How Did Lacombe Help Natives And Metis In The West?

As a part of his work to help the Natives and Metis in the West he tried to create intertribal peace, as well as peace between tribes and whites because he wanted to save lives from brutal deaths in war. What good is giving people a proper education and accessible healthcare if lives are to be wasted at war? During Lacombe’s life natives were as likely to die from and epidemic as they were from a war breaking out. Lacombe used his friendship to calm to leaders of tribes and encourage them not to take part in fighting, to sign peace treaties, and to try and reconcile the differences between tribes, mainly the Cree and Blackfoot.(Hughes 134) When the Natives did fight Lacombe did not abandon them. He could be found “Praying over the wounded
and dying in the thick of an Indian Battle”(Calgary power) Several sources record Lacombe as being persuasive, courageous, and able to “avert carnage," “war and bloodshed," and prevent the Indians from going on the ‘war path.’” (FOOTNOTE) He encouraged “the neutrality of the Plains Indians during the Northwest Rebellion” in 1885(man proposes FOOTNOTE)) and it took “all the authority and loyalty of Father Lacombe… to impose the idea of peace between the Indians and the white pioneers.”(FOOTNOTE) During times of struggle he helped in unimaginable way, by buying a women from a man who had killed her husband so that he may buy a wife properly and so that she may go free to her home and tribe.(Bold heart pg55) Father Lacombe preferred to help mostly Natives and Metis because he felt they were in need of help the most.
It could be argued that it was his Metis heritage, Ojibway on his mothers side of which he was well aware, that led him to focus on the Natives of the west in his work, but he was also French-Canadian, a Quebecois.(The Big Chief pg 3 and archive source) Natives were doomed, in need of dire support, especially when compared to French-Canadians in Quebec which is why, despite this split heritage, he may have been partially motivated to help the Natives because of a sense of family, coupled with his love of helping others, that resulted in his focus on the Natives.(hughes 304) He did, after all, call them his “poor Metis also my poor Indians” when referring to them suggesting he felt he was responsible for them.(hughes and something else) When fundraising ”he pleaded the case of the Indians” and told others about the terrible conditions in which they lived. it was said he “took a special interest in the Metis living in the poorer quarters of the city[Winnipeg]” and that “his heart was not in his task” when “there were no indians under his care.”(FOOTNOTES) He wanted to help them so much that he was delighted “whenever he saw his poor Indians so interested in what he was teaching them”(mackinnon) because he wanted to help them, not just by giving them things, but by giving them understanding and faith. He was so zealous about his life’s work of helping the Natives
that although he had nothing he felt completely fulfilled and never sought to abandon his work. He also served whites in his area but to a lesser extent because they were better equipped to take care of themselves in that particular society. Despite all this care and devotion we all have our flaws.
Father Lacombe made some mistakes but all because he thought it was the best thing to do to help the people. Some of these mistakes make us question the nature of Lacombe because they come at such stark contrast to most records of him. They often seem like horrific things that make him out to seem like a racist religious fanatic but even within these instances there are examples to contradict this appearance. In the first example he was both founder and principle of numerous residential schools which are known today to be atrocities towards Aboriginals and their lives. He though education would help the next generation of Aboriginals adapt to the encroaching white society although the lack of experience in this area resulted in tragedy. The only way Lacombe could get children to attend the school was to bribe parents with money, gifts, and presents. The schools were so awful children would hide when scouts came looking for new students. One of his schools was criticized for its harsh tactics and ended up being burnt to the ground along with one of the students. These facts make Lacombe look unappealing but with further research came a bigger picture. He admitted his schools were an “experiment in educating the Natives” but felt that the students needed to be educated and let several students suffer so that an outline could be set for future students. While his willingness to sacrifice the childhood of students is
unnerving he honestly believed that an education was important enough to justify these actions. Others believed education was important, enough for a girl named Olive to have her dying wish be that Lacombe put her children in a school. The harsh tactics may also have been the result of his own churches stance that “liberalism was virtue’s hearse” and that the world was “being driven to Hell on the accelerating bobsled of Western liberalism and secularism.” This hard stance may have meant enforcing their ideas with excessive force. However religion did not play that big of a role in Lacombe’s role as an educator. Lacombe and other Oblate principals “were required to bite the bullet and support Indian schools that were anglicizing Indian children” in their own schools. He was “acting both out of concern for the educational needs of Métis.” His personal biography says “It had never occurred to the unilateral do-gooder, Father Lacombe, that the Indians would hesitate to send their children to his school” because he thought they would want education and know that it was for their own benefit. In another example he assisted in the negotiations of treaties between the Blackfoot, Cree, and Government so that peace could be brought between them. Despite wanting to help the Aboriginals Lacombe assisted in a terrible event that ended up being much worse for the Aboriginals than he had hoped. However, “he sensed the great loss that treaties really represented for Aboriginals.” (MacKinnon) He knew it was a loss but thought that it was better than the alternative, a violent war in which the government with its advanced and grand arsenal was sure to crush any Native unwilling to peacefully assimilate. Moreover, these treaties meant to protect the Natives were “often disputed by the Canadian government, or rather by its subordinates, officers, soldiers, or representatives.”(man proposes) which led to even more problems for them. With ignorance and good intention he led the people eager for peace into a trap.