Press and Propaganda

Changing Attitudes

By July, the view expressed in the Colonist was that the government had been criminally negligent in not helping the Natives survive the smallpox. It did not mention the fact that the strategy advocated by the Colonist of sending Natives out of the city was responsible for many of the deaths in the north.

7 July 1862, p. 3.

The Small Pox.--The small pox seems to have exhausted itself, for want of material to work upon; and we have heard of no new cases within the last few days. One or two Indians die nearly every day; but what is an Indian’s life worth? Not so much as a pet dog’s, to judge from the cruel apathy and stolid indifference with which they were allowed to rot under the very eyes--not to mention the olefactories--of those whose sacred duty it was to have comforted them in their hour of misery and wretchedness. This indifference did not escape the observation of the public, and will be long remembered. The northerners, as tribes, are now nearly exterminated. They have disappeared from the face of this fair earth, at the approach of the pale-face, as snow melts beneath the rays of a noonday sun. Between licentiousness of every description, also whisky-drinking, diseases the most horrible with which poor human nature can be afflicted, and shameful neglect, in a few years the sight of an Indian in these parts will be considered as great a curiosity as if a mastadon were to suddenly rise from the grave which he had occupied for centuries, and claim his ancient prerogative as lord of the brute creation.