Discovery of Valuable Minerals around North Lake Superior not so Valuable

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Indigenous People After Contact

 

When Christiane and I arrived in Wawa this year we had a fine picnic lunch near the huge goose overlooking the lake.  We enjoyed 3 cheeses, cheddar, boursin, and brie. With coke we concluded with good reason, that life, at least for us, was good. Simple is good. We were very fortunate.

The area around Wawa was first developed by non-indigenous people during the fur trade. Indigenous people had occupied the area for thousands of years before that.  I never considered that fact in 1967. I did consider it now in 2024.  There is a fascinating history involving the relations of the First Nations people and the government of what used to be Canada West (Upper Canada). it is actually more than an interesting story. It is an incredible story.

This site was an important part of the fur trade route, at least until 1821 when the Hudson’s Bay Company and Northwest Company merged. After that the Lake Superior trade was diverted north to Hudson Bay via the Michipicoten River which we were overlooking when we enjoyed our picnic lunch, right beside the Wawa Goose.  This area was a centre for fishing, boat building, small-scale manufacture and repair. It also served as a base for missionaries and surveyors. The two vital instruments of colonialism.

In 1897 gold was discovered on Wawa lake adjacent to the town, but that flurry of activity it generated only lasted until 1906. In 1914 the completion of the Algoma Central Railway started with 22 mineral prospects.

The North Shore of Lake Superior is magnificent.  During the fur trade days travelling Lake Superior might have seemed simple. After all, could one not just follow the north coast? According to Barbara Huck, “even this could be hazardous for cliffs rise sheer from the water in a number of places, at times to heights of more than 150 metres. Skirting these walls of granite, the men had only to look up to see the power of the lake; in many places the cliffs were bare of any living thing for 10 metre above the water line.”  Huck explained that to avoid the winds that heating during the day could usher in, “the fur brigades usually set off before dawn, and then stuck to the beautiful, deadly shore and aimed for the next safe landing site.”

Reverend George Munro Grant wrote, “Superior is a sea. It breeds storms and rain and fog like a sea.” Nipigon, where we had enjoyed breakfast, according to Huck is named after the “deep clear water” or “water without end” of massive Lake Superior.  Huck also wrote this:

Paddlers still confront Lake Superior today, and still face the same beautiful, deadly shore. Thousands of years after humans first braved the water of the great lake, it remains as one chronicler wrote, “a place where man is and forever will be only a visitor.’ ”

The north shore of Lake Superior is more than just a beautiful coastline along the world’s largest freshwater lake. It is that, but it is much more than that.  It is a place where a lot of important history has occurred.  It was an important place in the history of Canada’s fur trade.  That means it is an important part of Canadas’s history after Europeans made contact with the indigenous people that lived in the country.

The town of Wawa is also very close to the Magpie River. After lunch we continued travelling but stopped at High Magpie Falls. This was a gorgeous set of falls and I could not refrain from photographing them. There were 2 interesting plaques nearby. One celebrated the Michipicoten First Nation. According to their own website,

 

“we are Anishinaabeg who understand our responsibility to care for our Nation. Under the guidance of Creator, our ancestors, and our history, we walk with our people to mino-biimaadiziwin (the good life, the life of wholistic well-being).,,

The Nation (original Peoples’) in their own Creation Story relates how “Ojibwe or Ojibway (pronounced Oh-Jib-Way) are related to Original Man or Anishinaabe (An-ish-in-awb). The Ojibway are said to be the Faith Keepers; Keepers of the Sacred Scrolls and the Water Drum of the Midewinwin (Midi-win-win shamanic society forhealers). The fundamental essence of Anishinaabe life is unity, the oneness of all things; the belief that harmony with all created things can be achieved and that the people cannot be separated from the land with its cycle of seasons or from the other mysterious cycles of living things – of birth and growth and death and new birth. The people know where they come from; the story is deep in their hearts and it is told in legends and dances, in dreams and symbols.”

