It
is worthy of note that many of these Indian women became most true and
affectionate spouses. With the voyageurs and laborers the conditions
were different. They could not leave the country, they had become a part
of it, and their marriages with the Indian women were bona fide. Thus it
was that during the space from the time of Curry until the arrival of
the Selkirk Colonists upwards of forty years had elapsed, and around the
wide spread posts of the Fur Trading Companies, especially around those
of the prairie, there had grown up families, which were half French and
half Indian, or half English and half Indian. When it could be afforded
these children were sent for a time to Montreal, to be educated, and
came back to their native wilds. On the plain between the Assiniboine
and the Saskatchewan, a half-breed community had sprung up. From their
dusky faces they took the name "Bois-Brules," or "Charcoal Faces," or
referring to their mixed blood, of "Metis," or as exhibiting their
importance, they sought to be called "The New Nation." The blend of
French and Indian was in many respects a natural one. Both are stalwart,
active, muscular; both are excitable, imaginative, ambitious; both are
easily amused and devout.
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