In endeavouring to correctly estimate the present condition of Indian affairs in the Saskatchewan the efforts and influence of the various missionary bodies must not be overlooked.  It has only been during the last twenty years that the Plain Tribes have been brought into contact with the individuals whom the contributions of European and Colonial communities have sent out on missions of religion and civilization.  Many of these individuals have toiled with untiring energy and undaunted perseverance in the work to which they have devoted themselves, but it is unfortunately true that the jarring interests of different religious denominations have sometimes induced them to introduce into the field of Indian theology that polemical rancour which so unhappily distinguishes more civilized communities.

To fully understand the question of missionary enterprise, as bearing upon the Indian tribes of the Saskatchewan valley, I must glance for a moment at the peculiarities in the mental condition of the Indians which render extreme caution necessary in all inter course between him and the white man.  It is most difficult to make the Indian comprehend the true nature of the foreigner with whom he is brought in contact, or rather, I should say, that having his own standard by which he measures truth and falsehood, misery and happiness, and all the accompaniments of life, it is almost impossible to induce him to look at the white man from any point of view but his own.  From this point of view every thing is Indian.  English, French, Canadians, and Americans are so many tribes inhabiting various parts of the world, whose land is bad, and who are not possessed of buffalo—­for this last desideratum they (the strangers) send goods, missions, etc., to the Indians of the Plains.  “Ah!” they say, “if it was not for our buffalo where would you be?  You would starve, your bones would whiten the prairies.”  It is useless to tell them that such is not the case, they answer, “Where then does all the pemmican go to that you take away in your boats and in your carts?” With the Indian, seeing is believing, and his world is the visible one in which his wild life is cast.  This being understood, the necessity for caution in communicating with the native will at once be apparent-yet such caution on the part of those who seek the Indians as missionaries is not always observed.  Too frequently the language suitable for civilized society has been addressed to the red man.  He is told of governments, and changes in the political world, successive religious systems are laid before him by their various advocates.  To-day he is told to believe one religion, to-morrow to have faith in another.  Is it any wonder that, applying his own simple tests to so much conflicting testimony, he becomes utterly confused, unsettled, and suspicious?  To the white man, as a white man, the Indian has no dislike; on the contrary, he is pretty certain to receive him with kindness and friendship,