might we, Americans, have made of the Indians?”:“ The Indians could have given us physical vigour which must be one of the foundations of any lasting and important strength; they could have helped us in the creation of literature, for they were marvellous in the beauty of their free, poetic thoughts, full of imagery such as white men have never known. Their souls were those of poets. They could have helped us in our music, for their’ s was a real part of their lives, a genuine expression of emotion. They could have aided us vastly in our decorative art. And in a broad sense, they could have helped us in our morals, for in all their dealings they were fair until we taught them theft and lying.”
Our material on Indian life as understood by missionaries, travellers, traders or officials is from appraisal as each man in his own way conveyed it. Fascinating, though incomplete, and only after careful study and analysis, we can see how very wise and practical their moment of significance was.
We feel somehow sad and melancholy when reading and studying habits and enterprises of the oldest travel records of reports. How at first the artist, and then photographers, saw the Aborigines. With few exceptions the material portrays the Indians as physically strong, brave and handsome. When we study their faces after so many centuries we can recognize their proud and strong character, with names like White Eagle, Black Bear, Falconet, men of good sense, etc., we cannot associate them with something less noble and strong.
It would be favourable to compare this time of their lives to the Europeans of the same era. There are so many ways to piece together the rich inheritance of the original aborigines; let it be archaeology or modern science, provided we open our eye of learning instead of a mind full of prejudice.
FROM THE OLD WORLD TO THE NEW
Let us briefly review the beginning of our North American immigrants, which as a historical fact cannot be written before 1492. However, the peoples of North America go much farther back than the Indians the Europeans first encountered.
Some 100 million years ago the seed plants dominated the areas of the earth. Into this carefully balanced creation man was honoured. His dependence on plants for the essentials of his existence has been of paramount importance as the source of nourishment and replenishment. This remains as true in the twentieth century as in the beginning. For men and animals of the universe depend directly or indirectly on seed life for their existence in the Old, or the bountiful North American, world, whose inhabitance seems to be by a gradual population over thousands of years. The four major accountable Ice Ages lasted for thousands of years, with interglacial periods that lasted even longer where the climate probably became much as it is today. These changes from the Ice Age to accustomed conditions drove animals and plants from one part of the world to another, and where there were people they must have been driven also. As the populating of the Americas apparently went on for a very long time. Which will herd along surviving existence, as the requirements for food, water, clothing and shelter is needed.
The where and when of the North American entrance has excited much guesswork, theories, etc., the popular belief being a land bridge from Asia and Siberia to Alaska between the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. The slow movement into the corner of Arctic Siberia followed by a sea passage in small boats, have acted as a sieve. Elements of culture were lost in such a movement— man’ s knowledge of the Old World was his only means of survival in the unexplored New World and he had to start a few thousand. years later.