Along its northern shores, and back into the interior they still roam
in wild freedom, hunting, and fishing, and paddling their birch-bark
canoes;--but in more civilized places, they are confined to reserved
lands set apart for them by the Dominion Government, and many of them
now gain their living by farming or by working for the neighbouring
white people.

The Ojebway Indians are now just in that transition stage in which
they particularly require a helping hand to lift them up to a
respectable position in life, and to afford them the means of gaining
their livelihood as a civilised Christian people. As one of their own
Chiefs has said, "the time is passed for my people to live by hunting
and fishing as our forefathers used to do; if we are to continue to
exist at all we must learn to gain our living in the same way as the
white people."

It is with the view of making the wants of these poor people known,
and of increasing the interest in a work which amid many difficulties,
has for the past ten years been carried on among them, that these pages
are written. The writer will tell what have been his experiences with
the Indians since he first came to settle among them as a Missionary,
and will describe how God in His providence gradually opened the way
for him, how dangers were met, and difficulties overcome, and how in
the end two Institutions for the Christian training and civilization of
Indian children were brought into existence; the one called the
_Shinywauk Home_, with accommodation for about seventy Indian
boys, and the other called the _Wavanosh Home_ with room for about
thirty Indian girls,--both of them built, and now in active operation,
at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, at the south-eastern extremity of Lake
Superior.