 

They were the earliest inhabitants of the Michipicoten River region. They explain that the archeological sites excavated at the mouth of the Michipicoten River make it evident that there has been a continued uninterrupted occupation of this region by the aboriginal people for 7,000 years or more. Some of those archaeological sites that have been identified from the period just before the arrival of the Europeans (between 700-1500 AD) and those sites showed that the Ojibway people whose “summer grounds” were located at the mouth of the Michipicoten River  where members of tribes from the south and east who frequently intermarried The ancient canoe routes also showed that the mouth of the Michipicoten River and Magpie Rivers were a hubs of transportation and gateways to the interior as far north as James Bay with access to the vast interior of what is today northern Ontario and connecting it with the other Great Lakes and the inland sea of Hudson’s Bay.
After the arrival of Europeans, at the height of the fur trade from the 17th to 20th centuries, many Europeans who came to the region took Ojibway wives and their descendants lived the native way of life making a large part of their livelihood by fishing and trading furs with the Hudson’s Bay Company and other settlers.

There is another aspect to the history of this region to which I and my friends were entirely oblivious when we drove through it in 1967.  That year was of course, the year Canada celebrated the first 100 years after Confederation. We used to say, we were celebrating the 100th anniversary of the creation of our country. That was just plain ignorant. It ignored the incredible history and culture of the people who lived here long before the “whitemen” arrived.

There is some incredible history that happened right here. It is a history that teaches us a lot about what Canada was really like and none of it had been taught to the 4 of us who had just finished 12 years of schooling. 12 years of schooling that had left us ignorant.

Wawa Then: The Wild Ride of Youth  

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Meanderer

 

 

We had a fascinating stop in Wawa in 1967 and then an entirely different one, but just as fascinating, in 2024 for entirely different reasons.

Wawa is considered the Black Hole of Canada. Even in 1967 we heard stories of hitchhikers there getting stuck for days.

When I visited it this autumn, it reminded me of a glorious road trip I had taken with 4 friends in 1967. The infamous trip to Montreal. That was more than 50 years ago. We were all about 17 years old.   Sid Barkman, Eugene Reimer, Roy “Rocky” Kehler, Mike Penner, and I had travelled to Montreal to see Expo 67 in Sid’s less than stellar 1957 Chev.  We had 3 flat tires the first day. And more after that.  We had made a deal with Sid that he would be responsible for the cost of oil and the rest of us would pay for all the gasoline.  We thought Sid was getting off easy, as he deserved, since he supplied the vehicle, but it turned out that he probably paid as much for motor oil as we paid for gasoline. We could see black exhaust fuel trailing us most of the way.

I remember that in 1967 Sid had urged the rest of us to climb up onto the back of the Wawa goose and he would take our photograph.  The rest of us thought this was stupid and we did not follow instructions. That might have been a big mistake I would love to have that photograph now. Oh, the folly of youth!

That 1967 trip was made just before the end of the summer of 1967. 4 of us had just finished grade 12 and would soon be entering a new life. Eugene had already finished one year of university. He was a worldly traveler compared to the rest of us rubes from the sticks. We all had our dreams and lives in front of us. We were on the precipice of we did not know what. Flying off on the back of a goose would have been a glorious send off. But sadly, we demurred.

We had just learned to drink that summer, even though the legal drinking age was 21. Near Wawa, we stopped at a café for lunch  and when the waitress asked us what we wanted to drink, we shyly looked at each other and no one spoke until Rocky, the youngest and shortest and bravest of us, piped up, “I’ll have a cherry brandy.” When the waitress did not bat an eyelash at that, I chimed in, “And I’ll have a martini.”  I wanted to be cool and had seen James Bond order that in a movie. At least I didn’t request it to be “Shaken not stirred.”  The rest of the lads quickly made similar requests and we were in business.

In Montreal we spent a lot of time in pavilions and bars and ‘rides’ at La Ronde.  To us that was high culture. The folly of youth again. Not much culture was absorbed, but we did learn things at those pavilions. Our attempts to attract girls met with little success, as was to be expected of such hayseeds.  There were few girls around stupid enough to look at us.

Our time in Montreal was a glorious adventure. Every night we slept in my leaky tent. One night, we visited a night club in the city of Montreal and amazingly met some older and wiser Steinbach boys who looked down on us with bemusement. One of the boys spent his last dollar in Montreal to buy Russian cigarettes and had to beg the rest of us for change to eat on the way home. One phoned the manager of the Credit Union back home to verify to a restauranteur that his cheque for dinner would be good. In Wawa we spent the night. As we left in the morning,  the police followed us out of town to make sure we had no ideas of sticking around. The Head of the Chamber of Commerce would not have welcomed a scruffy bunch like us.

