Should the eventuality arise of the Indian woman dying before her
husband, the latter must quit the place, which was hers only
conditionally, though the Indian Council will entertain a reasonable
claim from him, to be recouped for any possible outlay he may have
made for improvements.
The Government confer upon the Indian the privilege of a resident
medical officer, who is paid by them, and whose duty it is to attend,
without expectation of fee or compensation of any kind, upon the sick.
His relation, however, to the Government is not so defined as to
preclude his acceptance of fees from whites resident on the Reserve,
provided the advice be sought at his office. The Government, probably,
being well aware of the stress of work under which their medical
appointee chronically labours, and appreciating the consequent
unlikelihood of this privilege being exercised to the prejudice of the
Indian, have not, as yet, shorn him of it.
Another privilege that the Indian enjoys, and which was granted to him
by enactment subsequent to that which assured to him his Reserve, is
that of transit at half-fare grates on the different railroads. This is a
right which he neither despises, nor, in any way, affects to despise,
since it meets, and is suited to, his common condition of slender and
straitened means. The moderate charge permits him to avail frequently
of the privilege at seasons (which comprehend, in truth, the greater
portion of the year) when the roads are almost unfit for travel, the
Indian, as a rule, going in for economy in locomotive exercise (so my
judgment decrees, though it has been claimed for him that, at an earlier

period of his history, walking was congenial to him) hailing and
adopting gladly the medium which obviates recourse to it.

HIS MEETINGS OF COUNCIL.
The Indian Council has a province more important than that which our
Municipal Councils exercise. Its decisions as to disputes growing out of
real estate transactions, unless clearly wrong, have in them the force of
law.
The ordinary Council is a somewhat informal gathering as regards a
presiding officer or officers, and, also, in respect