1876- Report on the Condition of Indians in District No. 4, Pictou County
educationCensusTemperanceagricultureschool
Annual Report sent to the Department of Indian Affairs, written by Indian Agent Rev. R. MacDonald.
1876-10-23 1876-10-23
Rev. R. MacDonald (Indian Agent) L. Vankoughnet (Superintendent General of Indian Affairs)
Annual Report
INDIAN DISTRICT, No. 4. PICTOU, October 23rd, 1876. The Honorable The Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs, Ottawa. Sir, - The condition of the Indians of my District has so little changed since my last report, that I have no new information that can be of any great service to your Department to transmit at present. For the last few years I perceive a very marked improvement in the Indians of my District. They are less given to their former habits of intemperance; they are more industrious, and as a consequence enjoy more of the comforts of civilized life. I regret, however, that they manifest but little interest or progress in the knowledge of farming. The nomadic dispositions of their ancestors which in some degree they still inherit, make them impatient of the slow and uncertain returns of agriculture. I have again to report that my District is destitute of school-houses: the time in which the youth of the Band receive instruction is limited to a few weeks, in July of each year, when they meet in the audience room of the Church of St. Ann. The instruction then given is, of necessity, of a religious character. All my Indians are Catholic, All of which I most respectfully submit. R. MACDONALD. Indian Agent.
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