A photo I took of Lake Kamloops,Canada. It is situated South of the Canadian Rockies.
This is a letter from Robert Campbell to his brother, describing his experience in the Rocky Mountains. Campbell was originally a farmer from Scotland, but he was hired by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1830 to help with establishing a farm in would become known as the province of Manitoba ('friendly' Manitoba) in Canada. He then proceeded in helping the Eastern colonies expand further westward. The information surrounding Robert Campbell is questionable however, as I have found contradicting documents about Campbell which give different dates and different accounts of his life. It may be that there were simply multiple 'Robert Campbells' active in this period. However, the fact that both Campbells had the same job in North America and both travelled to the same areas, suggests there may be some discrepancy around Mr Campbell's life.
In the letter, Campbell writes to his brother about his experiences in the Rocky Mountains. He starts the letter by describing the 'Sioux Indians'. The manner in which he describes these natives is not typical of how many Europeans did in this period. Campbell describes the Sioux's civilisation, acknowledging that they have separate "tribes, having individual chiefs". He doesn't write as if he thinks he's superior to the natives, he is mainly informative. Campbell is genuinely fascinated by the Sioux people, for example he states that he was "forcibly struck with the remarkable similarity which some of their traditions respecting creation". Since he was part of a team intent on expanding the colonies' territory in Western North America, it is arguable that he wrote this in order to inform people on the strengths and weaknesses of their potential enemies. After all, the 'Sioux Indians' were not likely to relinquish their land without a struggle and with their "immense numbers", it would have been unwise to enter a conflict with them without knowing everything there was to know about them. However, the fact that this was all written in a letter to Campbell's brother, indicating he intended merely to inform and reassure his sibling of his safety and the events he had experienced.
Campbell frequently mentions the Sioux's relationship with animals in his letter. He links them to their spirituality and their use to the natives, "he then made a fox out of clay". This again reinforces a deeply embedded respect that Campbell had for the natives. His attitude isn't to patronise the Sioux by reprimanding them for what they believe in and enforcing his and the 'East's' religion on them. In this sense it can be established that Campbell was not a missionary and also not a conqueror. It appears that Robert Campbell was a respectful man, who wanted to learn from these 'new people' and educate himself in their customs, so he could adapt to his new surroundings and survive, just as the 'Sioux Indians' had done since their move from Asia around 30,000 years ago.
However, this attitude towards the Sioux people did not last. By the 1860s, the USA and the Sioux were constantly at war over land and even after a treaty had been signed, which allowed the Sioux to keep some of their land, the USA kept fighting them, due to rumours of gold being located within their land.
This suggests that Campbell's curious attitude towards the Sioux (and American Indians in general), was a rarity. Perhaps this is why Campbell wrote this in a personal letter to his brother, so his employers at the Hudson's Bay Company didn't discover his pacifistic nature.
References:
https://user.xmission.com/~drudy/mtman/html/camltr05.html
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/campbell_robert_1808_94_12E.html
http://indians.org/articles/sioux-indians.html
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