It was a  trip I am sure none of us will ever forget. That was what it felt like. For us it was one last glorious adventure before we became adults. It actually took. a long time for adulthood to catch us, if it ever did. By the time we were traveling home we were all broke. Virtually all of us were on verge of bankruptcy. Our entire net worth splurged. But what a great cause.

But I still wish we had sailed that Goose in Wawa as Sid had begged. He had the right idea. The rest of us were dullards.

 

Coming. Jesus

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Wabi-Sabi

 

Driving along the Trans-Canada highway this fall, we saw some very dilapidated buildings.  I remember in particular an old church in Upsala, Ontario. Sadly, after the seeing the church beside the road, I did not drive back to photograph it. As a meanderer I consider such stops a personal obligation. This time I muffed it and kept on going.  This I now believe was a serious failure, but I am stuck with it unless I drive all the way back to photograph it.

 

A little farther along the Trans-Canada Highway, I marvelled at an old beat-up sign beside the road that said, “Coming. Jesus.” A simple message. How long had it been there? Sooth Sayers have been saying for 2,000 years that the return of Jesus is imminent. They have been wrong. So far. Recently I heard about some people in Steinbach who are not worried about climate change.  Jesus is coming don’t worry about the future. That’s their attitude.

 

How far can we carry such logic?  Should we not worry about which side of the road we drive on? Should we quit our jobs (if we have them) and really enjoy life? Should we sell all our worldly goods and prepare to meet Jesus? That is actually what Jesus recommended, yet I don’t see too many people doing that.

 

When I passed this sign, I thought of that abandoned church in Upsala I had passed.  Were the parishioners getting ready for the arrival of Jesus? Is that why they abandoned the church or did the dream fizzle out?

 

We also noticed a number of gas service stations were closed, even though the Internet said they were still in business. After the second such station was closed, many kilometres apart, we began to get nervous.  We were frankly worried we would run out of gas before we got to the next open gas bar. Were the owners of those stations just  heeding the advice of Jesus?  Had they sold everything or just abandoned the business? That might be good for them but would be unfortunate for us.

 

I also noticed the Gloria’s Motel. It certainly was no longer glorious. This time I stopped for a couple of photographs. It was in pretty bad shape, but I’m not sure it was the worst motel along the Trans-Canada highway as we were to learn. Others are pretty bad too. How is this possible along our national highway? Thankfully, there were some great ones too.

 

All I say to fellow travellers is: Be Prepared. In fact, be prepared for the worst.

 

The Recipe for Disaster in The Recipe

Abortion, Drama

 

The Recipe for Disaster in The Recipe

 

There is a second theme in Armin Wiebe’s play the Recipe that I wanted to address. This is the abortion attempted by Sadie and contemplated by Oata. Sadie’s at least seems only casually and quickly considered and completed.

This reminds me of the fact that the landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States of America in Roe v. Wade, on abortion rights in America. That decision gave constitutional protection to a woman’s rights to an abortion in that country in every state. Many now forget that when that decision was rendered it was not unpopular and was not even widely criticized. Many took it for granted.

Over the decades since, the evangelical Christian movement in particular has marshalled lots of opposition to that decision. Now the Supreme Court in a fairly recent case, amidst huge controversy, reversed itself, to remove that woman’s right. Instead it said, state governments could decide whether or not abortions would be permitted in states.

In the play, Sade, one of the “loves” of Yasch Siemens chooses that option without a lot of thought and without opposition from anyone else, including Yasch. Oata, his other lover, seriously contemplates having one as well in her dark night of the soul. Yasch does not seem engaged by the enterprise. Pug Peters seems oblivious. Perhaps he is just an airhead. Yasch is just confused by his attraction to both women, for very different reasons. No one pays attention to the foetus.  No one pays attention to Yasch or Pug on this subject. Their opinions are not solicited. They are not needed. No medical, police or religious authorities are consulted. Sadie just does it. Other than Oata, no one even seems to wrestle with the decision.

I was amused that Oata got the “recipe” for the abortion from an old recipe of her grandmother in a book that to me looked like the Mennonite Treasury of Recipes. I never saw it there. The recipe seemed pretty simple. We have been told there was such a recipe. Is it that easy to abort a foetus? If so, why all the fuss and muss?

I actually believe the mother should have the right to make such a decision. But I know many disagree with me, particularly in the Mennonite community. But I found it interesting that the play devoted so little attention to this aspect of the decision which has become so hugely polarizing since the Roe decision. Why was that?

 

The Recipe

Drama, Mennonites

 

The Recipe 

By Armin Wiebe

 

Recently, Christiane and I and friends Dave and MaryLou Driedger went to see Armin Wiebe’s play, The Recipe. I admit I was confused by this play. I wanted to love this play. I was eager to love it. But sadly, my ardour was cool.

Friends had lauded it. To me the reality of the play undercut the desire to love it. I was frankly confused by it. I missed something.  This is probably true in more than one sense. I have a hearing deficiency that is not overcome entirely with modern hearing aids. When the actors turned away from me, I had a hard time hearing them. Their voices were loud enough but not clear enough. I heard the crowd laughing at lines, but I failed to understand the joke. So, perhaps, the fault lies with me, and not the play. I hope so. After all Armin Wiebe is a brilliant writer. Half the crowd gave the play a standing ovation, but by Winnipeg standards that is not rousing success, but mediocrity.

The play was inspired by an earlier book by Wiebe, The Salvation of Yasch Siemens which I loved.

I thought the idea behind the play, embodied by Oata, a grand if not magnificent female character, was that women can be independent of men and triumph over their attempted subjugation, though it is difficult and challenging. After all, we live in a deeply patriarchal society that has taken centuries to become entrenched and won’t easily be dislodged. Yet, in the end, after a passionate embrace, Oata succumbs to the blandishments of a weak and wobbly man who lusts after her skinny rival Sadie and also Oata’s recently inherited property. That is hardly a grand triumph. It was pipsqueak at best.

I invite others to tell me why I am wrong. I still want to love it.

 

Treaties like Constitutions Should not be written in stone.

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, Indigenous People After Contact, Indigenous Treaties

 

 

Nipigon, Ontario

 

On the second day of our trip to Eastern Canada we travelled through Nipigon Ontario. Our first morning on the trip really started with a short tour of Nipigon and then breakfast at a local restaurant there by the name of Ducky’s. Inside the restaurant is graced with a lot of parts from trees. Such as Birch bark and slices of birch trees. Thank goodness we did not have to make toast out of those slices. The wall was hung with snowshoes and massive moose antlers. We realized we really were in the north woods. The French toast was excellent with generous portions of real maple syrup. And bacon. I don’t mind that bacon does not come from the north woods. Maybe it came from LA Broquerie Hy-life pork.

 

Nipigon is a place where some of the members of the Flying Post First Nation have settled. Members of the Flying Post First Nation are widely spread out. Many of them don’t live in their designated Indian Reserve. Some of them live near Nipigon Ontario where we had breakfast. Flying Post First Nation was at one time an independent First Nation as part of the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN), and later joined with or merged with the Wabun Tribal Council in 2007. Flying Post’s priorities include encouraging its members to pursue educational and professional ambitions and to create a sustainable economy for the First Nation that will create prosperity for future generations of its members.

Though most of the Flying Post First Nation members are located near Nipigon, others live in various parts of the country. The official territory of the Flying Post FN is located near Timmins, Ontario along the Ground Hog River. The Reserve lands were established between the government and First Nation people in Northern Ontario through the signing of Treaty #9 in 1905 and 1906 with later additional adhesions in 1929 and 1930. In 1906, Flying Post lands were identified in a ‘Schedule of Reserves’ in the Treaty #9 document and described the First Nation Reserve lands as follows – ‘In the province of Ontario, commencing at a point half a mile south of Six-Mile Rapids, on the east side of Ground Hog River, thence south a distance of four miles, and of sufficient depth to give an area of twenty-three square miles.’ As a lawyer who many times drafted land descriptions for various legal documents, I was amused by the looseness of the legal definition of the Reserve. But they are part of a Treaty and that makes them constitutional documents in Canadian law.

 

According to a subsequent Chief of the First Nation, Chief Murray Ray, the Treaty documents “included many discrepancies that came out of miscommunication.”   Chief Black Ice was the first recognized Chief of Flying Post First Nation. He had been informed of the treaty making process while his people were living near Groundhog River. However, they just happened to be there at the time, but they were nomadic, as were many First Nations people of Canada. The government of Canada did not respect the nomadic lifestyle of the Ojibway and Cree people of northern Ontario. As a result, the legal documents describing their Treaty lands were based on including the land which they happened to occupy at that time. Not necessarily the land they would occupy the net year. It was a like trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole. That process never ends well and it didn’t here either. This is just one example, among many, of how cultural differences between First Nations and Canadians of European descent mashed up their relationship.

When people of the First Nation realized what land they were entitled to under the Treaty, many were displeased as they considered it a poor permanent location. Some of the members of Flying Post First Nation joined other First Nations instead.

In the 1960s, some Flying Post First Nation members began to organize themselves during the formation of First Nation political organizations such as Nishnawbe-Aski Nation (NAN). During that time, they re-established themselves as a First Nation entity and elected a Chief and Council to represent their people.

First Nations people of Canada usually made it clear to their Canadian government negotiators that they expected frequent revision and renewal of the treaties to iron out problems and keep them current in accordance with current expectations on both sides. Had such frequent renewals occurred there would likely have been fewer complications resulting in happier relations between First Nation peoples and the Canadian government. Treaties like Constitutions should always be living documents, not pressed in unmovable stone. A good example of this mistake is the American constitution. as a result of failure to amend in many years it has become calcified and an impediment to good government instead of a facilitator. While in earlier years amendments were common, in modern times amendments seem all but impossible leading to inevitable grief. It really is impossible to negotiate documents for ever. Neither party is long happy with the results. Such documents need to change. They  must be alive.

 

Fundamental Misunderstandings Lead to Fundamental Grief

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, civilization, Colonialism, Indigenous People After Contact, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

 

As I have been saying many of the problems between Indigenous Canadians and non-Indigenous Canadians are the result of misunderstandings in the past, and misunderstanding that have continued.

 

As a result of all of these misunderstandings, when many years later the Europeans approached the Indigenous people to make treaties, it was very difficult for their differing world views not to influence what they thought they were agreeing to. For example, Indigenous People thought they were agreeing to share the land while the newcomers thought the indigenous people were agreeing to cede or give up the land to the newcomers.  That very fundamental differing point of view has seriously disturbed relations between them ever since.

According to Barbara Huck,

“Though decision-making was by consensus, most North American cultures put great stock in individuals and lauded efforts on behalf of the community. Status was achieved not by owning property but by giving it away.  Religion permeated every aspect of their lives and was based on respect for the Earth and all living things.”

 

That did not mean all relations between Indigenous groups were peaches and cream. There were conflicts between groups. And those conflicts were real and sometimes vicious. Europeans did not have a monopoly on violence. Disputes between indigenous groups often turned violent and often escalated after that. Yet the overall attitudes of newcomers were radically different.

The world views of the Europeans were very different from that of Indigenous peoples.

As Huck said,

“The newcomers from Europe had a very different world view. Theirs was a class society, governed in an authoritarian way by men who viewed land and its resources as objects to be exploited. They greatly admired the accumulation of personal wealth and assigned positions of power to those who were particularly successful at amassing goods and money. Generosity was viewed as philanthropy, an act of charity, not necessity.”

 

Some of us may be surprised to find that Indigenous people were more democratic than the new comers.

There was another very important difference between the two groups. The Indigenous People saw themselves as part of the natural world, particularly identified with the land in which they lived. They had a deeply spiritual relationship to that natural world as a result. The Europeans saw the natural world as something to own individually and exploit.  Barbara Huck explained the European attitudes this way:

“Their primary allegiance was to the concept of the nation-state and national identity was closely tied to language, religion, and race. They believed implicitly in European superiority and felt compelled to try persuade other cultures to embrace their world view. Yet with few exceptions, Europeans proved woefully unprepared for survival in North America. The first 250 years of European contact were fraught with disorientation, disaster, and privation. Native North Americans provided guiding services, information, interpretation, clothing, medicine and food., as well as wives and extended families. All this was in addition to the furs that were the primary objects of early French and later British interest. And time after time, they rescued the newcomers from starvation. Yet Europeans never did comprehend that this spontaneous, culturally entrenched generosity required  reciprocity. Instead, native North Americans in need were termed beggars.”

 

To the natives of North America, reciprocity was not just a cardinal virtue, it was a religious principle. The newcomers did not catch on. They were prepared to accept gifts from the natives, but often failed to reciprocate when the opportunity arose.  Who is the more civilized? These differing attitudes prepared the ground for misunderstandings and eventually conflicts.  As Huck said in her book on the fur trade of North America,

“This climate of misunderstanding colored the fur trade and the progress of Europeans across the continent. From the 16th century St. Lawrence Valley to the Pacific Coast 300 years later, the pattern was repeated again and again. Recognizing it is fundamental to appreciating the profound changes that took place in North America, between 1550 and 1860, and perhaps just as important in understanding today’s attempts to rectify some of the mistakes of the past.”

 

This is where learning comes in. To learn from our mistakes is important. But to do that our mistakes must be honestly confronted. How else can we get better? Unfortunately, people are often reluctant to admit mistakes, and that makes matters worse. Not better.

 

European Savages

2024 Trip to Eastern Canada, civilization, Colonialism, History, Indigenous People After Contact, Indigenous Religion and Philosophy

On our trip across eastern Canada I had many opportunities to consider Canadian history.

The Indigenous people encountered by Europeans were definitely not savages.  They were members of sophisticated societies that all too often the Europeans did not well understand. Many of the Europeans were blinded by prejudice thinking that they could bring civilization and God to the barbarians and heathens. This was nonsense that the Europeans believed and passed on to their descendants and was largely responsible for the creation of white male supremacy favoured by their clans, but clearly absurd.  The indigenous people were civilized people and had a lot to teach the European newcomers while they were prepared to learn a lot from them as well. That is a wise attitude isn’t it?

It certainly was not true, as many Europeans thought, that this new land was empty of people. England, for example adopted the concept of terra nullius, a Latin phrase meaning “nobody’s land,” to justify their bloody claims. According to this theory, terra nullius included territory without a European recognized sovereign, where no one who counted lived.  Again, this was nonsense.

Contrary to such barbaric unfounded prejudices there were people all over the entire western hemisphere when Europeans arrived and these people mattered just as much as the visitors. The Europeans had no monopoly on civilization. In fact, often they revealed a startling lack of civilization. As Barbara Huck said in her book,

“Parts of North and Central America were among the most densely populated places on Earth. Some anthropologists have estimated the total population of the continent 500 years ago, including Mexico and Central America, at between 112 and 140 million. Mexico, the spectacular Aztec capital, was one of the three largest cities in the world when the Spaniards first laid eyes on it.

Much of Canada and the United States was considerably less populated than that—estimates put the total population of both between nine and 12 million—but North America was not, as some have imagined it, terra nullius, a land without people. And many societies, such as the Iroquoians, were healthier, more prosperous and less class-bound than their European counterparts of the same period.”

 

If first contact was indeed a case of civilization meeting barbarity, it is likely that the Europeans were the barbarians!  

It is also noteworthy, the Indigenous people who first encountered these Europeans in many ways did not share European attitudes and values. As Huck said,

“…the Americas were literally a world apart and North American values and beliefs were very different –in some ways almost directly contrary to the perspectives of the strangers who began to arrive on their shores in the early 1500s, the beginning of the contact period.”

 

For example, I have pointed out elsewhere that indigenous people of North American had views that were by no means all the same. They had many diverse views, just like Europeans.  The spiritual beliefs of indigenous people, for example, were very different from the newcomers, and in my view often preferable. We are of course, each entitled to our own views on that and I intend to continue commenting on those differences.

 

They also had very different views about how societies should be organized and how they should be governed and how wealth should be produced and shared. I find the differences profoundly interesting.  Barbara Huck in her book also commented on them:

 

“Indeed, it’s hard to imagine two more conflicting world views. Whether farmers or hunters, the vast majority of the people of what are now Canada and the United States lived communally in groups of varying sizes. The territories they inhabited were not owned, as we recognize land ownership, but rather commonly acknowledged  to be theirs to use. They governed by consensus, valued generosity and self-reliance, and loathed acquisitiveness and coercion. Stinginess and miserly behavior were strongly condemned. Almost everywhere it was considered immoral to allow anyone to go hungry if food was available.”

 

Not a bad way to live. Maybe the Europeans were the savages.